marinated beet salad with goat cheese and pistachios

i know a lot of people who say they hated beets as a kid but as an adult they are one of their favorite foods. i don't recall ever trying them as a kid - i know we didn't have 'em at home, and i don't remember them being on the cafeteria tray at school or anything. the only place i do remember seeing beets when i was growing up was at the salad bar, either sliced and chillin' in the liquid from the can they came from, or mixed into some kind of salad with wax beans. but since there were also chunks of ham and shredded cheddar and creamy pasta salads on the salad bar, i had no reason to give beets a second glance or thought. 

now, though, i go crazy for beets and their rich, earthy flavor with a hint of sweetness, their velvety texture, and their extremely saturated bull's-blood color (or deep cadmium yellow, or peppermint stripe). i love that they grow underground like buried treasure, i love that the greens are edible (the ones above were braised with onion, garlic, sherry vinegar, a little chicken stock, red pepper flakes and a teeny amount of maple syrup), and hey - i've got mad respect for anything that can hang out in a 400 degree oven for 2 hours before giving in the slightest little bit to a squeeze. 

this salad is from edible seattle's november/december 2011 issue. the beets are roasted (if there's a better way to have beets i certainly don't know what it is) and marinate overnight in a light dressing with slices of onion. the salad is finished simply with toasted pistachios and a bit of creamy goat cheese. the result is a beautiful beet experience. this is my current favorite beet dish.

here's the recipe as it was printed in edible seattle, with the one change of using toasted pistachios rather than buying raw and roasting at home. adjust the portions based on your amount of beets.

Bietola Marinata 
recipe courtesy Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria
8 servings| start to finish: 1 day
from Edible Seattle November/December 2011

5 lbs. beets (any will do, but a mix of red, golden and Chioggia if possible)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
Juice of half of a lemon
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium red onion, julienned (i used sweet onion)

4 ounces toasted pistachios

8 ounces chevre

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put beets in a single layer in a large roasting pan or pans, without overcrowding. drizzle with the olive oil and shake pan to cover beets with oil.  sprinkle with salt, cover pan with aluminum foil and roast 1-2 hours depending on the size of the beets, until tender. when the beets are softened enough to be squeezable, remove from oven and allow to cool until they can be handled. remove peels - they should slip right off.  cut them into 1/2” dice and place in a  bowl. toss in the julienned onions and set aside at room temperature.

for the dressing, combine the vinegar, lemon juice and sea salt in a small bowl. slowly drizzle the olive oil into the mixture, whisking as you pour. (i've gotten in the habit of putting all of my dressing ingredients in a jar with a tight fitting lid and shaking the bejeezus out of it to combine.)

drizzle the dressing over the beets and onions and toss. check the seasoning. Cover and marinate the beets and onions overnight in the refrigerator.

bring beets to room temperature in order for the olive oil to liquefy again. toss the mixture one more time, check for seasoning and divide the beets on serving plates. garnish each portion with 1/2 ounce pistachios and 1 ounce of goat cheese. serve.


sources:

beets from stoney plains farm

onion from willie green's organic farm

goat's milk cheese for dinner: finally, a sign of spring!

this spring has been terrible. it's been the coldest spring in seattle on record, and as a result, spring crops are painfully slow coming in from local farms. we've been cooking soups and stews from ingredients in the freezer, waiting, waiting, for asparagus, spring peas, fennel--anything to make it seem like seattle spring really is different from seattle winter. eventually, i ran out of meats in the freezer, so on a relatively dry saturday we headed out to the u district farmers market for some ground beef so we could continue on with our maddeningly snores-ville diet of chili.

but guess what? goat's milk has its highest fat content in spring, during kidding season, and that makes for some pretty decadent fresh cheese. so when we saw the port madison goat farm and dairy booth, we thought, oh yes--cheese plate dinner.

we brought home two amazing cheeses from port madison--a fresh chevre and their short-season spring cheese. the chevre was bright white, incredibly creamy, and had a barely-there texture. the flavor was wonderful, and relatively mild. the spring cheese is a goat's milk cheese that is aged two months, with a great springy texture (its name seems to describe it in two ways) and a fantastic mild goat flavor. the spring cheese can only be made during the first couple of months of the milking season, so spring and early summer are the times to look for this one.

also on our plate were honey hazelnut crackers from beecher's in pike place market, stewed dried apricots from pipitone farm, hazelnuts from holmquist (because they are THE BEST), and vanilla rhubarb preserves. by combining cracker, cheese, and fruit, we quickly made a welcomed observation--each bite tasted like cheesecake!

super simple stewed dried apricots below, from deborah madison's book, seasonal fruit desserts. this is a truly stunning book, and anyone into fruit or dessert should have this on their shelves.

dried apricots stewed with vanilla and honey
adapted from compote of dried fruit, seasonal fruit desserts by deborah madison

3/4 cup honey
1/2 vanilla bean, or substitute high-quality vanilla extract
2 cups dried apricots, or mix of dried fruits
3 cups water

combine water and honey in saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring. scrape vanilla bean seeds into pan and add pod, or add vanilla extract. add fruit, reduce heat to low, and cook until apricots are soft, about 10-15 minutes. (could be longer if using mixed fruit.)

when fruit is cooked, remove from the pan with a spoon, leaving the syrup in the pan. simmer syrup for a few minutes to thicken, then pour over fruit.

our new favorite pecan pie

i've never been much of a dessert person. fat, salt-- these are my cravings, but sugar? not so much. that said, there are some occasions that demand dessert, and christmas is definitely one of those. 

i went to georgia to visit my family a little early  this year, and since i wasn't going to be there over the 25th, we rescheduled "christmas" for a couple of days before. it was great. we had a totally low-key potluck, featuring my dad's smoked turkey, my brother's mac & cheese (mac & cheese is a requirement of all family get-togethers, no matter the occasion), aunt jane's amazing zipper peas and creamed spinach (i'll post about this soon!), and i contributed a pie. a pecan pie. because christmas cries out for pecan pie, and because i love it. 

i followed a recipe from the final issue of gourmet from november, 2009. they, of course, made their own crust, but i didn't bother because 1) i don't bake, and 2) it's christmas-- i don't want to spend it in the kitchen, i want to stay in pjs all day long and watch football with my dad! besides, the whole thing is basically corn syrup-- why not pile a little partially hydrogenated lard on top of it, eh?

the pie was amazing. aunt jane declared it the best she's ever had. dad told us a couple of times that he doesn't even like pecan pie, but that he really liked this one. he requested i make another one before i left for seattle. aunt jane wouldn't leave the house without the recipe, and was telling her neighbor about it a couple of days later. i made the pie again as soon as we arrived back home in seattle because, yeah, it's that good. 

the magic comes from the light corn syrup and light brown sugar, so it avoids the heavy, molasses-y experience that comes from their dark counterparts. add to that the best pecans you can get your hands on (hooray for georgia pecans!) and a hint of orange zest, and you've got a really spectacular pie with very little effort.

now, i have had two friends make either this pie or add orange zest to another pecan pie recipe and report mixed results. fair enough-- holidays are personal, and we all have expectations about holiday meals. i'm just saying, WE think this pie RULES. 

dad and aunt jane's favorite pecan pie

from old fashioned pean pie, gourmet, november 2009

3/4 stick butter (i used salted)

1 1/4 cups light brown sugar (i actually used a little less)

3/4 cup light corn syrup

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp grated orange zest, orange part only

1/4 tsp salt (if you are using UNsalted butter)

3 large eggs

2 cups pecans, half of them chopped

1 deep dish pie shell

preheat oven to 350 degrees.

melt butter in heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. add brown sugar and stir/whisk well until smooth.  remove from heat and add corn syrup, vanilla, orange zest, and salt (is using), stirring well to combine. allow to cool briefly (adding the eggs to hot syrup will cause them to cook). lightly beat the eggs and add to the syrup mixture, mixing to thoroughly combine. 

put pecans in pie shell and pour syrup/egg mixture over pecans. bake on a baking sheet until filling is set, 45 minutes to an hour. 

delicious salad and a fruity side built from what was in the fridge

you know what it's like. you're pumping away on the exercise bike, watching an episode of "the office" on the ipad, and going over the list in your head of produce that will go bad if you don't act fast. this time, the scene lead to two successful side dishes-- the watercress and pear from the ravioli dish i never made were split up and turned into a salad using fennel leftover from the pickled fall veggies, and a zingy side of pear and roasted beets with apple-mustard vinaigrette. 

this salad is out of this world. spicy watercress and cool fennel take on a vinaigrette sweetened by dried cranberries, and are perfectly complimented by nutty, toasted pecans. absolutely delicious, quick, and special enough to serve to guests or for the holidays. 

fennel and watercress salad with cranberry vinaigrette 

adapted from allrecipes.com

1/8 cup balsamic vinegar

1/8 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup olive oil

1 bunch watercress

1 fennel bulb

1/2 cup pecan halves, toasted

mix the two vinegars in a bowl and add the cranberries. let the cranberries soak for about a half an hour, then whisk in the salt and olive oil.

shave the fennel bulb into thin slices using a mandoline. combine watercress with fennel, toss with some of the cranberry vinaigrette, and top with toasted pecans.

this pear and roasted beet combo is really nice and is a great way to sneak some fruit into your diet. (somehow, i love to buy fruit, but when i get it home the appeal vanishes. so i kinda *have* to trick myself from time to time.) the oil-free dressing using apple jelly and mustard would be wonderful on just about anything, i've decided. and, bonus, the pears turn PINK!

asian pear with roasted beets and apple jelly-mustard vinaigrette

adapted from beet and asian pear salad, gourmet, january 1995

1 bunch small beets

1 asian pear

2 Tbsp apple jelly (we used a cinnamony apple cider jelly-- sooo good)

4 tsp white balsamic vinegar

1 tsp dijon mustard

preheat oven to 400 degrees. remove the beet greens (save these to saute in olive oil or toss in a casserole or soup!), scrub the beets, and wrap them in heavy-duty aluminum foil. roast them on a cookie sheet or baking dish until they are tender. this takes FOREVER. allow more than an hour, even for small beets. when beets cooked, allow to cool and slip the skins off. slice thin using a mandoline or knife. 

peel the pear and cut into chunks.

to make the dressing, heat the jelly, balsamic, and mustard over low heat in a tiny saucepan until jelly is melted. combine with pear and beets and serve. 

sources:

pear from rockridge orchards

beets from alm hill gardens

fennel from willie greens organic farm

georgia pecans from my wildly awesome aunt jane!

pork, fruit, and wine mix-and-match

you know that feeling when you find a recipe that, no question, you know you're going to love? the comforting feeling that sure, it won't be high-adventure, but it also won't let you down? that's how i felt when i opened up edible seattle's fall 2008 issue for the first time and saw the recipe for pear and hazelnut stuffed pork tenderloin with sour cherry syrah sauce from PCC printed on the inside cover. 

as is so often the case, i made substitutions to the original recipe. this time, more than usual. it's almost comical. i didn't have pork tenderloin, so figured i would stuff some pork chops. my pear had languished too long in the fruit bowl, so i changed it out for an apple. for the sauce, i had some merlot already open, and while i thought i grabbed the dried cherries jar, it was, instead, the dried cranberries jar. i got the hazelnuts in there, though...

so, if you want to make pear and hazelnut stuffed pork tenderloin with sour cherry syrah sauce, click here. if you want to make apple and hazelnut stuffed pork chops with cranberry merlot sauce, read on...

apple and hazelnut stuffed pork chops with cranberry merlot sauce

for chops:

1 Tbsp butter

1 apple, peeled, cored, and chopped

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1 Tbsp maple syrup

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

pinch ground clove

1/3 cup roasted hazelnuts

salt and pepper

olive oil

2 pork chops, at least 1" thick

for sauce:

1/2 cup homemade chicken stock, or low sodium

1/2 cup merlot (or whatever's open)

1 Tbsp maple syrup

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1 Tbsp cold butter

salt and pepper

melt the butter in a saucepan and add apple, cranberries, syrup, balsamic, clove, and nuts and  cook until the apples begin to caramelize, and the liquid is reduced. season with salt and pepper. remove to food processor and give mixture a rough chop. (can be done ahead.)

season chops with salt and pepper. cut a slit in the side of the chops, as deep as possible, taking care to not cut all the way through. open up pocket and stuff with the apple and hazelnut mixture. tie butchers string around chops to secure filling. (maybe not a necessary step, but i had string, so i went for it.)

heat oil to medium in a heavy skillet. add chops and sear both sides until golden. lower heat slightly and continue to cook until meat thermometer registers 155 degrees, turning a few times as needed. (or, transfer to roasting pan and cook in 400 degree oven until meat thermometer registers 155 degrees, about 7-9 minutes, depending on thickness of the meat.) juices should run clear.

remove chops to plate and cover with foil. return pan to medium heat. deglaze by adding chicken stock and wine to pan drippings, scraping up any browned bits stuck to the bottom. add syrup and cranberries and cook, stirring, as it thickens and reduces by about half. remove from heat and stir in the cold butter, season with salt and pepper.

serve pork chops topped with sauce.

sources:

pork chops-- skagit river ranch 

apples-- high meadow orchards

roasted hazelnuts-- holmquist hazelnut orchards 

french onion soup and a salad for all seasons

last thursday was soup and salad night. the soup was french onion, about which i promised to report since i was making it with my first batch of homemade beef stock. i'm happy to say it was wonderful! i followed this recipe from gourmet, december 2006, cooking the onions for about an hour and 15 minutes until they were amber colored and super creamy. topped with a cave-aged gruyere (oh my gawd, we love cave-aged gruyere so desperately!) and left off the parmesan, but only because i forgot about it... 


i admit i was a little nervous about this soup since it's success, best i can tell, depends on a well-flavored stock. thankfully, the flavor was there! it also felt good to know i was taking in all those minerals coaxed out of healthy, grass-fed bones. just got more bones from skagit river ranch-- 2 lbs for 3 bucks will make over $20 worth of stock!

now to the salad. it was another PCC natural markets recipe, warm roasted root vegetable salad with hazelnuts, chevre, and aged balsamic. the recipe calls for carrot, parsnip, turnip, beet, and yam on salad greens. i used carrot, parsnip, butternut squash, asian pear, and baby shallots on winter spinach. the pear was an experiment, but it roasted right up and caramelized like a champion. 

it wasn't until we were in the middle of dinner that i realized this salad was the wintry doppelganger to my grilled summer vegetable salad with goat cheese crostini! what can i say-- i like what i like! i'm already thinking of a spring version-- asparagus, radish and green onion, anyone?


recipes again:
french onion soup, gourmet dec. 2006 
warm roasted root vegetable salad with hazelnuts, chevre, and aged balsamic 

acorn squash ravioli with orange-balsamic sauce

christmas '06 was spent with my cousin's family in florida. aunts, uncles, sisters, cousins and kids all descended on her home on florida's gulf coast. it was the first time our family had experienced a destination holiday and for a person of inferior temperamental fortitude the pressure could have caused an ulcer. i mean, hosting christmas is a big deal, right?

just before christmas dinner, my cousin, our hostess, pulled a beautiful bronze turkey out of the oven and moved it to a glass platter which, tragically, had been placed on the stove on a burner that was hot. when she picked up the platter to bring it to the table it shattered, and that gorgeous bird thudded to the floor in a pile of broken glass. she looked at it, stunned, for approximately 3 seconds then called to her daughter, "go get the camera!"

i wish i had her attitude in the kitchen. truly. but most of the time, i do not. where she saw family-christmas history in the making and requested it be documented, i would have walked straight out the door and tossed myself off a bridge.

our friend tristan came to visit recently and wanted to spend one evening making ravioli. he'd brought 4 darling little acorn squash from his garden which we determined would make a sublime ravioli filling. i searched around and decided on this recipe from elliemay.com, primarily because it featured an orange and balsamic sauce. (i like sauce!)

i started on dinner and began to notice that the process was not going exactly as i'd pictured it. the dough was sticky and squirrelly, there seemed to be entirely too little filling-- it wasn't long before these worries became audible as i started muttering. "the dough isn't right..." "we're going to run out of squash..."

rob, tristan, and our other dinner guest were busily chatting away in the kitchen but would periodically hear my mutterings and interject with a casual and light rebuttal. "mmm, this looks great." "that's plenty of filling-- you know, in restaurants you get 4 giant raviolis with, like, a teaspoon each of filling in them." "nuh-uh, these nuts aren't overtoasted-- they're just right!" i decided the path of least resistance was to take their word for it, and so i soldiered on. tris jumped in to help put the ravs together, then i cooked and served. and you know what? they were right. there was just enough filling, the dough was great, and the nuts were exactly what the dish needed. it was delicious. it was, in fact, so good that i made it again the next week.

so, as a tribute to people everywhere who keep their cool in the kitchen, and to those who help me keep mine, i bring you acorn squash ravioli with orange-balsamic sauce.

acorn squash ravioli with pecans and orange-balsamic sauce

from winter squash ravioli at elliemay.com

serves 2

for ravioli:

1 batch fresh pasta dough (williams sonoma recipe here)

1/2 acorn squash, halved, seeds removed (or other winter squash)

olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

pinch nutmeg

2 to 3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans (or other nut)

for sauce:

juice from 1 orange

1 Tbsp brown sugar

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp butter

rub squash with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. bake at 375 degrees, cut-side down, until soft, 45-60 minutes.

cool squash and scoop out flesh. heat olive oil over medium heat in a saute pan and cook garlic just until fragrant, 1 minute or so. add squash to pan and cook, stirring, until the squash dries out a bit, about 10 minutes. remove from heat and stir in parmesan, pecans, nutmeg, and season with salt and pepper. let cool.

roll dough out into sheets (lowest setting on the pasta machine, if using one) and allow to dry out for about 15 minutes. cut the sheets into lengths twice the size of the finished ravioli. as in, for a 3x3" ravioli, cut dough to about 3x6". add 1-2 teaspoons of filling to one end of the dough strip. moisten edges with your finger dipped in water, and fold the dough over the filling, matching up the edges. press with the tines of a fork to seal and make cute little ruffles. (tristan showed me this trick!)

(the fold-over is my latest fill-em-up method because i find it easy, but you should obviously do whatever you want. cookie cutter, ravioli mold, rim of a glass, full sheets...)

place finished raviolis on a sheet of well-floured parchment paper and don't let them touch each other or they will stick together. (lesson learned.)

to make the sauce, combine the orange juice, brown sugar and balsamic and simmer until slightly reduced. remove from heat and stir in butter.

cook the raviolis in small batches (again, get too many in the pot and they will stick together) in a large pot of boiling salted water. they will float to the surface when ready, about 3 to 4 minutes.

serve with the sauce and garnish with fresh sage leaves.

poached pear and bleu cheese salad with pear vinaigrette

it's funny how much the inventory at the farmers market changes in just a few short fall weeks. heirloom tomatoes, sweet corn, and zucchini give way to storage potatoes, variegated maize, and butternut squash. one of the fall stand-outs for me lately has been the pears. they are beautiful and plentiful and i can basically eat my way through the market by happily accepting samples from farmers showcasing the many varieties and flavors offered in the pears they've grown. i never know what i'm going to do with them when i make the purchase, but somehow i can't leave the market these last couple of weeks without an armful.

the first use for a pear was to slice it into a salad. pear on salad is wonderful, but i was certain the idea could be jazzed up a bit. my recipe search turned up one from chef albert breuers for a poached pear and bleu cheese salad with pear vinaigrette. i love poached pear, but had only had it as a dessert. this recipe was a delicious eye-opener.

(i followed the recipe almost exactly, though made a few minor substitutions and changed amounts to make a salad for 2.)

poached pear and bleu cheese salad with pear vinaigrette

from chef albert bruers, old guard house inn

for poached pears:

2 pears, any variety, peeled with stem left intact

3/4 cup white wine

1 1/2 cups water

1 Tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp good quality vanilla extract

1 3-inch section lemon peel, yellow part only

1 3-inch section orange peel, orange part only

1 cinnamon stick

add all ingredients to small stockpot and bring to a boil. (may need to add more wine and water if the pears are not covered by the cooking liquid, or, as i did, turn them over a few times during the cooking.) reduce heat and simmer 20-25 minutes, then remove from heat and cool. reserve poaching liquid for vinaigrette.

for vinaigrette:

1 poached pear

1/8 cup olive oil

1/8 cup red wine vinegar

1/8 cup poaching liquid from the pears

salt and pepper to taste

remove stem and seeds from poached pear and puree in blender or food processor. add to bowl with vinegar and poaching liquid and add oil slowly in a stream while whisking to emulsify. taste and season with salt and pepper. (can be refrigerated up to 1 week.)

for salad:

lettuce of your choosing (i used a salad mix of red and green lettuces, chard, arugula)

pear viniagrette (recipe above)

2 ounces crumbled bleu cheese (i prefer oregon rogue river blue)

1/2 cup pecans, toasted

1 poached pear (recipe above)

mix salad greens with vinaigrette, top with 1/2 poached pear, cheese, and toasted pecans.

this salad is flawless. the pear and vinaigrette are just sweet enough, the nuts and cheese balance them perfectly, and it's a smart way to sneak more fruit into your diet by having pureed pear in the dressing. i even saved the leftover poaching liquid and simmered it on the stove for a little while the next day. it made the house smell like pear-vanilla heaven, and if i'd taken it off the stove in time it would have been a perfect syrup over something yummy-- ice cream?

from one peanut farmer to another...

one of my favorite things about where i grew up is that jimmy and rosalynn carter grew up there too. i believe them to be two of history's genuine heros and i am proud to be a product of the south georgia county that helped make them the great part-of-the-solution they both are. i was 3 when carter was elected and 6 when he left office, so my first awareness of the president and first lady was also of two people from 10 miles down the road. how cool is that?

rob and i went in june to my hometown so he could meet my family and see the somewhat fascinating little place i'd come from. we toured plains, home of jimmy and rosalynn, and also visited carter's boyhood farm in nearby archery. (incidentally, if you live in the area and haven't been to the farm, GO. it's incredibly well done. but don't go in june during a mind-numbing heat wave like we did...) there's a little shop of curiosities in downtown plains which sells buttons from carter's 1976 presidential campaign. they were evidently found in the upstairs of one of the old buildings used as campaign HQ. i bought one and stuck it on my grocery-carrying backpack and started calling the pack "jimmy."

i rarely leave the house without jimmy. we go everywhere together-- farmers markets, grocery stores, the corner cafe a couple of blocks away... one day i was loading jimmy up with about 10 pounds of corn at the farmers market when the guy working the alvarez farms booth commented that he liked my button. i responded as i always do, by standing up tall and saying brightly, "he's from my home county!" smiling, the guy reached into a box by his feet and pulled up a giant bunch of raw peanuts grown on his farm, a reminder that jimmy carter and peanuts are inextricably linked. but seeing those dusty legumes also triggered a salty southern food memory i had been in danger of forgetting-- boiled peanuts!

i love boiled peanuts (pronounced "bawld" if you're into authenticity). they are salty, earthy goodness, and some of the ones with the thicker shells even get kinda sweet. i looked around online to see if i could uncover how boiling peanuts became a southern tradition and found several references to them having been a high-protein ration for confederate soldiers towards the end of the civil war when bread and meat were scarce. now you find them at rural roadside stands with the words "boiLed P-nuTs" spray painted on tattered plywood signs. (that's how you know they're good.)

my family's annual boiled peanuts experience would begin with my dad pulling in the driveway with the bed of the truck filled with nuts still on the plant. he'd wash 'em, boil 'em half the day, and freeze 'em to be eaten throughout football season. my operation was on a much smaller scale-- since i'd never made them before, i started with one pound and an email to dad for instructions.

boiled peanuts

1 lb raw (aka green) peanuts (NOT roasted or otherwise cooked or processed)

1/2 cup salt

lots of water

big ol' pot

wash peanuts thoroughly. throw 'em in a pot with the salt and lots of water. bring to a low rolling boil, cover and cook roughly 4 hours. taste at 3 hours and add more salt if necessary. they should come out of the shell easily, and the texture should be like an undercooked pinto bean. enjoy.

i'm planning to make more and freeze them for when i have moments of missing home. it's fun for me to bring the south into my seattle kitchen, which is good since i don't really have a choice. even working on this post i looked around the desk and realized i was eating boiled peanuts and drinking sweet tea from a mason jar. i'm not kidding. there's no mistaking where this girl comes from.

psst! hey angela! your heritage is showing...

dueling anniversaries

this day last year was the first anniversary of the day rob and i met. the one-whole-year mark was a big deal, and naturally we wanted to do something nice to celebrate together. however, we, uh, lacked funds. okay fine, we were pockets-turned-out broke. thankfully, i have quite a bit of experience in this area. you don't work for non-profit salaries for a decade without learning a few tricks for gracefully getting through frequent periods of pennilessness.

so, we scrapped our dreams of heading to ashland for the weekend and prepared for a nice dinner at home. we thawed some pork chops i'd squirreled away a few months earlier, picked up a couple of pieces of produce, and had a wonderful dinner of pork chops with plum and ginger sauce, roasted butternut squash, brussels sprouts, and french onion soup. we opened a bottle of wine from steppe cellars we'd purchased on a trip to yakima valley that summer. rob lit a candle and folded the napkins all fancy-like. together we enjoyed our anniversary dinner in his 3rd floor condo overlooking the changing leaves on the edge of portland's pearl district. it was perfect, and i would not have changed a thing.

a few days ago i decided to recreate that meal. not only was it a delicious nod to our upcoming two-whole-years milestone, this meal is also a way to get reacquainted with fall flavors.

i followed a recipe from gourmet magazine (which i just learned today is shutting down after 70 years! nooo!) for the pork chops, and a recipe from bon appetit for the soup. the squash was just cubed and roasted in olive oil, salt and pepper, and since brussels sprouts aren't available just yet, i made some simple sauteed green beans with toasted pecans.

pork chops with gingered plum sauce, gourmet 1997 (note-- the recipe gives a cooking time of 50 minutes which is about twice as long as they need!)

french onion soup, bon appetit may 1991 (great recipe, but i think i'm going to shop around for another. though really, you can't go wrong with french onion soup...)

green beans with toasted pecans

(serves 2)

2 handfuls skinny green beans, washed and trimmed

1/4 cup pecan pieces

unsalted butter

olive oil

balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper

saute the beans in olive oil and butter over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, until still bright green and crisp but beginning to cook through. add chopped pecans to pan and continue cooking just a few minutes, allowing the nuts to toast. add a splash of balsamic vinegar and cook 30 seconds longer. season with salt and pepper, and serve warm or room temperature.

mmmm... pork chops simmered in fruit makes me so happy...

tonight we will celebrate our two years together, and a future of not going out with jerks and losers anymore, by having what promises to be an unreasonably amazing dinner at a celebrated seattle restaurant called canlis. i'm trying not to spend my day just reading their menu in anticipation, but it's hard. i can't wait to see what they do with some of the same ingredients i bring home from the saturday and sunday farmers markets! we're excited. rob's wearing a suit. and, check it out-- i'm gonna wear makeup. it's going to be amazing, but i have to admit that pork chops from the freezer and fancy folded napkins will always have top billing for me in our cast of memories. there's no way to improve upon a celebration stripped of glamor and glitter, down to what's important.