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.