Box it up

Here's to...

-Leaving 2011 in the past where it belongs.  We have a few more hours left to self-reflect on the year and everything it brought or what it didn't bring.  For everything that was accomplished and for the things that are still on the "to-do" list of life.  For the fabulous people you surround yourself with everyday, for the people you can do without and the people you just want to hold onto in whatever way you can.  For every great moment that you knew was unfolding right in front of you and for every lesson that it took awhile longer to learn the significance and strength of.  Spend however much time reflecting that you need but then put the year and all it's elements in a box and label it what is it...history. 

-Welcoming 2012 with all the pomp and circumstance that it deserves.  To throwing away the resolutions and the plans and just letting life unfold how it should.  To pushing the boundaries of your life too far everyday so you can know what they actually are supposed to be.  To firing your "representative", freeing your mind and just being your one true self.  To stop caring what everyone else thinks and start focusing on what you believe in and what you know is true.  I can think of 1000 different things to toast to and hope for that are all well and good but the most important thing is to face forward, don't look back and be ready to run as soon as the clock strikes midnight and the new year unfolds. 

Bring it on 2012.  I'm more then ready for you and all that you've got in store for me this year!

Christmas Wrap Up and the Buche Off

It has taken a few days to recover from all the events and meals of Christmas but here we are and I have to say that I really enjoyed the holidays this year.  I'm sure that it helped that I wasn't a slave to all of the fun, retail holiday madness but I got to spend quality time enjoying activities such as wrapping presents, baking and most importantly planning my Christmas Eve dinner.  We have always hosted Christmas Eve dinner at our home throughout my entire life and it has always been a combination of Polish and Italian classics that were shared amongst family and friends.  Through the years certain elements have always held true such as having Pierogi, the Polish Mushroom Soup and some sort of seafood dishes to celebrate "La Vigilia" which is feast of the seven fishes, a traditional Southern Italian event.  We've never had quite seven and this year we tapped out the menu at 6 different fish dishes but I knew that this year would be the time to go all out with a menu.  It was like I was getting an opportunity to dig deep into my fantasy Christmas playbook and make things that either I believed always belonged on our Christmas Eve table or recipes that I wanted to tackle that would just take the meal to the next level (considering I feel like now that we throw all of these dinner parties that you just can't skimp out when it comes to really special dinners like Christmas Eve).  Here is our menu rundown for Christmas Eve:
-Cold Lobster Spread (for guests to pick on as they arrived)
-Crab Stuffed Mushrooms
-Fried Calamari
-Roasted Shrimp Cocktail (Thank you Ina Garten for revolutionizing the way I make Shrimp)
-Traditional Polish Mushroom Soup aka Barszcz
-Baccala (Salted Cod in Red Sauce) based on my Grandmother's recipe with a few added additions to give it my own touch.  I have to tell you that I was really nervous about making this dish...I kept dwelling on all of these doubts as I was making it of "would the fish be to salty, would it taste anything like my Grandmother's, or would I miss the mark completely on this one like the infamous meat sauce incident of 2009?"  But once I served the dish that night, got the baccala seal of approval from Ray and continued to watch as they scraped the dutch oven clean I knew that I has mastered the art of the baccala).

-Potato and Sauerkraut Pierogi
-Scallop Gratin
-Clementine Granita (you knew that there would have to be a Martha touch in there somehow.

-Buche de Noel (the French Chocolate Log)

One could say that I was borderline obsessed with making the Buche.  I have seen them in magazines for years and always loved the way it looked and thought how it would be this amazing culmination of a holiday dinner.  One day in talking about Christmas dinners, I made mention of making a buche to my fellow "fabulously domesticated" friend Carmina who got just as excited as I did about making one and then I knew there was no backing out.  There are always 3 elements to making the buche - The chocolate sponge cake that needs to be baked to a perfect consistency for rolling, the mousse that acts as the filling and then the ganache frosting.  I used a recipe from The Canal House for my cake and frosting but wanted a little bit of a lighter element for the mousse so I used Denise's wonderful white chocolate frangelico mousse instead and it was perfect.  I'm still picking at the leftovers 4 days later but it was a huge hit and once you were in the thick of it rolling the cake and piping the chocolate frosting on, it wasn't as overwhelming as I thought it would be.  Carmina's came out just as nice and was as big as a hit at her family's Christmas Dinner as well.  We did realize though...that next year we are going to make them together along with half of the other elements of our Christmas Dinner recipes that we traded off. 

the buche after a successful role

after the icing

  

about to be devoured.



I Love Pierogi...

This past Sunday we celebrated what is probably my most favorite day of the year...Pierogi Night.  For those of you that don't know, I'm half Polish and therefore eat pierogi on Christmas Eve every year as part of our traditional half-Polish, half-Italian dinner.  Probably one of my most earliest cooking memories as a kid was every year making pierogi with my Mom and grandmother MeMe.  MeMe would mix the dough by hand using a wooden board that would come out once a year for this purpose only and would be able to just feel the dough and know if it was the right texture and consistency.  She would then roll out the dough by hand using a rolling pin and then my brother and I would have the job of cutting out the circles using a special metal cutter that was crafted by my grandfather probably 50 years ago.  Then my mother would fill them and pinch their edges together since she has always had the magic touch or fingers to do the job.  With what I believe was over 15 years ago when we moved into our new house, our friend Marc wanted to come over to learn the art of pierogi and with him he brought some modern day cooking techniques to the process.  We now mix the dough in a KitchenAid mixer and the dough gets rolled out using a pasta machine which gives you perfect long strips for cutting out the circles.  MeMe still always gave her final approval on the feel of the dough before it went into the rollers and my mother continued to take up her roll as the filler/pincher.  That first year there was a small amount of dough left over and Marc suggested that we make some homemade pasta with it and from there the "Pierogi Party" was born.  This tradition has continued every year and has grown in size and caliber because as you all know by now, we do nothing small in our house and  embody Jane Austen's quote when it comes to entertaining that "one can never have too large a party".  Some years we have broke out the accordion and sang rousing renditions of Christmas carols, usually the bottle of limoncello comes out, people have come and gone but the same things hold true that its so many of my favorite people, great food, lots to drink and what always feels like is the kickoff to Christmas week.  Some people refer to it as a scam party because we don't actually eat pierogi but instead loads of homemade pasta and meatballs.  And while MeMe is no longer with us, it kind of acts as this wonderful memorial to her every year because you can always remember her standing over the stove and the pots of pierogi, handing them out to whoever endeared themselves to her (Greg you were always the chosen one!) and she would just take in all the hoopla well into her eighties. 

Aaron showing off our new aprons while rolling dough

I couldn't wait for this year's  Pierogi Party to come along because I knew that I would no longer have to be running from New York to get here on time and that I would really be able to celebrate and enjoy it.  And now that another year's party is behind us and pretty much all of the flour has been cleaned up I can truly say that it was truly an amazing evening!!!  We started in the afternoon with our core group of pierogi workers that includes my Mom, Aunts Monica and Sandy, my cousin Aaron and Greg and Cathy Russo and this year we even had the added surprise of these FABULOUS aprons that Aaron had made up that stated "I love Pierogi" with the Polish eagle and all.  From there the pasta making continued with the pasta team who by that point totally took over which was great so I could run around playing host making sure everyone was having a good of a time as I was.  I wish I could tell you how much pasta we actually made but as you can see from the pictures it was a lot and at 44 guests strong we went through a sleuth of wine, 50-60 homemade meatballs made courtesy of the Soda's, porchetta from Marc and many bowls of pasta.  And all I could keep thinking to myself through the entire night was "how lucky am I" that I get to be surrounded by all of my favorite people, get to help prepare this amazing meal and host this phenomenal party that everyone looks forward to every year.  You realize all of the things that are so important to you, that you get to carry on this tradition in your family that continues to grow and evolve every year and I know MeMe would be so proud of what great pierogi makers we have all become. 

the infamous falconette cookbook that gets referenced every year

the dough recipe hand written in

 tossing the pasta

ready to hit the pot

June Cleaver would be proud

Last night we had what you can call a "throwback" kind of dinner.  I was looking for something quick and easy to make for dinner with what we already had in our fridge and freezer and actually surprised myself with how good it ended up coming out.  When I was still at WS, I had a customer that would order mass quantities of this special Parmesan grater at a time where I would always happily place the order and finally I inquired how all of these graters were going to use.  After a little hemming and hawing, the customer explained that she was a PR rep for Hellman's Mayonnaise  and that she was setting up cooking demos on national talk shows like "The View".  They were going to demonstrate making Hellman's Parmesan Chicken which had become this pretty popular recipe for them and therefore were giving the Parmesan graters away in the swag bags to go along with the segment.  At first thought even though I'm a girl who is a big fan of mayonnaise I was somewhat on the fence of actually cooking chicken with mayo on it so I never thought to make it at home.  Well fast forward to a few months later where I now have some free time on my hands to expand my weeknight dinner rotation and I had a bag of frozen chicken legs leftover from the CSA chicken freezer special.  The legs could have good slathered in barbecue sauce cooked on the grill but I was somewhat intrigued and mystified by the whole breaded chicken leg "shake and bake" concept considering we never ate meals like that when I was younger.  I also didn't know how my family would react to this new foreign concept but I figured if I could make it my own then I would have happy eaters at home. 

Call it Hellman's, call it "Shake and Bake" or a combination of both but June Cleaver would have been quite proud of the chicken I made last night.  Here is my riff on the concept:
-Preheat your oven to 425 degrees and line a cookie sheet with foil (this will help keep your cookie sheets clean for all of the baking you'll be doing in the next few weeks).
-In a small bowl, mix together 2-3 tbs of mayonnaise and 2 tbs of mustard (I had honey mustard open at home so that's what I used but any variety will do).  Using a pastry brush, give each chicken leg a good coating of the mayo/mustard combo that is going to act as your glue for the crumbs.
-In a shallow bowl or plate, mix together 3/4 of a cup of seasoned bread crumbs with 1/4 of a cup of Parmesan cheese along with salt and pepper to taste.  Roll each of the chicken legs in the coating so they are covered all around and then arrange on the foiled cookie sheet.
-Bake for 35-40 minutes until the juices run clear when you cut into your chicken and the bread crumbs are a nice golden brown color.  (I'm still one of those people that can't eyeball when chicken is done so there will always be a piece of chicken with a cut down the middle).

I served our chicken with farm stand carrots and glazed white turnips and then a simple orzo tossed with butter, fresh herbs I had leftover, and the zest from one lemon. 

How it's been...

First off before I can go any further I just need to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone for all of their support, well wishes, encouragement and all around positive thoughts that have come out as a result of my big news of last week.  With any big decision that you make you are always going to waiver a touch with whether you are making the right choice or not and just seeing every one's words and cheer surrounding this really helped push me over the edge.  A few years ago I borrowed a mantra from Tom Daschle (for all of you none politic buffs: the former Senate Majority Leader) which is "that your windshield is larger then your rear view mirror" and these past few days, I just keep on "wind shielding it" and looking forward to what the future will hold.  Don't get me wrong, I still have the "holy shit" moments of "what the hell have I done?" but I just keep trying to remind myself of whether I would rather be getting up at 4am to go to a job that I no longer found fulfilling and because of that usually become OK with this new stage in my life.

So I'm sure you have been asking yourself by this point...well what is Catie up to with all of this free time on her hands?  Well I can tell you it's been a little bit of an adjustment realizing you have all of this free time now on your hands especially after always dreaming and joking that you really just wanted a few free days to get things done.  The first few days have been filled with some home organizing, some general housekeeping and of course a new string of stay at home dinners.  Our Christmas cards are already written and sent out which is a major accomplishment for this house considering we never even mailed cards at all and I've already started making the cookie baking list which is going to kick off next week.  There is a lot of things I'm looking forward to accomplishing in the next few weeks but the nice thing is that they no longer have to be done at a marathon pace like they used to be.  And if it ever stops raining, then maybe I can get outside to run my own little marathon of a couple of miles before I'm destined for a winter of treadmills.

One funny coincidence of being home these first few days has been that 2 different people have inquired about "cooking questions for the chef" and they both happened to do with roasting beets.  So if 2 people have already asked, I'm sure there are more home cooks out there who have the urge to roast some nice beets as well and here is my preferred method: roasted beets with balsamic glaze.  I follow the recipe up until they are fork tender and ready to be peeled and then they just get a quick toss of good balsamic before they get sliced over a salad.  And nothing beats a nice roasted beet salad over some field greens with crumbled goat cheese and whatever nuts you have around your kitchen as a nice simple dinner.  So to make a long story short, if you have a burning cooking question that you are looking to find out whether it be simple or complex send it on over my way and I'm sure with all of this free time I can come up with a good answer and solution for you. 

Putting on your own oxygen mask

I'm sure all of you are about to fall over at the sight of the new blog post but just stay seated for a moment and read on...yes, I'm actually updating the blog for the first time in over a month today.  I can go on and tell you all of the things that I did in the last month between work, and catering jobs and everything else that your head would probably spin and then you would understand why this girl hasn't sat down in from of a computer or I can just tell you this.  Today I submitted my resignation at my job that has become effective immediately.  This is something that I have been thinking about doing for a long time and some things changed at work and then you start to realize that you are just not happy anymore and a lot of people are seeing that and something just needs to change.  So you start to do that gut check of what actually feels right in your life anymore and as someone once told me "you and you alone need to be the one to put your own oxygen mask on because no one else is going to do it for you".  After 7+ years with the company and 3 and 1/2 years in New York of working a minimum of 12 hour days which included that lovely 3 hour commute, I'm regaining control of my life.   Part of me just thinks that I need a break from everything considering I started working full time 3 days after I graduated from college and never looked back which was 5 years ago and part of me knows that I just need a change and to move onto the next chapter in my life.  For months now I kept thinking to myself that I didn't want to do this anymore because there was very little joy or excitement that came out it.  I was no longer passionate about working so much and never having nights and weekends free and retail is a completely different animal that it used to be.  And as your life plate continues to get fuller from all of the many things that you throw onto it, you can never give any one thing that attention that it really deserves so you can either start to feel like an octopus where you try to cover everything trying to go in in every direction or you can decide what truly is important to you. 

So, I'm sure the question that is on every one's minds is "What the hell is she going to do now with her life?"  Well first off I'm actually going to celebrate the holidays like a normal person for the first time in however long that I can remember because I will no longer be so exhausted that I can barely stand up and not have to feel like I'm actually running from place to place and have my holiday joy sucked out of me from the bright lights and pleasures of retail at Christmas.   I'm going to cater and bake and do things that actually bring true joy and passion to my life and then I'll either get another job or I'll figure out at way to get a business off the ground.  I said to someone last night, "look I'm going to be more then OK.  If I have to sell cupcakes off the side of the road or work a bunch of different jobs, I will figure it out because I know that I can do this".  I'm going to reshuffle my deck of cards, figure out what kind of person I want to be and be that person.  I'm not going to be afraid to try something new because as the story goes "Noah had never built a ship before he built an Ark, but a group of professionals had built the Titanic and we all know how that turned out". I'm going to recreate myself, as my mother always reminds me that people need to do in their lives and it's just going to happen sooner rather then later and I know that this is just one of many chapters that will make up my adult life. 

I have never felt so sure and so good about a decision that I have made then I do today and it is such a beautiful, liberating feeling to have.  Friends who have left retail keep telling that the grass is so much frickin greener on the other side and I CAN NOT wait to see the bright side even though it feels like I'm there already.  This is no where near an end but only a very big beginning. 

It pays to work with a bunch of foodies...

One of the many perks of my job is that I'm surrounded by people who are really passionate about food and cooking.  Whenever people ask me what my job is like, for the most part I'll always describe how much fun it is to go to work and help people better equip their kitchens, talk customers through the latest cooking techniques and in general feel like you are making some sort of impact on one's food and cooking life.  Don't get me wrong, you work really hard at times, you put in long retail hours, and when it's the height of holiday you feel like you're in the middle of an endless, chaotic circus but all in all it's fun.  I have friends who have very serious careers whether they are saving lives through their medical professions or balancing budgets in corporate America and then when you get to sell pots and talk turkey all day, you embrace the non-seriousness of it all. And while the goal is to expand upon your customer's culinary knowledge as they shop with us, it's inevitable that you are going to learn a thing or two throughout the day that will make it's way into your own kitchen.  

Last week I happened to stumble upon these delicious little sweet gems that I'm lucky that there were even any left from the night before.  They looked like brownies but after further investigation I found out they were little brownie caramel sea salt bites who were made by Nadine, one of my colleagues who is a serious baker.  They were like popping potato chips into your mouth and all I could think about for the past few days was when I would have the opportunity to make them myself at home.  It finally happened Monday night and honestly they were so super easy to put together that you can do it in no time at all but just as satisfying as last week.  Here is the run down:
-Prepare your favorite brownie mix according to recipe (If you want to be an over-achiever and make brownies from scratch, I'm envious of your efforts.  I was more then ok to open up a box of Dunkin Hines knowing what was going to go on top.)  Line the wells of a mini muffin pan with papers and fill the wells half way up with brownie batter.
-Using a small spoon, top each one with about a half a teaspoon of dulce de leche caramel sauce.  I use the brand that we sell at WS which is to die for but I've been told that the Nestle version from the supermarket is just as good.  
-Sprinkle the tops with Maldon Sea Salt.  (Another item that we sell at WS which can also be bought at Whole Foods.  Any other flaky french sea salt can stand in as well). 
-Bake according to package directions for about 15-20 minutes until the brownie bites are generally set.

Today brought another welcome foodie surprise from one of my colleagues who has a home in Upstate New York where she has a very serious farming habit.  Kelly grows tons of fruits and vegetables, does lots of canning and has a whole flock of chickens that she tends to.  I'm always in total amazement of what shes up to on the farm and we've talked veggies all summer because Kelly has tons of ideas of what to do with them and always assures you how easy a project will be.  I know people cringe on Mondays and Wednesdays but I'm one of these people that have a hard time getting into Tuesdays.  You're still trying to jump start your week and last winter and spring I would get up and take spin classes at un-godly hours on Tuesday mornings that would carry me through a good part of the day on this happy, sweaty euphoria but since the summer I've been running outside on other days so the spin habit had to take a hiatus and now you look to other things to get you at that happy place. Today it came to me in the form of 1 dozen of the most beautiful farm fresh eggs that were waiting for me on my desk when I came into work this morning.  I had nothing planned for dinner tonight so I knew that this would be the perfect opportunity to use them and they made it carefully through a metro north train ride for us to consume tonight.  I made up simple omelets for Andrew and I filled with caramelized onions, leeks and mushrooms along with a dusting of cheese and they were AMAZING!!!!  I honestly didn't think I even really liked omelets beforehand but the color of the egg yolks was this golden hue of yellow and as we ate them all we kept remarking about was how fresh the eggs tastes.  Those eggs can get me through a Tuesday anyday and I'm already thinking about when I can have another one of those delicious omelets.

how cute are these labels????  happy hens make happy eaters!

The pics don't do the beauties justice but the lightest colored ones are a pale robin blue hue

embracing breakfast for dinner...something that doesn't happen that much in this house.

It's here...

When you ask a lot of people what their favorite holiday is, they will probably rattle off an answer like Christmas, Halloween or their birthday and those days are all great but sometimes they have a little bit too much emphasis thrown on them for me.  Ask me and my answer is going to be a little out of the ordinary.  I'm a big holiday girl, and love to celebrate them all whether it be New Year's Day or Easter but I hold a very special place in my heart for the All-American edition of 4th of July, Thanksgiving and Election Day (yes, when you have a degree in Political Science and tend to follow politics like a sport you view it as a holiday) and when you like to cook, Thanksgiving becomes like the world series of cooking and entertaining for the year.   You think of Thanksgiving and I'm going to almost guarantee that you are going to get all warm and nostalgic pretty quickly on yourselves.  It's a holiday that's based on so many things but it comes down to great food, being surrounded by your family, and a lot of tradition and really what more can you ask for out of a day and because it's this day we celebrate every 4th Thursday of November every year it becomes quite special. 


Everyone has a "bucket list" of things they want to do in their life and among a lot of other things, I have the life long dream and utmost desire to host Thanksgiving for 30 at some point where I would cook the meal of my life, everyone would sit and eat for hours and it would just be an all-around amazing day.  Don't get me wrong, every year I have good Thanksgivings without hosting them.  For the last several years, we have gone to my Uncle Frank and Aunt Sandy's house for Thanksgiving and I think it was 3 holidays ago where my Aunt blew my mind at the table by announcing that this was her 82nd or some other obscene number turkey that shes made in her life and obviously when someone makes that many turkeys, they are going to be good (even with all of the hype, she's still a believer in the low and slow method and the turkey comes out moist and juicy every year).  But I know one day, my aunt will pass the baster to me when she's had enough of cooking turkey and when that day comes, I promise all of you that you will never see another Thanksgiving meal like it.  I think about it all the time what my most perfect Thanksgiving would look like, what we would eat, how the turkey would be cooked and I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that I have an entire binder of Thanksgiving recipes from old magazines preserved, ready to be broken out when the day comes. 


One of my favorite days of the year happened on Friday...the day where the November issue of Bon Appetit arrived in my mailbox.  I know in the magazine world, people usually wait for the "September issue" because it's all about fall fashion and such but for me November means Thanksgiving and when obsessed about the holiday it becomes a very big deal.  I can't wait every year to see what recipes the editors come up with, what new technique they uncover in getting you to prepare the most perfect turkey and just the general excitement to kick off the Thanksgiving season.  And every year you can bring something new to the table whether it be a new take on mashed potatoes or the inspiration to include a veggie that has never been on the table before but in the end it comes down to holding on to those traditions that are very near and dear to your heart and stomach.  Throughout November we are going to talk all about those traditions and share some of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes and tips with you so whether you host the holiday or just a happy enjoyer of it you are so hungry and ready for the day when it arrives that you can't wait another instance.  Check out the magazine, get inspired and for what I feel like is my new best friend in the cooking world, Adam Rapoport... I happen to like you even more now that your family and mine happen to have very similar stuffing recipes. 

By the way:  nice try BA in bringing out the new latest and greatest recipes but I have you trumped on this one with the Glazed Hakurei Turnips.  When I ever came across this one, I have to give credit to Stacia and Stone Gardens for including these and getting us addicted to them in our Farm Share back in the early summer.  I still can't wait to try their version though!!

Cook the cover...

There was a time in this house a while ago where we were having dinner parties and theme dinners quite regularly and don't get me wrong because they were fabulous and I would entertain all the time if I could but I had my friends spoiled.  I had an extremely busy summer between work and weddings and everything else and I would see my friends (yes Jon and Sean, now you know how to get a meal at this house) at different things and they would always bring up these not so subtle, longing hints of "you know Catie, you are really due to throw a party, when is it going to happen?"  So of course this got the bug in my ear and Friday night turned into the right night to have a dinner party.   Things were starting to really fall into place for the 6 of us who were around, I would take care of the main course, Deanna would bring a salad, Suzanne would be in charge of wine, and Kara had the handle on dessert and we would be in business.  I vetoed any idea of appetizers because as Sam Sifton said in his NY Times article recently "Do you really want your guests to fill up on nuts when you are giving them some spectacular main course" and he was right, we sure didn't need any extra food.  Since I hadn't cooked in awhile I knew that I had to step it up a notch and being off all day on Friday I thought "Oh this will be great, I will have X amount of hours to stay home and cook and put together this meal at a leisurely place".  I decided that we would have a riff on the roasted pork loin from the cover of this month's Bon Appetit, sweet potato gnocchi with sage and chestnuts, and sauteed vegetable bundles that are inspired by my mother's shoestring veggies.  Everything else was taken care of and I had to make 3 dishes over the course of an entire afternoon.

Really who was I trying to kid....Friday turned into a day from hell for me.  I spent the morning fighting for over an hour with my bank, went for a manicure appointment that I never actually made (at that point, I was just like I'm loosing my mind) and finally when I was about to leave to go home and cook I had a somewhat major issue with my car that needed immediate attention.  Note to all: if a dashboard signal on your car is not only blinking and beeping, it's kind of a big deal.  Needless to say, I felt like my life was in shambles and all I wanted to do at this point was go home, cover my counter tops in flours and make gnocchi but instead I kept seeing the minutes ticking away in front of me and I was on the verge of panic attacks of how this was all going to get done and kept thinking "Dear God, do not let the theme of today be how this dinner party is going to turn out".  But it pays to be loyal to your local, tried and true mechanic who gave me a ride home while he dealt with the car and I was able to concentrate on dinner and not worry about anything else for a few hours and everything worked out fine.  I prepared my pork right up until the moment it needed to get roasted, prepped my veggies and made gnocchi at a record pace before anyone even showed up and was able to even enjoy a sparkly fall cocktail with everyone as the meal finished cooking. 

And obviously from the fact that not one ounce of food was leftover, I would say it was a big frickin success.  By the time dinner was on the table, I wasn't completely exhausted from cooking all day like I've been in the past and got to sit and eat and drink and really visit with my friends. In so many ways it was one of the most ideal and deeply satisfying dinner parties that I've had in a long time, all of the food turned out delicious, we lingered at the table long after dinner was over and even the cleanup wasn't bad at all.  Maybe Friday worked out just how it was supposed to regardless of all of the drama that I had throughout the day.  Maybe I wasn't supposed to have all of these hours to stay home and cook and overstimulate myself further because really it just shows that in order to make a nice dinner you don't have to be chained to your stove for hours on end?  Maybe I was supposed to get stressed out about everything else so by the time dinner rolled around, this would feel like a walk in the park?  You can try to fight everything little thing that happens in your life or you can just go with it and know that it's going to turn out how it was meant to be and more often then not it will be on the good side of things.  If you asked me this at 2pm when everything was hitting the fan I would have laughed at you but when I was laying in bed that night after everything was over and done with, I wouldn't have traded my dinner and my day for the world.

A Note on the Pork:

At first glance when reading the recipe for the pork, I was overwhelmed just looking at.  I'm past the point in my cooking life where I want to make recipes with 22 ingredients and 15 different steps on a regular basis but it looked really good so I knew I was going to have to adapt the recipe to make it more real life conducive.  Here is the rundown of my pork tenderloin:
-Instead of using an entire pork loin that I would have to butterfly and roll, I used the thin pork loins and made one deep slit in the center of the pork that I would stuff with my filling. 
-As much as all of the ingredients of the BA filling recipe sounded delicious, it was a lot of stuff that I wasn't about to get involved in.  Instead I made a simple filling with sauteed kale, garlic and crimini mushrooms and brushed the pork with some fig jam that I had at home to give it some sweetness.  By the way: If you have this fear of serving "healthy" veggies at a dinner party such as kale because you think your guests are going to balk at them, throw the fear out the window.  I honestly don't think my guests even realized the green stuff in the filling was kale considering there was nothing left on anyones plates. 
-I wrapped my pork in the prosciutto, seared it off and right as it was about to go into the oven, I gave it another brush with the fig jam to let it caramelize on top.
-Around the pork, I roasted chopped up apple slices and whole red grapes that I tossed in the leftover pan drippings mixed with the fig jam instead of the apple cider and  chicken stock mixture they suggested.
-Because I was no longer cooking an entire loin of stuffed pork, I adjusted my cooking time from an hour and 40 minutes to just around an hour where it registered at the 140 degree mark. 

fun napkins and flowers is all you need to dress up basic white

Prosciutto wrapped pork my way

Deanna's salad (really homemade dressed this time)

sweet potato gnocchi



I'm biased but really, what restaurant can you get a meal like that now?



catiecakes: flavor inspiration

So by now most of you know that I have this side baking business called "catiecakes" and it's actually starting to feel like a legit, very adult thing to do (and not one of these crazy side projects that I think about all the time but never actually materialized).  The business cards are out and about, the orders are starting to flow in at a manageable, enjoyable pace and very shortly I have to bite the bullet and get the facebook page/website up and running.  I've had so many people say to me before "Oh quit your job, open a store and bake full time.  You'll be great".  And obviously I love the positive words of encouragement and don't get me wrong, that is the end goal but just thinking about an actual store right now is like taking laps around the anxiety pool.  If I learned anything from the handful of business courses that I took in college is that you have to create demand before you can have supply for something so if I could keep baking and continuing to get the catiecakes name out there for the next few months, find a place to have a pop-up shop or as I like to refer to it as "the chic-modern bake sale", and keep on thinking how I can make my business more unique and different then the one next door then we are moving in the right direction and before you know it I'll be trading those early mornings for baking instead of running for the train to New York. 

I'm going to an Oktoberfest party this evening at our friends Julia and Tom and from the sound of it, this is going to be quite the event with an expected cast of 75-100 guests.  While I'm not really up on classic German fare, I figured this would be a perfect opportunity for catiecakes to make an appearance and get introduced to a whole new group of people.  So far in the past month, I've done a lot of classic flavors of white/vanilla, chocolate, red velvet, pumpkin and coconut but I was feeling inspired this week and was looking to push the creative envelope a little further today.  Here is the lineup for tonight:

-Purple Velvet with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting:  I've always had a sweet spot in my heart for red velvet cake and I know Julia joins me on this one as well.  The other day I was flipping through a magazine article on different wedding cake flavors and I came across a purple velvet cake and needless to say, I was obsessed just thinking about this genius idea.

-Pistachio with Mocha Butter cream:  This was a Martha Stewart inspiration and only Martha can send me on wild goose chases through New Haven County looking for special ingredients to use in her recipes and this time it was Pistachio Extract.  I know, you're probably thinking to yourself "wait does pistachio extract even exist?"  but I can assure you it does by the way of specialty baking stores and I'm due for a trip to the King Arthur Baking Company soon.  For the record, and to save yourself time and peace of mind, Whole Foods, nor any grocery store or craft venue sells it in the area.  For this round, I used a stand-in ingredient which looks like it did the trick. 

-Fleur de sel Caramel with Chocolate Butter cream:  The salt with caramel and chocolate phase is huge right now and my friend Michelle sent me this recipe for Crack Brownies this week that uses Maldon sea salt flakes on top of the brownies that look absolutely delish.  I haven't gotten a chance to make the brownies yet but I thought this would be the perfect flavor for a cupcake so they are. 

Have a great weekend everyone and enjoy this beautiful warm weather (it's totally throwing me off on what to wear now but I figured, I might as well enjoy it before there is a foot of snow on the ground). 

The food issue...

There is nothing like being home on a a leisurely Sunday where nothing can get between you and the New York Times.  By now you should know that we are faithful readers of the Times in our house and we become quite territorial over sections of the paper.  I'm one of those typical East Coast girls that loves the Times and everything about it, and still loves the idea of reading an actual newspaper some days.  For as long as I can remember growing up, my mother would buy the paper everyday (because they didn't do home delivery to the area back then) and is a obsessive doer of the crossword puzzle that she has now gotten my brother into doing.   Lets just say it was quite the triumphant day when home delivery began and those blue newspaper bags starting arriving in our driveway.   Everyday is unique in the Times whether it's Wednesday and the dining section, Thursday and it's style day but really nothing can top Sundays.  Between the Metro Section and the "Sunday Routine" column that we play the game all the time about what our own routine would look like, Sunday Styles and the "Modern Love" and "Wedding of the Week", and finally the magazine that is chock full of so many interesting pieces that it becomes reading material for Monday.  I always think about what a perfect Sunday would look like in my eyes and it involves exercise, family dinners at home and lots of time carved out for reading and this week it didn't disappoint in the least bit.  It ended up being "The Food Issue" in the Magazine where all of the articles were dedicated to all things food and drink.  I have linked some of my favorite parts below because they will make you laugh, you'll learn all of these fun and interesting tidbits and you'll even feel sentimental and warm and fuzzy about all of your own memories surrounding the dinner table.  And I'm sure they will make you a better cook.

-"Can a Dinner Party be Stress Free"
Come on who doesn't dream of going to a dinner party hosted by Mark Bittman?  I read a piece by him a number of years ago where he talked about getting over his fear of entertaining and I always try to embody his laid back, at home style when hosting parties. 

-"Everything You Wanted to Know About Food"
A really nice guide that answers all of the questions you have ever had about food, health, policy, dining and etiquette. 

-"Why Does it Matter That Families Eat Together?"
I know the politics of family dinners has become the topic of choice these days and maybe I continue to feed off of all the positive research because I have so many wonderful memories of sitting around my own family table eating dinner together as I was growing up.   Eating dinner at home with my family (and whatever extended guests we have over at the moment) is still one of my most favorite and enjoyable parts of my day because it's like life slows down for a few minutes and you can can sit, eat, connect and relax.  Sam Sifton hits all the right points and as he puts it so eloquently in the end...'it's not so much about the future effect that it will have our lives but on the present moment of all being together just enjoying good food". 

Happy Reading, Happy Monday!!!

Stock Sunday

We recently took the plunge and signed up for the "chicken freezer special" through our CSA farm.  Because of this we now are the proud owners of 5 cut up chickens (which comes out to be 25 pounds) that are sitting pretty in the freezer waiting to be used.  The farm divided the chickens up into bags of wings, legs, breasts, thighs and carcasses and you could have even gotten the feet as well which we politely declined.  (Look, I'm an adventurous eater but I'm drawing the line in the sand when it comes to chicken feet considering just thinking about them I'm starting to feel a gag reflex coming on).  So I'm sure you're probably asking yourself right now "what the hell are they going to do with all that chicken in that house?" but the way it was divided up makes it very easy and approachable to cook with and who doesn't love a good deal on loca-vore chicken?  So right now our freezer is stocked pretty full and the first project that I wanted to tackle upon picking up our chickens was to make a big stash of homemade chicken stock to have for the season.  The quality of store bought stocks have greatly improved over the years and I'm a huge fan of how they sell it in the paper cartons now so it's easy to store whenever you just need a little bit but nothing beats homemade chicken stock.  My life has been insanely busy lately and when I saw that I had a free day on Sunday, I jumped at the chance to stay home all day and just cook and clean and attempt to get caught up on all of those projects that keep piling up.  You do need a good few hours at home to make homemade stock but was mainly a hands-off, self-maintaining project that has now produced around 10 quarts of chicken stock for the season.  My inspiration for the stock came from this article on chicken stock from the September 2011 Bon Appetit but is very easy to adapt to whatever ingredients you have at home.  Here is the rundown:

In a large roasting pan, I threw in all of my chicken carcasses and tossed them in some vegetable oil and a few generous grinds of freshly cracked pepper (I decided to leave out the salt so I can control my sodium levels when I'm actually using the stock to cook).  In a 375 degree oven, they roasted for about 45 minutes until they developed a nice brown crust to them.  I know not everyone has chicken carcasses lying around their kitchens so you can also use chicken wings, a left over roast chicken that you had the night before or even buy a cheap whole chicken that you can cut up. 

It's been a while

I'm sure by now some of you probably think I've fallen off the face of the earth and this blog has been abandoned.  By before you send out the search committee, I'm here ready to start up again.  I know it's ridiculous how long I've been away and haven't posted anything but I promise that it's been one hell of a busy jam-packed September but I'm back.  I actually haven't been in my kitchen all that much lately and of course I'm feeling the river (make that ocean) of guilt over this because I feel like I'm missing out on making some really great meals or using my farm share veggies to their full potential.  So at this point, we can't go backwards but only forward so I need to lose the guilt and just not waste another minute dwelling on lost time.  I'm here and fully committed now.  Here is a recap of how I've spent my September so far.

-I ran a 5k on Labor Day and it ended up being fantastic!  You have to understand that regardless of how much I like to work out and do athletic activities, I've never been a great runner and really didn't find it all that enjoyable.  My first 5k run took place on Thanksgiving Day 2005 with 3 inches of snow on the ground and lets just say it wasn't a banner experience in the least bit.  But I never let go of the idea of really wanting to be a runner so I started running more this summer and took the New Haven Labor Day plunge.  It was a great weather morning, the course was a nice run through East Rock and downtown New Haven and I ran better then I thought I would so really what more can you ask for.  I can't wait for next year now and have kept up the running habit post race so maybe I've finally turned the corner on being a runner.  I used to think that I wanted to run a marathon by the time I'm 30, I don't think I have 26 miles in me but 3.1 is more then enough at the moment.  Here is a pic of me, right after crossing the finish line.




Can you spot me...look right center

 -One of my closest friend's Carmina got married!!!  She's the first of my friends to walk on down the aisle and she had the rest of us lovely ladies as bridesmaids.  We had a fantastic weekend of events and a really fun time celebrating the nuptials of Carmina and Anthony.  They hosted a fabulous reception with quite the dance party and now we get to look forward to our next bridesmaid experience next summer for my friend "Bride B" Deanna.

-My side baking business "Catiecakes" is off the ground and running and we even have business cards to prove it.  My bride friends have kept me quite busy these past few months between baking for engagement parties, bridal showers and welcome bags.  Here are some of the mini cupcakes that I made for a shower last weekend. 

catiecakes: home baked - valley made

-And I did accomplish a little bit of cooking in between.  After going out to dinner 3 times last week and even though the meals were all good, I was itching to stay home and cook.  So last night we hosted a few friends for dinner and an old favorite found its way back to the table that we haven't made all season.  For as long as I can remember, my mother made these simple "Baked Tomatoes" and they now get requested by people who come over for dinner like they did in this case.   They are really easy to make and taste delicious right out of the oven and sometimes even better reheated the next day.  Take advantage of tomato season before it's over, and I promise that this will become a favorite on your table too.

Baked Tomatoes

Preheat your oven to 350.  Take the skins off of the tomatoes by scoring them with an x on the bottom and plunging them in boiling water for a few minutes until the skin is loose. 

Once the skin is off, slice them in half and arrange them flat side up in a baking dish. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and a touch of sugar and then top with chopped up shallots, shredded Swiss cheese, crushed up Ritz cracker crumbs and Parmesan cheese.  Drizzle with melted butter and in goes the baking dish into the oven.

Bake for 20 minutes until the cheese is really melted and you start to develop a golden crust on top of the tomatoes. 

CSA Week 14: The To-Do List for the Week

I couldn't go pick up our farm share this Friday and with the farm having no power for a majority of the week (therefore no email was sent out with the list) so we were in for a total surprise with what was on deck.  After dividing up the share, this is what we took home

-3 ears of corn
-1/2 of a large cantaloupe
-7 good sized cucumbers
-2 bell peppers (1 green and 1 purple)
-4 large tomatoes
-1 bunch of beets with greens attached
-1/2 pound of carrots
-2 large eggplant

I knew that I had a very busy week ahead of me and in order to put everything to good use, some planning and a schedule was going to need to be involved.  You have to understand that I'm a list maker and for the most part, one that thrives off of a schedule (when you rely on metro north for a majority of your transportation every minute counts!!).  For as long as I can remember I have been obsessed with the weekly Kate Spade planners and even with iPhones and all, I still can't bring myself to give them up and even after the year is over, the past planners go on a bookshelf just in case.  So I sat down and mapped out what we got in the box, different ideas that I had at first thought with what I wanted to do with them and finally went back and started to schedule when all of these veggies would be eaten.  As you can see below, here is a peak inside of one of my notebooks:

With some veggies like the tomatoes, corn, carrots, and beets I had instant ideas on how I wanted to use them.  With some such as the peppers and eggplant I was going to have to dig deep on some new tricks because I for one have totally hit the eggplant wall and then with a quick glance at my calender to see a mostly free Sunday, it came to me what was going to take place with the cucumbers...I was going to make pickles!!!!  I love many different types of pickles but never made by own before.  I kept seeing different blog posts and recipes for "DIY" pickles at home that looked intriguing and really what else does one do with 7 large cucumbers?  So I set up my canning station in the kitchen this afternoon, used a basic pickle recipe that all I had to pick up was fresh dill and more white vinegar and within an hour the jars were filled and complete and now we just get to play the waiting game for a few days to see how they turned out. 



just waiting for their brine bath



Surviving Hurricane Irene, Freezer Deposits and Baking Redemption

With Hurricane Irene hitting Connecticut over this past weekend, I had a few quality days at home to catch up on some of my kitchen/cooking projects.  With the hype over the storm starting on Thursday and then New York basically shutting down for 2 days I knew I had to take advantage of the time to try out some of those projects that I keep wanting to accomplish.  I know I've fell off the wagon with telling you all with what has been coming in the farm share and this Friday, I will stat listing again what we come home with.  This week, we did take home another batch of kale (yes, it's back) and a number of green peppers, both of which I wasn't really into cooking in anything.  So instead of letting it go to waste, I figured let me start to plan ahead to the time in the winter when we are going through farm share withdrawal so I made a few deposits to the freezer for future use.  Both the kale and peppers got a quick parboil and then got frozen in freezer safe bags and now they are sitting pretty ready to used in soup or other dishes.  I also fried up 2 big eggplants into cutlets and froze them as well to be used for eggplant parm sometime in the fall.  

By Sunday afternoon cabin fever was starting to take place in our house even though we never lost our power (for anyone who has lost their power over the past week because of Irene, I know it hasn't been pleasant so I'm sorry that I'm rubbing in all of the cooking that I've done) and I knew we were going to have to do something before bored-ness or crankiness came into play.  So what else to do but invite over a few friends and family members for a "hurricane survival party".  We had a fully stocked fridge and pantry after getting caught up in hurricane preparedness talks and since we had a few blizzard dinner parties this winter, why not keep the tradition alive with other weather conditions.  We had a great summer meal of steaks, roasted potatoes, salad, and sauteed fresh corn accompanied by wine and lots of laughs where everyone was just so relaxed with such a lazy weekend behind us.  At the last minute, I decided to throw one more dish into the mix and had all of the ingredients to cook up the Grilled Squash Ribbons with Prosciutto and Mint Dressing from the most recent 'Food and Wine" magazine.  Really easy to pull together, took only a matter of minutes to cook and was different play on grilled veggies that I've never had before.  Can't wait to break out the skewers and do this again before the summer is over. 

Monday dinner without breaking a sweat

Do you ever have one of those evenings where you feel completely, deeply satisfied with how everything turned out?  Well Monday was one of those evenings for me.  I came home from a zumba class, knew that I had a little bit of time to get dinner ready (instead of the usual feeling of being under the gun to get food on the table before 9:30) but also wanted something that wasn't going to be entirely labor intensive either.  I knew that we had a good number of tomatoes and squash still left over from the farm share, and not a whole lot of protein options at home without having to make another trip to the grocery store.  I wasn't really feeling pasta but after a few minutes of pondering it came to me...we were going to make Mark Bittman's Tomato Paella!!!  I know, I know...paella for a Monday night when you are just getting back into the swing of the work week sounds daunting but I promise this was one of the easiest meals that I've made in a long time but it comes out of the oven looking all piping hot and delicious like you slaved away for hours so change up the usual weekday routine with this different dish.  I had all of these ingredients on hand (if you don't have a stash of Spanish rice on hand you can also use arborio which is the rice used in risotto), used one bowl to slice up and marinate the tomatoes and had the kitchen pretty much cleaned by the time the paella came out of the oven.  This was also one of those one pot dishes (I might be overly domesticated in the cooking department but my cleaning and laundry skills fall far short of where they should be) so in the height of the summer when you want to be doing other things besides scrubbing pots it just felt like a great move.  Quick tip:  whenever a recipe calls for heating up water or stock in a pan, I pour my liquids into a microwave safe large measuring cup and heat it that way so then it's easier to pour into the main pan when you are ready for it and you have one more burner free on the stove.  The original recipe doesn't call for any protein on top (and I know there are a lot of people out there who have embraced the trend of having "meatless Mondays"  but if this is going to be a main dish, I think it needs a little something to make it all the more complete so I had a few frozen shrimp leftover in the freezer that I did a quick defrost on and tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper that went on top of the rice 5 minutes before it finished cooking. 

Once the pan goes into the oven, you have a few minutes to leisurely have a glass of wine, clean up and because I knew the rest of my family wasn't coming home for a little bit I took the opportunity to make myself a quick snack with the leftover half tomato that has now opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me on how good this little snack was.  There are so many people that are absolutely obsessed with tomato season come August.  All of the tomato crops are fully producing, it's heirloom season where you can have your pick at the farmer's market of all of the beautifully colored and different tasting varieties and everything just tastes so much more fresher then the poor colored stand ins you find at the grocery store during a majority of the year.  There is something in my family and I have no idea what happened on Old New Haven Avenue when my mother and my uncles were growing up but all of them have some level of aversion to tomatoes with my Uncle Frank who won't even touch tomato sauce to my mother the youngest who is not an overly big fan of the raw tomato with Uncle John falling somewhere in the middle.  All of us laugh about it but thankfully the next generation of Rak/DeTullio kids don't have any issues with the tomato plant so hopefully it was an isolated issue that can stay right there. 

This little snack doesn't even need a recipe but here is the rundown:  take a slice of toasted white bread (don't even think about using whole wheat or any other healthy alternative as an option for this...a little bit of white flour isn't going to kill you!) and give it a healthy spread of mayonnaise. (People either love mayo or they hate it.  I'm firmly in the camp that loves it and only Hellman's regular will do.)  Arrange your cut tomato slices on top and sprinkle with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.  That's it.  Your finished.  Take a moment, enjoy the open-faced sandwich and you will be just as much as in love as I am and it was the perfect snack to hold me over.  Considering I had another tomato sandwich for dinner on Tuesday, I have a feeling this is going to become quite the habit for the rest of tomato season.  Good thing we only have a few more weeks to go!!

so simple yet so delicious

To go back to the paella really quick - it makes great leftovers the day after especially with a fried egg on top.  I served my paella that night with some simple grilled yellow squash and zucchini and deeply satisfied we all were. 

One Fine Summer Dinner

Saturday night, I went to dinner at our friends Beth and Cindy's house with a group of our mutual friends and family and as usual it was absolutely fantastic.  It's totally going on the top 10 list of meals I've had in 2011 so far* and it was one of those dinners where after you left and even a few days later, you keep saying to yourself "wow, I had a really good time".  Let me introduce you all to Beth and Cindy: They are sisters who make up an amazing entertaining duo who are always a good time.  Beth is up on all of the latest cocktails out there so whenever you come over, she is ready to serve up her latest concoction at the bar, this time being Jeremiah Weed's sweet tea vodka lemonades finished off with a splash of limencello. (God knows vodka and I aren't close friends in the least bit but these were good!)  Cindy could be a clone of Martha Stewart (obviously all the good parts of her) because she is one of the best entertainers that I know and feeds off all of these wonderful foodie things just like me so it's always so refreshing to talk food and cooking with her because she totally gets what your thinking and envisioning all the time.  Another fun fact about Cindy is that she decorates their house by color every season and we just happened to visit during the summer green phase where everything down to the decorations and photos on the wall fit into this theme.  It looks awesome and I can't wait for the day when I have time to decorate like that.  The best thing about Cindy though is that she is a "pay it forward kind of gal" because when I emailed her the next day to thank her again for a wonderful dinner and asked for a recipe or 2 to share on the blog with all of you, she happily sent over recipes to the entire menu.  So you my friends are lucky enough to be able to have this meal yourselves one day.  

We started off with "snacks and swizzles" (my most favorite term for "drinks and apps" that has a long and illustrious history in my family coined from my Uncle John) in their sun room that included the Jeremiah Weed cocktails, a tomato and goat cheese tart, and these crisp-prosciutto and avocado crostini that if I was left to my own devices I would have literally ate the entire platter.  

prosciutto + avocado = yes please

Next we moved outside for dinner on the deck and we had a duo of cold summer salads that was washed down nicely with some rose wine.  We actually had these salads last year when we went for dinner and I remember as we were driving home, I kept thinking to myself "Why the hell don't I ever entertain like that with easy dishes that can be made ahead so I can be fully engaged during the entire party with my guests instead of slaving away in the kitchen on an up to the minute meal that needs so much attention" (So a big thank you to Cindy for giving me that huge revelation in my entertaining style).  Cindy at first was a little apprehensive to serve the same meal as last year but it was so good and when we heard this was an option, there was some hard campaigning that took place to make sure the dishes were on the table.  We had a Mandarin Beef Salad with a fabulous poppy seed dressing and one of the most moist and flavorful chicken salads with pale green fruit that I've ever had.  This dinner can have a repeat performance anytime.

We finished dinner off with a refreshing homemade lime ice cream, and these little bites of heaven: traveling almond elderflower cakes that are made with St. Germaine elderflower liquor (which is one of my alcoholic guilty pleasures).   

I think my mother summed the evening up perfectly: good friends, good food, good wine, good conversation, lots of laughs.  What more can you can want in life?

*A quick note on the Top 10 Dinners of 2011 list.  Earlier this summer I named the dinner at Denise and Ray's worthy of the list and then I loved my birthday dinner at Pasta Nostra in Norwalk with my friends, any dinner at "The Place" is always going to be up there as well as my mother's birthday party that Andrew and I threw for her but then I sat there racking my brain to think about what else I ate this year.  So needless to say this week a new ritual has been started in my life, "The Dinner Journal" (thank you Jenny for "Dinner: A Love Story" for this one) which gives me the opportunity to record what I eat for dinner every night so that way I can look back to all of the wonderful things I eat over the course of a year.