vie a la table

i visited home a couple weekends ago, as previously mentioned. and visiting home always has some perks:

-sleeping in my old room…it still feels like my room with the same green walls, old quotes painted on the ceiling, and some trinkets and pictures, but the furniture is updated and more ‘guest room’ friendly. in other words- an awesome king size bed. somehow, with being the only ones without kids at the holidays, wil and i luck out by still getting my room, and we love the king bed!

-homemade ice cream…mom always has a batch of homemade ice cream in the deep freeze out in the garage. if my dad didn’t have a crazy metabolism (that i was lucky to get in my genes), he’d weigh so much more from homemade ice cream every night. vanilla is her standard, but ever so often there will be a fruit, coffee, or mint chip in the mix.

-free food…every college student enjoys going home to get free homecooked meals, but when i say free food, it usually means free groceries. i always walk away with fresh herbs cut from her pots, some meats she bought and froze way long ago to even remember, and some produce here and there if they plan to leave for a trip after my visit.

this past visit, those benefits became a beautiful collision. i followed mom around the house while she updated me on things she bought, plants she’s growing, etc, while i carried in hand a bowl of mint chip ice cream on the ‘tour’. i had to stop and tell her just how good this batch of mint chip was. i couldn’t figure out why that would be funny, but she immediately started laughing at the compliment.

to make a long story short…she harvested a ton of mint at our family cabin, stuffed it into a couple jars with vodka and let it sit in the sun for a month. but by the time it was done ‘fermenting’ into extract, she thought it seemed weird and threw a good portion of it out, leaving herself just one bottle for the heck of it. while making  this recent batch of mint ice cream, she ran out of the store bought mint extract, and warily used her homemade version instead. well, she laughed because it ended up being the best batch of mint chip ice cream…my dad had already separately raved about it a few days before i was ever there.

so how did i luck out? i got this fabulous idea from mom, and then i got to ransack her planter of fresh mint to go home and make my own. i’m not as ambitious of an ice cream maker as my mom, so i did a small batch. but i think it could also be fun for mixed drinks or chocolate desserts. and while doing our usual mom-daughter routine for the latest fashion deals at ross the next day, we came across a vanilla extract set…bottle and beans ready, so we just had to get that too. i might need to do a results post on both extracts in a month or so!

mint extract
she initially googled and came across this quick how-to

ratio: 1 pound of peppermint or spearmint leaves to 1 quart sized jar filled with a decent vodka. my jar was about 12 fluid ounces (1.5 cups), and i had about 3 or 4 ounces of mint (one big bunch). i’m guessing/hopeful it’s one of those things that’s pretty forgiving; it might not go ‘wrong’, but maybe just be weaker or take longer to achieve the right flavor.

wash & dry mint. pull leaves off stem, crush and bruise- i just gave them some good squeezes and slight wringing, and my hands smelled heavenly! stuff leaves into jar, pour vodka over leaves to fill.

place in sun for 3-4 weeks. strain with a new cheese cloth into desired jar or bottle.

vanilla extract
2-3 beans, sliced in half lengthwise
12ish ounces vodka

store in dark cool space for 4-6 weeks

you can choose to leave beans in jar, begin to use, and then continually ‘top off’ with vodka, or you could pull the beans out and make vanilla infused sugar by placing them submerged in a container of sugar for a month or two! no need to strain, but be sure to shake the bottle before use to distribute the vanilla that settles to the bottom.

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food, kris by kris

my dear friend bethany is getting married. to a tall (6′8″!!!), dark and handsome boy named luke. and last weekend, a few of us got together to shower her with encouragement, love, gifts, food, and just a nice afternoon enjoying the outside with some friends.

wanting to shy away from the usual girly or fluffy side of showers (don’t get me wrong, i love that too), we threw around some ideas. picnic on the lawn! asian take out! we mushed the two together and had a great little soiree with sushi, spring rolls, thai peanut chicken salad and even homemade fortune cookies with serious and silly questions about bethany and luke, for her to answer for us all. i don’t think we got her cheeks to actually blush, but there were definitely a few answers of “well…that part’s just a little fuzzy…!”

it was a perfect afternoon with lanterns hanging in the trees, oriental fabrics and pillows strewn across the grass, and koi fish happily swimming alongside us in the nearby pond.

the menu was light and simple, being in the odd hours between lunch and dinner, but everyone was well fed. i thought i’d share the easy how to for the spring rolls…there were just too good. crunchy, fresh and with a simple soy dipping sauce, you felt like you could inhale 3 or 4 or more, without feeling bad! and even my mom, cook extraordinaire, didn’t realize how easy they were to make.

salad spring rolls
miss laura degraw initially made these on an impromptu ‘asian’ night with us and wil’s school friends.
12–14 rolls

2 to 3 large carrots, peeled and sliced julienne
bunch of cilantro
1 large cucumber, thinly sliced
1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced
bean sprouts (no more than a 12oz bag)
3-4 green onions, mostly just the green part sliced lengthwise, yielding long strips the length of the roll
*bell pepper, sliced julienne (this is not original, but as i type i thought it might be a good addition, including some interesting color to the mix)
spring roll wrappers (in most grocers, just in the international section)

with a bowl or pie dish of water nearby, dunk the stiff wrapper into the water, letting it fully coat both sides, but don’t let it sit. it will absorb and soften quickly by the time you’re rolling in the ingredients.

lay the wet wrapper on a work surface, and fill the center with a handful of each ingredient… about a third of a cup. keep the fillings linear- thus the julianne- rather than one big mound in the middle. because the wrapper is semi-clear, i laid a few leaves of cilantro down first, than 3 round slices of cucumber on top… and then the chopped stuff all on top of that. kind of gave a pretty pressed flower look to the outside/top once rolled.

roll the edge nearest you over the fillings, turn the sides in, and then roll to close. the paper should stick to itself, but if it’s heavily filled, you’ll need to keep pressure on it while you roll and at any seams until it’s wrapped. try and keep it tight, although the paper will shrink a little. either serve immediately (your preference to cut in half), or store in an airtight container lined with wet paper towels in the fridge, to keep the wrapper from drying out. we made them the night before and they were still crunchy and fresh the next afternoon!

and this is our go-to dipping sauce. enjoy!

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kris by kris

our tastes continually change the more our eyes are opened to ingredients we’ve never seen before, never used to like, or just never paid much attention to. just like our newfound love of asparagus, figs have become gold in this household.

as a kid i used to love fig newtons. but i knew nothing about the fruit, and to me they were just cookies that seemed healthy since they had ‘fruit’ in them. i probably couldn’t have recognized a fig in a basket of fruit, nor would i have realized how beautiful their flesh is or how great they taste, both savory and sweet.

wil came home with two crates of figs. very sad figs, most of them bruised and beaten and ready to be put to rest, as the first yield of their season is nearing an end, until fall. what a perfect opportunity to utilize them in a way that allows us to enjoy the fig flavor over time…jam! and lucky you, dear reader, you get a second recipe…feeling ambitious, i made a batch of homemade fig newtons as well.

fig jam
adapted from here; more like a chutney if we want to be particular.

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 lb. figs (about 12-14 figs)
1 cinnamon stick
2 two inch slices of lemon peel, both pierced with 2 whole cloves each (otherwise you wouldn’t be able to find the cloves once cooked)
1/2 lemon juiced (my lemon was very sad, so i added some orange juice to get a decent amount)

dissolve water and sugar together in a saucepot over medium heat.

remove the stems from the figs and cut into quarters*. add figs and rest of ingredients into pot once your water/sugar syrup is clear. bring to a simmer, and continue simmering over low heat (uncovered) for about 1 hour or until thickened. remove from heat and cool. store in jar or container, and refrigerate.

*i cut mine into quarters, but by the time it was done cooking the jam was too chunky for my preference, so i threw it in the food processer real quick to get a more spreadable consistency. but i know if you started with smaller pieces it’d cook down to a nice chunky jam, without the need of the food pro.

homemade fig newtons
adapted from here

filling:
1 1/2 cup chopped figs (about 1/4-1/2 inch size pieces)*
1 1/4 cups water
1/4 cup orange juice (i happened to have blood orange from a drink wil bought, but it originally called for apple)
1/4 cup sugar
it called for some citrus zest, but i didn’t have any…could be good with it.

cookie dough:
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg white
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon orange juice (again, no zest on hand)
1 1/2 cups flour

combine all filling ingredients in saucepan, bring to a boil and then let simmer uncovered to an hour or so…till thick. use a food processor or blender to get it to a smooth spreadable consistency. set aside to cool.**

cream together the butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes on medium speed in a mixer with the paddle attachment. scrape down the sides, and then beat in the egg, vanilla, and orange. scrape down again and add the flour and beat on low until the dough comes together. wrap in plastic into a disc and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

preheat to 350; line baking sheet with parchment. (i didn’t read this part and just used my silpat and they slid all over the sheet throughout baking when my sheet bent from the heat!)

cut the dough in half, keeping the second half in the fridge while you work with the first…just to keep it cold. roll out the portion of dough into an 8×12 rectangle, and slice in half, making two 4×12 strips. spoon the filling down the middle of each strip, then tri-folding it closed…press the seam. carefully place the ‘roll’ seam side down onto baking sheet. repeat with second strip, and then repeat all those steps for the second half of the batter in the fridge. 

put sheet of four rolls into fridge or freezer for 10-20 minutes, to firm them up to make slicing easier. slice rolls into size of your choice…8 cookies per roll looked close to the ‘original’ size to me. bake 12-15 minutes, until golden; let cool, and store airtight! they’re a little crisp and sugar cookie-ish the day of, but they’ll soften by the next day or so.

*the original called for dried figs & a higher proportion of liquid if that’s the route you’d like to go.

**after making the jam, and then making this filling, i’d just assume you could just as easily use any fig jam of your choosing (or any fruit for that matter!), especially when you can’t find fresh or dried figs.

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food, kris, photos by kris

people ask us what we like to do on our free time together. our first initial thought is “what free time?”…life the past few weeks has transformed into what we initially expected when we first decided on wil’s back to school adventures. we knew that we’d both still have to work a lot to support ourselves while he takes classes and grow accustomed to passing each other throughout the day. this phase in our life has left us with fleeting moments at night when we both come home and see each other for about an hour before the head hits the pillow, exhausted. (one of the many reasons for this blog being neglected at times)

our second thought to that question, is, well, we like to cook. wil cooks all morning, and most afternoon evening, and on our days off, we still like to be in the kitchen together. we are part of the 1% of the world where grocery shopping is one of our favorite things to do together (borderline being a date). and when we brainstorm about our time off, or even our future lives, it often is dreaming up a meal, or type of food to one day make. we happily allow our lives to be enriched by savoring and celebrating meals, ingredients and beverages.

sushi is one of those things that i always bring up wanting to make when we ponder what to do on our days off. my wish finally came true, when we had enough produce and short grain rice on hand, as well as an alien looking crab leg trying to claw it’s way out of the fridge. this by no means is a post with a recipe. we are not masters, or even novices. we just acted like we knew what we were doing as we bumbled along, and enjoyed capturing the mess and process.

while i had my minor complaints of the outcome, we both were pretty excited with how well it came out, and laughed at the irony of when we order two rolls each when we are out, it’s never enough, but we made three each and couldn’t even finish!

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food, kris, photos by kris

Growing up in a family of seven, it’s not unusual that pizza was a staple in my diet as a child. It’s inexpensive, makes great leftovers, always feeds a crowd, and most importantly, everyone likes it. My mother made pizza from scratch (we had a lot of scratch in our house) nearly every Saturday night as my four siblings and I danced around singing “The Pizza Party Song.” A bit of our excitement was due to the fact that Saturday was the only day we were permitted drink soda and we were already on a sugar high.  But honestly, we just loved eating pizza.  It’s one of the food memories from my childhood that still influences me today.  I still count pizza as one of my favorite foods, and eat some version of it at least once a week.  I often play around with dough, sauce, toppings and baking techniques.   Thankfully, I married a man who also loves pizza and doesn’t mind indulging my weekly craving.

So after all this talk about pizza, I’m actually calling this version a flatbread for a couple of reasons. It hasn’t got any sauce and it doesn’t seem much like the Italian-style pies that we Americans are used to eating. The peppery arugula, sweet red onions, oven-roasted cherry tomatoes, and pungent Chaubier piled atop a piece of dough almost feel more like a tartine than a pizza, but neither title feels right.   The term flatbread is slightly ambiguous, since it is tossed around in both upscale restaurants and fast food chains alike, but seems like an appropriate description here.

Ingredients

1-2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
½ cup warm water
1 T sugar or honey
1 T olive or canola oil
1 t salt
2 cups arugula
1 large onion, sliced and caramelized (saute on low heat in 1-2 T olive oil and 1 tsp brown sugar for 20-30 minutes until soft and slightly sweet)
1-2 cups oven-roasted cherry tomatoes (toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast at 400 degrees until bursting, about 20 minutes)
Chaubier cheese *see note
Olive oil for drizzling

Directions

1. Add the yeast to the warm water in a small bowl, stir and allow yeast to activate, about 5-10 minutes. In your food processor or stand mixer equipped with a dough hook, combine the flours, salt, oil and sugar. When the yeast is foamy, turn the stand mixer/processor on and dribble in the yeast/water mixture until the dough follows itself around. Let the machine knead it or take it out and knead it yourself on a floury surface. Add flour as necessary and knead about 5 minutes until the dough is no longer sticking to your fingers.  Place the dough in a oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise in a warm spot in the oven until it is doubled in bulk, 1-1 1/2 hrs. Punch it down and let is rise until it is double in bulk again. After the second rise, take out the dough and form it into whatever shape you like – rectangular, round, oval. Sprinkle cornmeal on your baking sheet and place the dough on top.

2. While your dough is rising, caramelize the onions, roast the tomatoes, and slice your cheese. Wilt the arugula at the very last stage of onion caramelization.

3. Arrange the toppings on the flatbread. Using a pastry brush, brush the edges with olive oil, and drizzle on top as desired. Bake at 450 until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted.

*One of the reasons I am a vegetarian and not a vegan is cheese. I have a weakness for it, and I have cultivated a love for cheeses of all kinds.  This Chaubier is a blend of goat and cow’s milk, and while it is a “stinky” cheese, it is mild and smooth, and is so so so good. Did I mention I like it? If you don’t want to spend a little extra on a Chaubier, try another goat cheese or really, anything you like, as long as it’s got a good strong flavor to stand up to the arugula.

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food, laura by laura