Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Rhubarb. Either you love it or hate it. It's an odd vegetable. I'm trying to think of another veggie that takes well to sugar, but it escapes me. I was raised with rhubarb, as a good English girl should be. I cannot remember if my mum grew it, but she definitely grew strawberries, rhubarb's best friend.

Rumor has it that James Beard is a native pdxer (Portland). It would make sense, given his appreciation for good food and fresh ingredients, which is what the Portland food scene is all about. The cookbook, Beard on Food, is more his musings on food with tidbits thrown in. Because of this, I felt it was within bounds to adapt his rhubarb pie recipe to add strawberries. I subtracted about 1/2 cup of sugar from the recipe and added 1 cup more total fruit than the recipe called for. The results were delicious. Even my six year old, who hates pie (you read that right) ate some. Sure, it was doused with vanilla ice cream, but it counts! Most L and I especially liked the added depth the orange rind added. I definitely recommend this recipe.

Herbed Baby Potatoes with Lemon Vinaigrette and Wild Arugula Salad with shaved Parmesan and Lemon

You can already tell by the title of this post, the theme was Lemon. It was an unplanned theme, but a theme none the less. As I mentioned previously, we started our CSA this week. As such, I have been more inspired to search out recipes to use the bounty provided. And no, before you go all crazy on me, we did not get lemons in our CSA share. That's that I mean by "unplanned".

Herbed Baby Potatoes with Lemon Vinaigrette from the June 2008 Martha Stewart Living

I initially fell in love with this recipe because of the picture. The cute little round yellow potatoes, flecked with green herbed looked mighty appealing. Now that I have made and photographed the little potatoes, I see the importance of a food stylish. Namely, I am not one. But I digress. The recipe was quite simple, yet brilliant. In a saute pan you put 1/4 cup EVOO with red pepper flakes and garlic. Once cooked you toss it over the warm potatoes, along with lemon juice and herbs. As this was an unplanned menu, I did not have the dill the recipe called for, but I don't think I missed it. It was mildly spicy and quite tasty. I think it is one of the best darn things I've eaten in a while. Mental note to self: make this again, and SOON!
recipe:

HERBED BABY POTATOES WITH LEMON VINAIGRETTE
SERVES 4 TO 6
1 y, pounds round baby potatoes, peeled
Coarse salt
14 cup extra-virgin olive oil 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
14 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh
flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint Freshly ground pepper
1. Place potatoes and 3 tablespoons salt in a medium saucepan. Cover with water, and bring to a simmer. Cook until a knife pierces through potatoes with little resistance, about 10 minutes Drain; transfer to a bowl.
2. Heat oil, garlic, and red-pepper flakes in a small skillet over medium-low heat until garlic is golden brown, about 15 minutes. Pour over potatoes. Add lemon juice and herbs, and toss. Season with salt and pepper.

Wild Arugula Salad with shaved Parmesan and Lemon from the June 2008 Bon Appetite

Firstly, I must note that the recipe, as published, calls for garlic croutons, which I did not make. I felt the potatoes alone were enough starch for one meal, and thusly, skipped them. The recipe is so simply, it begs to even be called a "recipe". I could have made this one up on my own, with a bit of thought. But I didn't have to, which I guess is the point. The lemon brought out the brightness of the CSA arugula. The shaved Parmesan was a nice rich note with the other wise bright and peppery salad. I do think the salad would have benefited from the croutons, but I feel a tad smug that I took a lower calorie and fat laden route instead. I recommend this salad if you have some truly young and fresh arugula you wish to not over power. Unfortunately, it doesn't hold a candle to the potatoes. Sigh.

The potting soil bandit

I have a bag of potting soil round the side of my house. It's not a fenced area, but you cannot see the bag from the street. Well, this morning there was a pile of the potting soil, a discarded pot, and no bag of potting soil. It looks like the dumped out some of the bag because it was too heavy and took the rest. Was someone just walking by with a plant and just REALLY needed to plant something?

Our running theory is this: The Obama headquarters for pdx is a few blocks away. We think the revellers from last night win were walking by and needed to do a celebratory planting.

In other news, K and I start our CSA today. I am like a kid at Christmas. I hear the bounty starts out slow, which is fine. Today we expect radishes, young garlic, arugula, lettuce and some type of bok choi. All organic. I walked to the market bright and early to get some fish and plan a nice fresh salad with it. The toddler (C) really wanted to snack on a raw potato, but I demurred. he was appeased by a banana.

Rosie's Award Winning Brownies

So, as I stated earlier, we have some new neighbors. I've met them before, plenty of times, but I'm excited to do the "neighborly thing" and give them baked goods. It just fits in with my idea of my little neighborhood as Mayberry-ish. What better to welcome someone than a plate full of chocolate brownies.

This book has got my favorite title ever: Rosie's All-Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar Packed, No Holds Barred Baking Book. A mouthful, but an important one. It is written by Judy Rosenberg, of Rosie's Bakery in Boston, as I understand it. I have never been to Boston, but my sister in law assures me their stuff is top notch. Note to self, when the husband visits Boston next week have his bring something travelable home.

I have made countless items from the cookbook. It honestly is my most used cookbook I own. To my knowledge, though, I'd never attempted to make the brownies. I've not been much of a brownie person in the past, not sure why, but there it is. Perhaps I'll have to rethink this. I made the brownies true to the recipe, though I did one batch without nuts and one with. When giving baked goods as a gift, I like to leave out the nuts, just in case of allergy.

Haven't heard anything from the neighbors since I gifted them the brownies (I'm finishing this post 2 days later). They aren't dead, so that's a positive sign. The husband also got to try them. agreed they are cakey, rather than the chewy kind. Good chocolaty flavor, but my inclination is for a chewy brownie. If anyone has any recommendations for a different recipe to try, I'm all mouth, I mean ears.

Pix Patisserie

Today is K's 40th birthday. Last night we celebrated, as girls are wont to do, in high style with decadent desserts and alcohol. I mean, really, what else is there. A good fried cheese curd would have been welcomed, but it wasn't the scene.
Inherited from my mother, I have developed a strong passion for passion fruit. Anything passion fruit. As if it were made just for moi, Pix last night had a most heavenly Passion fruit Creme Brulee. Two of my favorite things rolled into one. How could I resist. Well, why would I, really. I paired m selection with an old standby, Bonny Doon Framboise. Old standby for me, as I'm a UC Santa Cruz grad and spend quite a few Saturdays at the Bonny Doon tasting room. For those unaccustomed, Framboise is a raspberry dessert wine. quite strong in flavor, but it can be mixed with champagne for a lighter touch. I highly recommend both.

In other news, I am a bit disturbed my the lack of citizenry displayed in front of my house this morning. We are getting new neighbors today (yay!) which means the street in front of their house has cones with "NO PARKING" signs. Kind of hard to miss, them really. So, as I'm walking my daughter to school, some lady on a cell phone in mini van pulls up and parks in the loading zone. She puts on her hazards. Oh, she must be helping the new neighbors move in, how nice. Nope. She gets out and walks down the street. I yell after her about the no parking area. She says, "I know, that's why I put my hazards on". Well, bully for you. I guess she's special and can park where she wants. Hazards make it so. It wouldn't bug me so much if there was not a free space not 10ft in front of her car, 2 directly across the street, and 2 more a bit further down (actually closer to the house that she was visiting.) I mean, really. How hard is it to pull forward? Monumentally difficult, it seems. She was there for 25 minutes, too. I believe in being a good citizen. I am a bit bothered by her selfishness, to be honest.

Quatro de Mayo

L and I use any holiday, culturally our own or not, to celebrate with food. So, in keeping with that idea, we celebrated Cinco de Mayo culinarily. I actually don't think I'd know another way to celebrate it. I'm ashamed that I don't really know what the holiday is about. Used to. Lost to more important information, such as teacher appreciation week schedules. ho hum.

Anyhoo, we set out a feast for K and her family and J and her family. Six adults, three 6 year olds, and three 1 year olds. Mayhem ensued. We make red pozole from Rick Bayless's cook book, tacos with either chicken, steak, or pork. Crock pot pinto beans, salsa fresca, chipolte salsa, guacamole. There were strawberry margaritas and cerveza it be had. Heck, we even had a pinata that had been sitting idle in the basement. The pinata met it's destiny. Poor little fishy. My one year old kept saying "uh-oh" as he was getting whacked.

Revision, Change, and Belgian Fries

Well, in an attempt to make me update this blog more often, I've devised a format change. Hoping not to jump the shark, here, but in addition to my own recipe exploration, I'm going to add my food experiences beyond the home. This could include unsuspecting friends (or suspecting, smirk), trips to the local Belgian Fry cart, or even my dear husband's cooking tribulations. Actually, he's quite a good cook in him own right, which is why I married him, give or take.

Now, back to the fries I just casually mentioned above. I am ever so luck, or unlucky as the diet would have it, to have at the end of my block a formerly vacant parking lot with 4 food carts. Sounds like a classy neighborhood, no? Actually, it's quite mayberryish in ways, but Portland has an unexpected food cart scene that rivals Los Angeles, my former home. In said parking lot, we have a Burrito cart El Brasero, a hot wings place, a soup cart, and most recently a Belgian Fry cart called potato Champion. They have three things on the menu: fries, poutine, and sodas. Fries are served in a cone with the dip of your choice, mostly mayonnaise themed. We tried the Remoulade and the Pesto Mayonnaise. Both were excellent. I preferred the pesto, K preferred the remoulade, it seemed. The kids stuck to ketchup or plain, the exception being little C (my 16 month old) who also liked the pesto mayo. The fries were cooked to order and deliciously salted and crunchy. We did not try the poutine, as I'm not Canadian. Ok, maybe that's not the reason. I'm scared I might actually like fries with gravy and cheese curds. Speaking of cheese curds, I questioned the proprietor concerning the possibility of fried cheese curds gracing the menu and met with a favorable, if tentative, response. Perhaps in a month my diet will take a total nose dive. Yippee. Cannot resist the cheese curds.

Potato Champion is located on the corner of Hawthorne and 12th in Portland. They are open daily from 6pm-1am, and on weekends until 3am! Hows that for some late night munching!