Work-toberfest

Mark's company had their annual Oktoberfest party yesterday (yes, in November, the hurricane/rain date from Sandy). It included a cooking competition where employees bring in dishes using 2 of the listed qualifying ingredients. Qualifiers were German-themed, including beer, cheese, sausage, cabbage, white asparagus, potatoes, chocolate, etc. We decided on a double-entry for our first year... you know, to come out strong, make a presence. Our entries: Broccoli and Cheddar Ale Soup, and Chocolate Chip Stout Bread.

all of the alcohol that went into our dishes... except for the wine. that was for me.

Frozen veggie burgers, Mark's un-gourmet dinner on cooking night

Handsomest Cheese Grater Award Winner! Mark's been cutting the cheese for some time now... see below!

THROWBACK: Mark grating Parmesan for our 6-month dating anniversary dinner

The soup was awesome! I adapted it from a 2005 Gourmet recipe for Cheddar Beer Soup. They recommended using Bass, a malty English ale, which we thought was great in the soup, less-great by itself.

Broccoli and Cheddar Ale Soup
Yields: 4-6 servings (we doubled it for the competition)
Ingredients:
2 onions, finely chopped (about 2 cups)
2 celery ribs, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups broccoli, cooked and chopped (or 1-12-oz package frozen, thawed)
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups 2% milk
3/4 cup reduced sodium vegetable broth (yes, or chix broth)
1 (12-oz) bottle ale, recommended: Bass
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp dry mustard
1 lb extra-sharp cheddar, grated
Salt and pepper to taste

Directons:
1. Cook onion and celery in butter in large, heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring, until vegetables begin to soften, about 7 minutes. Add garlic, and cook 1-2 minutes more.

2. Reduce heat to medium-low, and sprinkle flour over vegetables, stirring frequently, and cook for about 3 minutes. (Note- If vegetables appear dry, add a bit of water to keep the pan moist, allowing flour to cook.)

3. Whisk in milk, broth, and beer. Simmer gently, whisking often, 7-10 minutes.

4. Stir in Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and chopped, cooked broccoli.

5. Add cheese by handfuls, stirring constantly, until cheese is melted, 3 to 4 minutes.

Bon appetit!

Broccoli and Cheddar Ale Soup... enough to feed the roaring Oktoberfest work crowd

Now onto the next recipe... the beer bread. We did a variation of the loaf we make it nearly every week. You may know baking yeast bread can trigger a freak-out for me, but this beer bread's actually a non-threatening quick bread; you mix the dry, add wet, and pour into a loaf pan. Easy! See the way we usually make it here. For Oktoberfest, we used Guinness, which gave the bread a deep, intense flavor, and added semi-sweet chocolate chips for a pleasant finish. Hey, this may be the only way to actually enjoy Guinness!

Chocolate Chip Stout Bread
Yield: 1 loaf, about 10-12 slices
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
1-12 oz bottle Guinness
1/3 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, sugar) in a medium-sized bowl.

3. Add beer, stir 5-6 strokes until mostly incorporated. Add chocolate chips, mixing until combined.

4. Pour batter into a lightly-greased loaf pan and bake, about 45 minutes, until top begins to brown.

Note- This bread contains no added fat, so it's best enjoyed the day it is baked... it dries out quickly!

Chocolate Chip Stout Bread

Our score report: While both entries were enjoyed by co-workers, and the soup appeared to be a crowd favorite, we sadly didn't place this year. First place was taken by a German Chocolate Cake with chocolate-ganache. (Come on! What can compete with that?)

At least there was a tiny bit of soup leftover for me to enjoy when Mark brought it home from work. We'll get the win next year. And chances are, we will be making these wunderbar recipes before then!

Dinner Party: Secret Ingredient-Style

Last weekend we celebrated the birthdays of two wonderful friends and fellow newlyweds, Lauren and Jeremy. (Aren't fall birthdays the best?) We invited L&J to our apartment for a dinner party in their birthday honor. The twist: they each got to choose 2 ingredients to be incorporated into the meal.

After days of deliberation, the secret ingredients were chosen...

She picked:

1. Apples
2. Sweet potatoes 

He picked:
     3.  Butterscotch
     4.  Fish

Apparently ingredient-choosing was particularly difficult for Jeremy, who, inspired by the show Chopped, also considered- quail eggs, goat brains, preserved duck eggs, sweet tea vodka, rack of wild boar, frozen waffles, hot dogs, and watermelon. What helped him decide was the realization that he should probably choose something he actually wants to eat.

Choosing this menu was too fun! The fish threw me the most... when it comes to fish, I only know what I like, which is basically exclusively salmon. But what better time to try something new! The best of friends are the best audience for recipe experiments. Especially on their birthdays.

With the inspiration of multiple cookbooks from my library (Giada, Moosewood, Clean Food) as well as a favorite website (CookingLight.com), the final menu came to be:

First Course:

Autumn Salad

fresh apple, dried mission figs, gorgonzola cheese with maple balsamic vinaigrette

Entree:

Dill and Mustard-Encrusted Wild Haddock

with a yogurt-chive sauce

Sweet Potato Fries 

with curry ketchup

Sauteed Zucchini

Dessert:

Butterscotchies 

with Vanilla Ice Cream 

Happy Birthday to you two!

First, the salad dressing... THE cure to salad boredom... guaranteed! You can even add it to roasted veggies like I did, here.

Maple-Dijon Balsamic Vinaigrette
Shake up these ingredients:
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp dijon mustard
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

baby arugula with fresh pink lady apple, dried black mission figs, gorgonzola cheese and of course, maple-dijon balsamic vinaigrette

For the fish, I chose haddock, a firm white fish, which the experts say is great for breading. I went with wild-caught for sustainability, and the kind gentleman at the Wegman's fish counter even took the skin off for me! (Without a snobby fish-filleting knife, skinning it myself would not have ended well. Ask my dad about filleting whole fish, it's his favorite hobby.) About 6 oz of fish per person. I dipped each fillet in egg whites (2 total), and then a seasoning mixture of 3/4 cup panko bread crumbs, 1 tablespoon dried dill, 1 1/2 teaspoon dried mustard, 1 tsp paprika, 3 cloves minced garlic. I lined up those bad bad boys in a baking dish and baked at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.



A chive and yogurt sauce complemented the fish.

Giada says, mix together the following-
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 tsp honey
1 tsp dijon
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chive.

It was a little different for me, but it was worth a shot. It's always good to have some curry ketchup from Germany on hand, too!

This was a meal we got so into eating up, I almost forgot to photograph it. You'll get the picture from these snapshots of my half-eaten plate.


Now, onto dessert... Butterscotch Bars! I used a Cooking Light recipe, so sweet and delicious. I made them the day before, but popped them into the warm oven before serving with vanilla ice cream.

This little butterscotchie just got smothered right before the picture was taken.

Having our friends choose ingredients was such a fun way to inspire a dinner party. I encourage you to do the same! Just be willing to follow through if they choose quail eggs... but I'm glad I didn't have to. Thanks Lauren and Jeremy... and happy birthday!

Dough Woes

Let me be the first to tell you: I don't bake. I can bake, but I choose not to. Blame it on studying food science for years in a formal setting. I've learned the ins and outs of this chemical and that acid and what can go wrong and what it looks like when you screw this up and how it should have turned out otherwise. Now, I don't mind a quick bread, and I am particularly skilled at the muffin method (food science geeks, where you at!), but there are a few baked goods I tend to avoid due to their complexity. One- the creaming method (i.e., butter cakes, cookies) that involves beating sugar into a fat to create a tender crumb; and two- yeast breads.

Yeast really is quite magical. But too much salt can kill it. And too hot of water can kill it. And overworking can kill it. And underworking underwhelms it. I'm a realist, like my dad, so I'd rather leave the yeast breads to the experts and buy a delectable loaf of sourdough for $4 at the farmer's market and not worry my pretty little self about how it came to be.

Allthatbeingsaid... I do love a challenge. And when our sweet friends Tim and Katie gave us the ever-creative wedding gift of a bread cookbook (Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois) and bags of special flours, not baking real bread was no longer an option. Let's go!

"Look how cute we are! Baking bread must be so easy!"

I followed the recipe exactly for the "basic" whole wheat dough. I weighed gluten and two kinds of flours and yeast and salt and took care of the temperature of the water and mixed it all up with the dough hook attachments for the right number of minutes and let it rise, loosely covered for the prescribed 90 minutes! Okay, that's not hard, I didn't even have to touch it yet! And then it was 8:00 pm.

I folded and turned and tucked it. Sticky. Despite using extra flour to help with the stickiness. And then I read these crucial words, "Dough may be easier to work with when chilled." Hmm. I bet. But we would like to make pizza right now. All hands on deck.


The 15 minutes that followed sounded like this:

Morgan: Get more flour! This isn't working! The dough is going up my arms!

Mark: It's fine! It's fine! Just keep working it, I'm adding more flour!

Morgan: I need you to HELP me! This is a disaster! It's sticking everywhere! I'M THROWING IT OUT! Get the trash can!

Mark: Get a grip! You are NOT throwing it out now! It's fine! It's fine! Calm down!

Morgan: You don't know what this is like!

Mark: Yes I do! I made homemade pizza crust once in Michigan and it looked like this!

Author's note- How many guys in northern Michigan make their own homemade pizza dough? Probably just one, and he recently moved to Easton...

Silence ensued for several minutes as I topped our tricky pizza dough with pesto, roasted acorn squash, and goat cheese. Baked our pie for 20ish minutes at 450... and you know what? It didn't look half-bad! And it was GOOD!

And then we ate it all up and laughed at my freak-out. We might have danced around the kitchen pointing to each other and to the pizza exclaiming, "YOU ROCK!" I am thankful for my gracious husband and how he looks past the crazed baking Morgan to the less crazy, good cook Morgan. (I trust he would have been as forgiving of my temper if the pizza actually sucked.)

First attempt at homemade pizza- far from a failure

And then 2 days later... I used the leftover dough in the fridge to make a loaf of BREAD! And it was SO easy to work with once it was chilled... and I even did this thing where I put ice cubes in the oven to create steam and it made a shiny, chewy crust! Shoot! It was really good too! We ate this with cheese and dipping oil.

And then the next day we made another pizza with the leftover, leftover dough! I had a good feeling about this one... I even apologized to Mark. I said... "I'm sorry if you thought you would be having a mediocre dinner tonight."

This proud pizza was topped with sauteed kale, peppers, and onions.

Gosh. We did it. We made yeast bread. It was challenging. But it was also rewarding.

I think sometimes the most trying recipes are the most satisfying. Hey, is this a lesson for marriage?

If you are reading this, and you have ever baked a homemade loaf of bread that you had touch, and did so without becoming a complete spazz, give yourself a pat on the back! You rock!

Home (from our honeymoon) Cooking

Hey, did you hear? We got married!

Officially Mr. and Mrs

On October 13th, 2012, a perfect fall day, my best friend and I were wed! And two weeks before that, I passed my registration exam to become a credentialed dietitian! My husband whisked me off to Monterey, CA for a blissful week of cruisin' on the coast in a convertible, kayaking with sea otters, biking the famous 17 Mile Drive around Pebble Beach Golf Course, wine tasting, visiting the Earthbound Organic Farm Stand, and of course, eating. This was a true coastal California food fest, and we ate our fill of fresh seafood- mussels, salmon, crab, king prawns, scampi fra diavolo, saffron and wild mushroom risottos, fanciful salads, green goddess dressing, truffle fries, gourmet cheeses, wine, wine wine, mimosas! You could say we let loose... with no better reason than celebrating our new marriage.

we'll take a little of this, a little of that, and all of the vew

Although we were sad to say goodbye to the west coast, we couldn't wait to get back to our place and start our new, real life together. (With lots of new kitchen-y gifts, oh yeah!) I could not wait to get back into the kitchen after a week of rich food and dining out. Our first meal back was a Rustic Vegetable and Polenta Soup, inspired by a recipe from Giada De Laurentiis' latest cookbook- Weeknights with Giada.

Throwback: Did you know I met Giada in high school? Here I am staring at her while she gives me a speedy high-five. #enamored 

Rustic Vegetable and Polenta Soup
In a fabulous Le Crueset dutch oven, or large pot, saute 1 onion, 1 carrot, and 1 parsnip, all peeled and diced, over medium heat. Cook until soft, about 5-8 minutes. Add 1 diced zucchini, 1 cup sliced portobello mushrooms, 1 can drained diced tomatoes, 1 can drained cannellini beans, and a few handfuls of torn kale leaves. Saute 1-2 minutes. Cover with 4ish cups vegetable stock (I use a tsp of vegetable base + water) and bring to a simmer. Slowly stir in 1/2 cup cornmeal, stirring well until incorporated. Allow to simmer for 15-20 minutes. Season with cracked black pepper and perhaps some crushed red pepper, to taste. Garnish with fresh Parmesan!

Oh, we loved this warm and wholesome soup, and will surely make it again. Hopefully you will get the chance to make this one on your own... or better yet, stop by and visit us, we'll make it for you. We have guest towels and an air mattress! See you soon!

The Tomato Time of Year

While I am close to saying, I've never met a vegetable I didn't like (except artichokes from a can), the statement just isn't true when it comes to tomatoes. I've had one too many a tasteless, grainy, white, cold tomato on a restaurant salad to almost completely avoid all of them for 9 months out of the year. However, a real tomato, that is, one that is grown in-season and locally, is a different story. Packed with flavor and a beautiful color... summertime is definitely tomato time! I picked up a pint of mixed colored cherry tomatoes at the Keene Farmer's Market that were just too sweet not to share.

"Try to resist me! That's right, YOU CAN'T!" @thesassytomato

Although tempted, I didn't sit down on the couch to watch the Bachelorette and snack on these like candy. Instead, I made two new-to-me recipes with inspiration from a favorite cookbook. After all, they were on opposite pages and it made it very hard to choose just one!

Clean Food by Terry Walters

White Bean Salad with Roasted Tomatoes and Arugula

• 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 sweet onion, julienned
• 1 fennel bulb, julienned
• 2 carrots, chopped  
• Olive oil
• 3 tomatoes, quartered
• 2 cups cooked great northern or cannellini beans
• Arugula
• Balsamic vinegar to taste
  

Place above ingredients on a baking pan and drizzle with olive oil to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes or until tender. Fold in tomatoes and beans, returning to oven to roast for an additional 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and immediately place atop a bed of arugula. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar!

Chickpea and Cherry Tomato Salad with Cilantro Dressing

• 1 pint cherry tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups chickpeas
• 3-4 scallions, chopped

Cut tomatoes in half and place in a large bowl with the chickpeas and scallions. Top with the following, after you've combined the ingredients in a food processor:

• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• 1 large bunch cilantro (about 1 cup)
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1-2 tbsp lemon juice
• Salt and pepper to taste

I am always hungry for new salads in the summer, and these two hit the spot.

I am winding down with my internship, folks! I'll be back in PA in just a few weeks. Last week was my final week of clinical, and I was so happy to have the 4th off to join my lovely friend Sarah and her family at their New Hampshire lake house. We had a blast! (I can even say that after I failed miserably at water skiing. Next year!)

"Oh yeah! Check out how cool I am! Water ski-bunny!"

nailed it.

Love you so!

xoxo!

All I wanted was a pickle.

...so I made salmon burgers really quick.

Roaming around the grocery store after 7:00 pm hungry and without a list usually ends poorly. Luckily I had made it past the produce section with a few of my weekly staples (greens, carrots, mushrooms, berries) before my unavoidable impulse buy happened. I went looking for red wine vinegar when I am confronted with a wall of pickles! Sweet ones, salty ones, square ones, round ones, flat ones, chopped ones... and it's summer now, so they've got to be sweet. I do a quick scan of the ingredients lists to weed out any that contain the dreaded HFCS, for argument's sake, and I stumble upon this adorable-looking pickle product! Wickles- Wicked Garden Mix, with pickled cukes, baby pearl onions, and cauliflower. I figured it might be a local product... since wicked works its way into the vocabulary of everyone in New Hampshire. Later to find out... not made here, made in Alabama... but still a delish pickle that I'm happy made its way into my heart! I mean basket!

What on earth could I eat pickles with? Thank goodness I'm standing right across from a wall of canned tuna and salmon... perfect! Salmon burgers! (And the marketing majors win, again. I needed vinegar, and due to perfect product placement, now I'm buying pickles and making salmon burgers.) Okay then! Inspired by memories of my mom's tuna burgers (which we probably ate with pickles) and a recent spread in Women's Health on quick and healthy burgers, I didn't think twice. Got home, threw this stuff in the food processor, and in 20 minutes I was eating a fresh, summery meal.

Into the food processor (man I love that thing) go canned salmon, an egg, a handful of oats, half a lemon's zest and juice, garlic, dill, a handful of fresh parsley, salt, pepper, and a few squirts of Sriracha sauce. A few pulses later, I formed patties, trayed up, and stuck them under the broiler for (what should have been) 5-7 minutes per side. I made them pretty small and kept them in for too long, but that was my only complaint. Yummy!

perfectly plated with collard greens, curry ketchup, and my new pickles

I should also mention that I will make any salty thing if it means an excuse to use my German curry ketchup. Simply the best condiment ever known to the world. My parents bring me back a few bottles each time they return to the States. (Surely a perk to having international parents. Danke!) These burgs were a good, solid start to my week. I ate them reheated for dinner, plus packed them in a salad with yellow cherry tomatoes and red wine vinaigrette. Making them reminded me of one of Mark's and my all-time favorite recipes: Red Lentil Burgers. Oh, I just went digging in iPhoto to see if I had a picture of that recipe... here!

college kidz gotta eat- red lentil burgs, pea penne with lemon vinaigrette and goat cheese. circa aug 2010.

Only 1 more week of my clinical rotation! Then things are happenin', people! Until then... eat up.


Enjoy!

LM Visits Keene

This time last year, my dear friend Lauren Martin and I were picking all the garlic scapes we could handle under the summer sun at Tait Farm. We also worked weekends at a local catering company and spent all of our cash buying the same clothes at Express. So much has changed in one year! She has recently finished her dietetic internship in Philly (woo!) and came to visit me at mine here in New Hampshire. What hasn't changed is our shared love of all things good food. I've documented the best parts here in my little blog... which could use a revival since my current lack of free time in my clinical rotation.

First, we made Cream of Asparagus Soup. What a fantastic spring vegetable. This dish was a first for both of us. We decided we would have changed some things if we made it a second time... so I've edited the recipe for you below.

Taking a pause from asparagus-spear-snapping to smile for the camera

Cream of Asparagus Soup
Ingredients:
1 BIG bunch of asparagus
1-2 tbsp olive oil
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
3-4 leeks, white parts only, chopped (we used a whole bunch)
1/2 cup oats
1 qt milk (we used unsweetened soymilk)
1 cup vegetable broth
1/2 tsp dried dill
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish

1. Snap off the tough ends of each asparagus spear and discard. Wash asparagus, and use a vegetable peeler to peel the ends off of some of the bigger pieces. You will thank yourself for this step... asparagus ends are often called "woody." The thick ends are fibrous and don't blend up well in the soup. We didn't peel them, and ended up pulling asparagus strings out of the soup between bites. Chop asparagus in 2-inch pieces... as demonstrated above!
2.  In a large pot over medium heat, saute garlic and leeks in olive oil until soft (2-3 minutes). Add asparagus, oats, milk, broth, and dill. If liquid doesn't cover asparagus, add more broth or water.
3. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until asparagus is soft (about 10-15 minutes). Remove from heat and cool slightly.
4. Puree soup with an immersion blender... as demonstrated below! Also demonstrated below is the definition of woody asparagus ends... and the problem they cause in achieving a nice puree.
5. Garnish with parsley and serve.

as-par-a-gus |əˈsparəgəs|
noun
a tall plant of the lily family with fine feathery foliage, cultivated for its edible shoots.

We also made a fresh Carrot Raisin Salad. We combined grated carrots and raisins, orange juice and zest, lemon juice and zest, and freshly grated ginger. Mixed it all together, and before serving, topped it with chopped, roasted walnuts.

Cheesy. Me, not the salad.

We shared our dishes with some of my intern friends at their lakehouse that night. S'mores completed the meal! (Both of these recipes were adapted from Clean Food by Terry Walters.)

I also took Lauren to two of my favorite eateries in Keene. (Well, 3... the day she arrived we practically ran to Fritz for fries! (Remember Fritz?) On Sunday afternoon we took a leisurely stroll down the street for ice cream at The Piazza!

My parents and I visited The Piazza when they moved me to Keene in August. Located in downtown Keene, The Piazza serves Gifford's (of Maine) hard-dipped ice cream, a variety of soft-serve and blends, smoothies, blizzards, ice cream cakes, and a ridiculous offering of classic and extravagant sundaes! To make matters worse... they opened a second location that is just a short walk from my apartment. (It is inconveniently located on my running route so I have to see it every day... I have come very close to bringing a few bucks in my shorts to treat myself to a mid-run cone.) I would eat at The Piazza any day of the week!

Bruce and Cindy enjoying a sundae last August

Sunday is the day for sundaes

After an afternoon of ice cream and bridal magazines (two kinds of indulgence!) we feasted yet again at my new favorite Keene eatery: Fireworks.

Fireworks is a new restaurant with a big-city feel. Their cuisine specializes in brick oven pizza, gourmet salads, fresh pasta, and stylish cocktails. This place has been a favorite for me and several of the interns this year. I'm making good progress through the menu, and I have yet to find something I don't like. Baked feta and vegetables, goat cheese and beet stacks, salmon arugula salad, and the best thing on the menu: fresh-cut papperdelle with oven-roasted wild mushrooms. Lauren and I had the Fungi pizza. The sauce was made from roasted wild mushroom puree! It was fantastic!

Fionna, Jo-Ann, Emily and I at our fave restaurant

Fungi Pizza... this is serious.

Thanks for your wonderful visit, Lauren! Love you!