Ravioli Day

I was lucky enough to spend the day with my friend, Mary, earlier this summer.  She is a fantastic cook.  Even better, she's a fantastic Italian cook.  Back when Mary & I first met, I was domestically challenged.  And proud of it.  She would bring these fabulous leftovers for lunch everyday and make everyone else envious while we ate crummy fast food or humdrum frozen "entrees'.  Once we became friends, Mary would pack extra food and share her lunch with me.  I don't think I'd ever seen a yellow squash until she introduced me to her summer squash stew.  At Christmas, she'd make black bottom cupcakes and I couldn't get enough of them.

So fast forward and here I am in culinary school.  First of all, I believe that Mary is still shocked about that development.  Every fall, Mary makes a huge batch of raviolis for her family, "Ravioli Day".  I asked her if she wouldn't mind having a mini-ravioli day with me so I could learn from her expertise.

We made the pasta dough and the filling.  Then she taught me how to use the pasta machine and the molds.  We laid out the raviolis on the dining room table to dry.  

It was one of my favorite days of this summer.  I think we made 130 cheese raviolis, not to mention some fettucine noodles as well.  We stopped for a lunch break and Mary served some raviolis tossed with olive oil, parmesan, and blanched broccoli from her garden.  A simply perfect lunch.

Farmers' Market Bounty

So I've been having a blast with my farmers' market bounty.  I made fried green tomatoes for the first time.  I dipped them in buttermilk, then in cornmeal and flour seasoned with garlic powder and cayenne pepper.  I don't fry much food, but I do make exceptions.  When I served the tomatoes, I squeezed some lemon juice and drizzled hot sauce on them.  What a tasty summer snack.

Next up, I made a green chile sauce.  I roasted poblano peppers, grilled an onion, and then pureed them with fresh oregano, garlic, honey, salt and pepper, and a splash of water (recipe courtesy of Bobby Flay).

I made a potato salad with the fingerling potatoes.  Once I simmered them and cooled them down, I tossed them with cider vinegar, salt and pepper, and then made a quick dressing of olive oil, more cider vinegar, garlic, shallot, and a bunch of fresh herbs.

So tonight's dinner will consist of green chile cheeseburgers (on the grill, of course), potato salad, and a TBD vegetable.

Two Days in Cleveland

Mom & I had a mini-getaway last week.  We drove down to Cleveland to visit our ancestral homeland.  Why is it always more fun to visit than to live there?

Once we checked into our hotel, we headed for the West Side Market, a Cleveland institution since 1913.  I remember going on a field trip to the market when I was in elementary or junior high school.  My response?  A big fat yawn.  A couple of friends later dragged me there and again, I had no interest whatsoever.

In my thirties, my love of food and cooking appeared out of nowhere.  All of a sudden finding local farmers' markets became a priority.  Once Mom & I decided to go on our trip, I couldn't wait to go to the West Side Market and atone for my sins.

Mom & I packed up two coolers full of ice and spent the afternoon at the market, oohing and aahing.  Some memories came flooding back of my grandpa taking me to the market when I was three or four years old.  His mom lived a few blocks from the market so on weekends he'd take me to the market and we'd go and visit his mom.  My mom told me that he went to the market as much as possible; she loved it when he came home with the bounty, especially her favorite, smoked goose liver.

At the end of our visit, Mom & I were weighted down with bags of green tomatoes, poblano peppers, strawberries, fingerling potatoes, fresh figs, peppered bacon, homemade red pepper pasta, Polish sausage.  And guess what?  Smoked goose liver.

Ithaca Farmers' Market

For the Fourth of July this summer, we traveled to G's homeland, upstate New York. On the way home, we spent a few days in the Finger Lakes, one of our favorite stops. We stayed in Ithaca and were lucky enough to be there on a farmers' market day. The market wasn't as big as I expected, but what was there was phenomenal. Artisan breads, bouquets of flowers, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, gooseberries (I tasted my first one ever), cherries. I passed a booth and noticed some cherry tomatoes out of the corner of my eye. On a second look, I realized they were sour cherries, the brightest red cherries I'd ever seen. I walked the market twice, in awe, but lamented the fact that I couldn't buy bags of beautiful fruits and vegetables and spend the day in the kitchen. G & I had breakfast at the market though. There were booths set up selling burritos, soups, pizza (on a portable brick oven).  We opted for the pizza, of course; a breakfast pizza that we shared as we sat in the park amidst the marketgoers.

Fall Classes

I registered for fall classes which start September 9th. Fall semester includes: Charcuterie When I've told friends that my first class is charcuterie, I've gotten funny looks. "What the heck is charcuterie?" Usually, they're sorry they asked. Straight from the school's course description: Students in this course will acquire professional skills in variations of hors d’oeuvres and savories, seasonings, condiments, stuffed meats, curing, pickling, smoking of meat, fish, and poultry. Proficiencies in sausage-making, garde manger, pates, terrines, galantines and stuffed meats are also taught. Restaurant Cooking & Prep Some of my readers will remember that I took a dining service class last year. I had to wait on tables in the school restaurant at lunchtime. This fall, I'll be prepping all of the food that will be served at lunch. Students will participate in four workstations: Roast—Grill, Sauté, Entremetier (middle station) and Garde Manger—Pantry. Students will learn classical and modern cooking techniques and recipe development and the importance of consistency and clean work methods. International and American Cuisine This is the big one. Eight hours in the kitchen four days a week prepping AND cooking dinner for the school's restaurant. Students will learn the culture, history, and terminology of various regional American and international cuisines, while also studying their traditional and contemporary cooking techniques. Students will prepare multi-course dinners, small plate offerings, wine pairing dinners, as well as buffets that are offered to the public, served in the American Harvest Restaurant.

Summer Desserts

I've always read that successful dishes depend on the best seasonal ingredients. For instance, asparagus, a spring vegetable, isn't the best choice for a vegetable side dish in the dead of winter. Berries in February? They probably won't be the star of the show. This summer I've been taking advantage of these foodie guidelines. I try to go to the local farmers' market once a week. Without a shopping list, I just peruse and see what looks the best and fill up my bag. Lately, I've been using fresh fruit for easy-to-throw-together desserts. Beautiful plums, bright red raspberries, juicy peaches, and tart blueberries have found their way into crumbles and tarts. I have this thing about tarts. I do make my own crusts and I love tarts in any shape, form...sweet, savory...I just love them. For a quick treat though, I also love rustic tarts, or crostatas in Italian. Crostatas are super easy to make. I made an apple one last fall for my mom and stepdad. My mom asked for the recipe and now she makes them all the time. Sometimes I still make my own dough for the crostatas, but when I need a crostata and I need one now, I keep some store bought pie crusts in the freezer. I thaw the crust, heat the oven, and toss some sliced fruit with sugar, maybe a little flour, lemon juice and then pour the mixture into the center of the rolled out crust. I fold over the edges and usually egg wash and sugar the crust so it browns. I get extra oohs and ahhs for that move. Making a crumble is even easier. Toss the fruit with sugar, etc., pour it into a baking dish and top with oats, nuts, brown sugar. Delicious. I've served plum raspberry crumble, plum crostata, peach blueberry crostata. So far, no complaints.

Blah to Hoo-yah!

Last night's dinner: Chicken Caesar Salads Makes you yawn a little, right? Not the most exciting nor original dish. A boring dinner is not welcome in our house. Don't get me wrong, we get lazy, we get tired, but we really try to jazz things up whenever possible. Hence, the title of the post. I'm not talking about taking two hours to make dinner either. "Special" doesn't have to mean "I slaved in the kitchen for hours to make you this meal".  Just a little effort, a couple snazzy ingredients and dinner can become more of an occasion than a chore. I had picked up some mixed greens on sale at the market, already pre-washed, so I just piled those onto plates. I seasoned chicken tenders with salt and pepper, brushed them with olive oil, and grilled them up in the trusty grill pan (thank you, Mom-in-Law). Meanwhile, I cubed six slices of closer-to-stale bread and tossed them with olive oil and chopped fresh herbs. I always plant an herb garden in the summertime so I can just walk onto the deck and grab basil, oregano, parsley. That's not necessary though, sprinkling the bread cubes with your favorite dried herbs works fine. I popped the bread into the oven and voila! Homemade croutons. Finally, I grated Parmigiano-Reggiano onto the salads. Yes, this is a very expensive cheese. It took me years to buy some without a guilt trip. But I found a market that sells it in smaller, easier for the pocketbook, chunks. So I try to keep a wedge in the fridge and I'm always happy when I reach for it. For the dressing, I just used a certain bottled dressing courtesy of a dreamy blue-eyed actor/philanthropist. Some salad dressings require no time at all to throw together, but Caesar is not one of them. When I served dinner, I waited for G's reaction to my creation. Between the MMMs and the shoveling of salad into his mouth, I knew that I had a hit on my hands.