Syndication!

I got kind of a neat email the other day, from an editor at the website http://www.ThisIsDiversity.com.  She's been looking for some food bloggers to contribute to their cuisine section.  She really likes my style, and invited me to come on over and syndicate my blog posts on their website.

I posted my favorite piece first - last year's bean supper piece - and it's had nearly 100 hits today.

It's not really a huge deal, but this band geek feels like a rock star.  Just wanted to share.

Make new friends, but keep the old

We attended a cookout today. My husband and I live in a town about thirty miles from our hometown. Strangely enough, one of my closest friends from high school lives in town, about three miles from us, with his wife and son. They had us over today, along with another friend I'd not seen since graduation, and his three sons. He swears it won't be another twenty years 'til our next get-together, and I'm going to hold him to that.

I brought cupcakes and a pasta salad. I think the cupcakes might need a little tweaking - the flavor was good, but they were a little dry.  The pasta salad was yummy; good thing, as we had about twice as much as we needed. I ever-so-slightly tweaked a recipe from Cook's Illustrated that was originally published in America's Test Kitchen's The Best Make-Ahead Recipe. I didn't make it ahead; made the dressing the night before, then made the salad this morning.

Summer Garden Pasta Salad with Feta

Serves 12 to 14

Cook the pasta until it is completely tender, as pasta becomes tougher as it sits in the salad overnight. Make sure you have a LARGE bowl in which to mix this salad!

Dressing
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (1-2 lemons)
1 medium shallot, minced
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Salad
Salt
1 pound farfalle
2 medium carrots, peeled and grated over the large holes of a box grater
1 large yellow bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch-thick strips
8 ounces crumbled feta cheese (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
1 pint grape tomatoes (about 12 ounces), halved or quartered (depending on size)

For the dressing:
Whisk all of the ingredients together in a medium bowl; set aside.

For the salad:
Bring 4 quarts of water to boil in a large pot. Stir in 2 tablespoons salt and the pasta and cook until completely tender. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta in a colander. Transfer the hot pasta to a large bowl.

Stir the reserved pasta water into the dressing. Pour half of the dressing over the pasta and toss to coat. Stir in the carrots, bell pepper, feta, and parsley. Scatter the tomatoes on top of the pasta (do not mix in).

To Store:
Cover the pasta salad tightly with plastic wrap and poke several vent holes. Transfer the remaining dressing to an airtight container. Refrigerate the pasta salad and reserved dressing separately for up to 2 days.

To Serve:
Microwave the pasta salad on high power to remove the chill, 1 to 2 minutes. Shake the reserved dressing to recombine, then pour half of the dressing over the salad and toss to combine. Add the remaining dressing as needed to keep the salad moist.

The journey begins...

So, at this point, you've all seen my LOVELY orange countertops.  If you haven't noticed them, you are quite possibly blind.  Take a look, over there, on the right, with my teapot from the Isle of Skye, two of my favorite mugs, and my cooking Bible.  A new reader (waves at Johanna) was kind enough to tell me that she likes my countertops.  Well, perhaps I'll present them to her in a couple of months - because they will be GONE from my kitchen!

*fanfare*

I posted about a month and a half ago about the fact that we were finally looking at the kitchen redo we'd started thinking about as soon as we moved into the house.  I wasn't having much luck with the IKEA website.  Turns out, we've had a lot more luck with the cabinets my friend told me about.  We will be tearing out our old cabinets, and replacing them with new cherry-stained birch cabinets - all wood/plywood construction, no laminate!

(I love how my counter looks pink in this picture.)  That's a sample of the new doors, propped up against the coffee maker.  I. Love. Them.  Love love love.

We're also looking at granite for the countertops and the new island; we've found a local place that has a good deal on it, and are continuing to look around to see what's out there.

*does the happy dance*

We are thinking about either continuing the wall color from the family room (Benjamin Moore's Nantucket Grey) into the kitchen, or possibly a light caramel color.  I'm leaning more and more towards the caramel.  Our kitchen faces south, so it's nice and sunny.  The darker cabinets and granite are going to make the room feel darker than it has in the past, so I'm thinking the lighter, warmer walls are a better option.

Some more volleyball, please

Last night, Mr. Throwing Spoons and I visited some good friends for dinner.  

Elaine and I were inseparable during our freshman and sophomore years at Boston University.  Everyone thought we were roommates freshman year, so we decided (despite various warnings to the contrary) to actually room together sophomore year, and we had a ball.  We were THOSE roommates, the good girls who were complete goofballs, who finished each other's sentences, and could speak in shorthand to each other - one word could sometimes convey a paragraph.

Though we split up junior year - I went to live in the newly-formed Education House, and she went to live in a spacious quad with some other friends, then to an apartment senior year - we always found time for each other, and we have continued to do so post-college.  Sometimes it was just emails to each other, when she was in Connecticut.  Thankfully, since she moved back home, it's meant getting together for dinner every few months, too.  It's been a lot of fun reconnecting, and discovering that we still read each other's thoughts.  We're also both in the process of adopting, and it has been such a joy and comfort to share the journey with her.

Last night we went for a short walk with our spouses, had dinner at the Himalayan Bistro (if you're anywhere near it, I recommend a visit!), then walked back to their house for S'mores around the fire pit.  The guys got the fire going, while Elaine and I got the graham crackers, chocolate (dark and milk - more on that below), and marshmallows ready.  

As we were doing this, Elaine fired a marshmallow at me.

I, of course, threw it back, which led to a full-scale, all-out game of marshmallow volleyball across the island in their kitchen.  We were laughing so hard, and so loudly, I was really surprised that the guys didn't hear us and come in to investigate (or simply to see what was taking us so long).  They didn't, though.  We finally declared game over, attempted to compose ourselves, and joined the guys at the fire pit, where we toasted marshmallows (no, we didn't toast the "game ball") and made S'mores until we were absolutely stuffed.

About the S'mores: I had picked up a bar of Ghirardelli 60% cacao chocolate, thinking that perhaps the dark chocolate might make for a more sophisticated S'more.  To my great surprise, I preferred the taste of the traditional, plain ol' Hershey bars; Elaine concurred.  I think I may be forced to conduct some further, carefully-controlled scientific testing over the course of the summer.

If you're not familiar with S'mores, shame on you.  Get going, no excuses:  sandwich some chocolate and a gooey toasted marshmallow (preferably toasted over a campfire) between two graham cracker squares.  It's quite possibly the best summer dessert ever.

A postscript: While writing this, I noticed that my engagement ring is clogged with marshmallow.  Excellent.

The standoff

The turkey was staring at me, daring me to make a move.

I stared back, unsure of what to do.

No, this wasn't some bizarre dream.  I bought some ground turkey at the grocery store last week.  My entire repertoire of ground turkey recipes consists of taco salad...and I didn't have any lettuce, nor cheese.  Hence, the staring contest.

All right, time to try something new.  Some chopped scallions; a little soy sauce; a little ketchup.  Throw in some garlic powder and ground black pepper.  Shape into patties (with a divot in the center, for more even cooking).  Fry 'em up (too wet to grill tonight), and voila!

This is based on a Weight Watchers recipe.

Turkey Burgers

• 1 1/3 pounds ground turkey  (I used 93% lean)
• 4 scallions, chopped
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 
  
• Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Form into patties. Spray a frying pan with cooking spray, or brush with a little vegetable oil.  Cook patties until done.
• 
  
• Great with sliced tomatoes.

Orange you glad I didn't say banana?

Almost exactly a year ago, I posted this recipe for a yummy yellow cake, which I made for our friend Anne's belated birthday celebration.

We are getting together with the same group of friends today, and one of the other friends just celebrated a birthday on Thursday, so here I am, baking another Memorial Day weekend birthday cake.  Vanessa, like Anne, is not a chocolate cake person, so I'm making the yellow cake, and I whipped up some fluffy orange frosting to go on it.  It's tasty, and I'm hoping that the orange flavor will become more pronounced as it mellows a bit.

Felíz, felíz en tu dia, Vane!  Mua!

Fluffy Orange Frosting

4 2/3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 teaspoons grated orange zest
1 teaspoon grated fresh lemon zest
1/4 cup fresh orange juice (start with 1/8 cup and add more as needed)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon orange extract

In large mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter together.

Add the citrus rinds and juices and beat until the frosting is very smooth and fluffy.

It's a world of laughter...

Yes, I'm aware that many of you will now have "It's A Small World" going through your head for the rest of the evening (unless American Idol drowns it out).  Sorry.  However, I wanted to share this very small-world occurrence.  There's a bit of a long story to get there...and one of my most closely-guarded recipes is at the end.

My high school chorus director, Mr. Joseph Messina, or Mr. M., is retiring in June after over 40 years of teaching in Melrose, MA.  When I was in high school, the alumni used to come back every spring, and would sing a piece or two with the high school chorus at the spring concert.  (Incidentally, that's where I first met Mr. Throwing Spoons.)  It was a lot of fun.  Sadly, that tradition fizzled out when I was in college.

Last summer I bumped into the Messinas at a production of "Bye Bye Birdie" (which was, coincidentally, my senior show).  Mr. M. was seriously considering retirement, and Mrs. M. said to me, "Wouldn't it be neat to organize the alumni to sing at his final concert?"

"I'm on it," I replied excitedly.

Mr. M. looked a little wary.  "I'll only do it if you can get twenty people," he said.

I laughed in his face.

"All right, I'll only do it if you can get forty people," he then said, by way of challenging me...or so he thought.

Cut to late March.  I'd put the word out through email, Facebook, and Classmates.com, and it was in the local paper.  I was pretty confident (and hopeful) that we'd have a good turnout.  Mr. M. wasn't so sure.  He showed up at our first rehearsal with a "Box O' Joe" and a box of Munchkins, figuring that it would be enough for the six to eight people that would show up - and indeed, when he arrived, there were six of us standing around, waiting to be let in.

Fifteen minutes later, there were over forty of us in our old chorus room.  Mr. M. has never been one to get teary, but he was that evening.  Over the following weeks, different people showed up to different rehearsals; we had as many as 60, but as different people kept showing up, it was hard to get an absolute count.  

He worked us hard; most of us hadn't sung for years, but we (as always) put in our best efforts for Mr. M.  We worked on three pieces to sing with the high school, two to sing on our own, and one to sing with the middle school, the children's choir, and the high school as the grand finale.

By the night of the concert, after a mere eleven rehearsals, we sounded fantastic.  There were between 80-100 alumni there, spanning four decades, some traveling from New York and Virginia back to Massachusetts, to pay tribute to this man who'd meant so much to all of us.

One woman who sang with us, Sandra, wasn't even an alum.  She let me know early on that her son had been in the chorus and the show choir with Mr. M. throughout high school, and would be joining us for the concert though he couldn't make rehearsals, and that she'd like to sing with us as well.

After the concert, I emailed everyone to thank them, and to request snail mail addresses, in order to complete a database for future use, as there's interest in continuing this group.  The responses started coming in, and I started plugging them into the database, but Sandra's email stopped me in my tracks.  I sat here for a good two minutes, just staring at my laptop screen and saying, "No way.  Get out.  You're kidding me."

Sandra, you see, bought my grandparents' house when my uncle put it on the market.  It's the house my dad grew up in; my grandmother lived there for about 60 years.

I have such fond memories of that house and yard.  Grampa Bill had a huge garden, including grapevines (both Concord and Niagara grapes), vegetables, and cherry and peach trees.  Gramma Betty, Mum, and I used to make cherry preserves and grape jelly from the fruit from the backyard.  Gramma (a former art teacher at Smith College) gave me drawing lessons at the kitchen table.  Her attic and "junk room" were treasure troves to be explored.  

I've often wondered about the fate of that house; I still drive by sometimes when I'm in town.  As soon as I recovered from the shock, I emailed Sandra back, and received a warm invitation to come and visit anytime.

I wish I had the recipes we used for the grape jelly or the cherry preserves to include here, but I don't.  I actually have very few recipes from Dad's side of the family.  This does, however, seem to be the appropriate place and time to share the famous Hayes Mocha Cake - a hot milk sponge cake with mocha buttercream frosting.  This comes from my Grampa Bill's side of the family.

When going through her kitchen things, my uncle found a half-dozen or so recipe cards for this cake.  The funny part is, they were all slightly different!  I don't know if Gramma Betty was working on perfecting the recipe, or what the story is; by then it was too late to ask her.  This is the version that she gave my mum.  The cake is good, but it's really the frosting that makes it.  It is scrumptious, and really pretty easy.  (I've been known to double the frosting recipe and use it on the Perfectly Chocolate Cake.  Holy. Moley.)

Hayes Mocha Cake

Hot Milk Sponge Cake

1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon butter

2 eggs at room temperature
pinch salt

1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup cake flour
1 rounded teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 375˚F

Put milk and butter in oven-proof measuring cup; put in oven ‘til butter melts and milk is hot.

Grease and flour two 8” round cake pans.

In medium bowl, sift together cake flour and baking powder. Set aside.

Beat eggs and salt until light (pale yellow).

Gradually beat sugar into egg mixture.

Add vanilla to egg mixture; beat.

Slowly beat hot milk and melted butter mixture into egg mixture.

Add sifted flour & baking powder to egg mixture; beat.

Pour into pans. Bake 15-17 minutes, until springy and edges have pulled away from the sides of the pan. Remove from pans to cooling racks immediately upon removing from oven. Cool completely before frosting.

Mocha frosting

Combine:
1 stick less 1 teaspoon butter (what you have left over after taking butter for cake), softened to room temperature
1 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1 1/2 - 2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt
1 1/2 – 2 tablespoons hot, STRONG brewed coffee
(1 tablespoon instant coffee to 1/4 cup boiling water)

Beat all together until light and fluffy.  Frost cooled cake.

(Scrape bowl and lick spatula.)