Joyeux Anniversaire

French food is easy.  All you need is butter and thyme. 

We were happy to have my aunt and uncle over for dinner to celebrate my aunt's birthday.  I decided to make a savory tart, a "French" onion tart.

My aunt loves France- she used to live in Paris, and she taught me to (maybe unintentionally) associate delicious, fashionable, and lavender (the herb) with France.  When I was younger we would have tea parties with rose tea and cream, little cakes, and pastries.  When I got older we had tea parties with stinky cheese, mustard, rosé, and violet liqueur.

French food had a long and complicated reputation.  I'm not so interested in soups, sauces, and meats that take days to prepare.  I'm interested in the fresh, simple, and delicious French "bistro" food.  Easy, hearty, and served with wine.  The way real French people eat.

My onion tart starts with a simple pastry dough:

2 cups flour
1 1/2 sticks of cold butter
1/4 (or less) cup of ice cold water

Mix the butter and flour together until it is crumbly, I do it in the stand mixer for less than a minute.
With the mixer still running, slowly pour ice cold water into the flour mixture until it just comes together.  Let the dough rest for at least an hour in the refrigerator.
The secret to good tart dough is keep it cold before you cook it.  The cold butter creates steam in the oven and that gives you a lovely flaky dough.

Nick cut 4 beautiful onions for me, because they were making me cry, and then I sauteed them with some olive oil, salt, and herbes de Provence.  When the onions were soft I piled them on a very cold, rolled out tart dough.  Then I dotted the onions with fresh goat cheese and prosciutto.  Then they went into the oven at 350 for 20 minutes.  Until everything looks golden and delicious.

 

Bon Appetit!

Round Like The Sun. The Days Are Getting Longer!

Where are the best bagels in Santa Rosa?  Small bagel chains in Sonoma Valley simply don't cut it for me.  Nick and I were talking about how a good bagel is SO GOOD, and we couldn't figure out the best bagel place in town.  We mean the best of the best, not-just-good-but-great bagels.  So I decided to try to make them myself.

I had invited my dad and Midori over for a birthday breakfast, and I thought what better Solstice birthday breakfast than a round like the sun bagel.  Also, it is good to try out recipes on your family, because if it is unsuccessful they will still be your family.

Bagels should be golden and shiny to look at, with a crunchy crust and chewy inside.
I gave it my best shot; knead, wait, roll, boil, bake.  The hardest part was keeping my "O" together, the ends didn't want to stick.  However, we noticed they were "G" shaped and decide it was intentional.

I made a few poppy seed, and a few sesame seed varieties, why not?
I think they turned out pretty damn good.

I made quite a spread; cream cheese, lox, capers, onions, butter, jelly, jam...

I wasn't keeping track or anything, but I did happen to notice a few people helping themselves to seconds and even thirds.

They were good. Really good.

When You Don't Feel Like Cooking

Over the weekend we went up to Sea View to celebrate Nick's birthday.  We had a wonderful, relaxing, adventurous time.  The weather was unbelievable, warm and clear.  I promised Nick I would make him anything he wanted for his birthday dinner... I think he has moved entirely into adulthood, as he requested sauerkraut soup and roasted Brussels sprouts for his special meal.  The soup was really wonderful and hearty, I forgot the Brussels though.  We ate the soup with crusty cheesy bread and salad.  A friend of ours arrived before dinner with a roast chicken and so I roasted some potatoes and we really feasted.
When we got home the next morning we were all exhausted.  Back to work we went, and for dinner we didn't feel like cooking.  Our solution was simple, snacks! We love bread, cheese, smoked fish, smoked meat, jam, mustard, anything you can pile on or glop together in a convenient and wonderfully satisfying bite sized taste.

We dined, or snacked, or picked at a sourdough baguette, a lovely soft cheese, pickled anchovies, smoked oysters, smoked sprats, and some (mind-blowing, if you don't mind me tooting my own horn) tomato jam I made awhile back. To round the meal up we made a simple salad of greens and herbs.

Dinner was amazing, and we didn't have to lift a finger, other than to pop a piece of fish in our mouth.

The Great Collapsible Paving Stone

This is Birthday week times two.
November 6th was my mom's birthday, and the 9th was Nick's birthday. Truth be told between eating out and eating leftovers we have not been cooking very much. On Monday however we had my mom and Gary over for a birthday dinner. We grilled a bunch of pizzas, had a simple pear salad, and drank plenty of wine.
As for a birthday cake I decided to make a flour-less cake because this particular flour-less cake is amazing, and because we nearly used all the flour we had making double batches of pizza dough.
As far as we know, we have no allergy to gluten. In fact we eat a lot of gluten rich foods. I have often said I could live on bread and cheese. So the motivation behind baking gluten-free is a delicious product, not necessarily for any health benefit. If you do have an allergy to gluten, bake this cake! Even if you don't! Just please, please be patient!

The cake is a Chocolate Pave, pave is the french word for paving stone, and call so because this is a rich often dense cake. This particular recipe is rich, and seemingly dense, but light as air at the same time. The texture is amazing!

Chocolate Pave
Preheat the oven to 350
In a double boiler heat until melted and smooth
7 1/2 oz. GOOD dark chocolate and 15 T unsalted butter [ :) ]
Set aside to cool
separate 6 eggs,

Whist the yolks with 1/2 cup sugar, whisk until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture ribbons, 10 minuets or so (my right forearm is still sore, maybe use the kitchen-aid mixer) fold the yoke into the chocolate.
In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites, gradually add 1/4 cup sugar, and a pitch of salt. Whisk until the whites look shiny and hold shape.

In three parts fold the whites into the chocolate, just until combined. Pour the mixture into a cake pan that has been buttered and flowered (I used cocoa powder)
Bake for 35 to 40 minuets, The top will crack and it is done when the sides our set up and the center is still slightly soft.
This is where the patience  comes into play. It is important to let the cake cool completely before you remove it from the cake pan. This particular morning I was a little over eager and this beautiful cake kind of collapsed.
Before my mom came over for dinner I lightly dusted the cake with powdered sugar in attempts to disguise my "ambition", not that it mattered, we all devoured large sections before giving the cake much of a second glance.

Birthday Week Continues

Three nights a week I must work late, so Nick and I don't get to make dinner together. These are my least favorite nights. I especially look forward to Wednesday night dinner. I like breaking up the week, getting ingredients from the farmers market, having leftovers for lunch the next day, and spending the evening at home.
This last Wednesday we had to forgo our night a home to wine and dine at the amazing Zazu. My dad took Midori, Nick, and me out for a gastronomic birthday celebration. We ordered many little dishes and shared everything(my favorite way to eat), and it all started with their farm raised, house made salumi with fennel pollen. It is the best cured meat I have ever had. Although I didn't eat it for a good twenty years I have tried my darndest to make up for lost time, i.e. I have had a lot of amazing charcuterie as of late and this is the best.
After the salumi we ate amazing cheese, roasted peppers with Spanish almonds, a BLT salad, fried zucchini spears, pizza... as we were licking our plates we overheard the server mention a starter they had just added to the menu and we knew we had to make room for more. The last dish was mission figs stuffed with foie gras, wrapped in bacon, then broiled. It may have been our favorite part of the meal. Dessert was a flight of ice cream; we had a sample of all the menu had to offer (we ordered five and our server took it upon himself to wish me a happy birthday with two extra).
Thanks dad, dinner was incredible!
Wednesday night Chelsea came up for an extended stay in our messy guest room (my mess, I didn't want to birthday clean). It has been so nice to have a full house. This weekend we are all getting ready to finally close my birthday week on Sunday with a backyard brunch. I went to the farmers market this morning to buy eggs and 8 lbs. of potatoes! Yum!

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

Nick and I had an amazing start to birthday week!
We went to Sea View Saturday night, had a hearty breakfast of potatoes, sausage, and a poached egg salad.


After we cleaned up, we got in the car and made our way to Mendocino.
We stopped at Glass Beach, where the weather was gorgeous, warm and sunny. While admiring the beach we discovered our camera was broken so unfortunately, we are unable to show you how magical it was. From Glass Beach, we drove to Ricochet Ridge Ranch, where Nick treated me to a ten mile beach ride. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day, and part of the ride was through the forest where we were able to snatch blackberries as we rode by.
My horse was a retired race horse who was still very competitive and didn't like it when Nick's horse tried to walk in front of him. Throughout the whole ride I had the most ridiculous grin from ear to ear. I really felt wrapped in love, it was such a beautiful day, such an amazing experience, and such a special and thoughtful birthday gift. Experiences are so much better then things.
After our ride it was time for dinner, so we got a bite in Mendocino, and headed home. We had to stop twice on our way home, once to climb onto the roof of our car to admire all the stars we can't see living in town, and once to admire the giant orange moon low on the horizon. Perfection.
Yesterday, I was gearing up for today, cleaned the house a little and making a carrot birthday cake, sorry no pictures, but it was delicious,
(the recipe is adapted from Smitten Kitchen):
Carrot Cake:
2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ginger (I used fresh but you can use ground)
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups canola oil
4 large eggs
3 cups grated carrots
1 cups coarsely chopped walnuts
1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in medium bowl to blend.
Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in eggs. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in carrots, walnuts and raisins.

Butter and flour two 9-inch-diameter cake pans (I don't have any two cake pans that are the same size so I did a slightly smaller cake for the top layer). Divide the batter between the prepared pans, and bake the layers for about 40 minutes each, or until a tester inserted into center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans 15 minutes. Turn out onto racks. Cool cakes completely. And frost with cream cheese frosting.

Frosting:
16 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
Beat all the ingredients until fluffy. Chill the frosting for 10 to 20 minutes, until it has set up enough to spread smoothly.
I have frosting left over so I am going to fold in some whipped cream and use that to fill my birthday cream puffs!
I am feeling particularly blessed this birthday, thank you all for the love, support, and sweet wishes.
AND bear with us as we may have either very few or very crude pictures, until we figure out what is wrong with our camera, or we get a new one.

LOVE

Hot Child on the Birthday

It had been too hot to cook.
We went to the river with some figs and some salami, and ate at the farmers market, and took a lot of naps.
Now it has cooled off and I look forward to getting back in the kitchen.

My birthday is on Tuesday, and I am officially kicking it off tomorrow, and the celebration will last until September 6th!
Tomorrow Nick and I are off to spend the night at Sea View because he is taking my horseback riding on the beach in Mendocino on Sunday, and I am making a birthday carrot cake for our after ride snack.

Expect a slew of birthday related food posts, a week long indulgence!
Until then, eat well.