Loretta, I love you.  Not like they told you love is and I didn’t know this either, but love don’t make things nice – it ruins everything.  It breaks your heart, it makes things a mess.  We aren’t here to make things perfect.  The snowflakes are perfect.  The stars are perfect.  Not us. Not Us! We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and die.  The storybooks are bullshit.  Now I want you to come upstairs with me and get in my bed!

-Ronny “Moonstruck

Delicious Simplicity: Bacon, Brussels Sprouts and Dates

Bacon Brussels Sprouts and Dates

My affection for brussels sprouts is rich and deep. While simple roasted sprouts are probably my preferred preparation I’m always game to try a new take on the wee little cabbages. This recipe is inspired by a dish served at my company’s holiday dinner. After helping myself casually to two (and by that I mean more than one, definitely two and possibly three  four – but who was counting) I was taken by the way the flavors melt into each other but not before each ingredient’s signature flavor – bacon:umami, sprouts:bitter and dates:sweet – all make themselves known.  It was satiating in every sense of the word.  Continue Reading →

Here, There, Everywhere

 

I’ll admit, I’ve become a total sucker for lists – not listacles mind you, but thoughtful collections of links. Particularly now that I have so little free time to seek out and read the amount of content I once consumed I find lists posted regularly by some of my favorite sites to be an easy and satiating way to wade through the massive amount of material I encounter regularly.
So, in an effort to put out there a little of what I take in I’m going share my own weekly list of things I found inspiring, silly, interesting or random but necessary. Continue Reading →

An Introduction

It has been a long while since I last visited this space and while I have missed it I’m not going to use this post to apologize for my absence. Instead I’m going to introduce you to the reason I’ve been otherwise occupied.

Meet Finnick.

He arrived in July and has been pretty much the best baby a pair of new parents could have hoped for. He was a big guy from the start – we joked he would come out a toddler – which I think helped with all the big hurdles like eating, sleeping and, well, growing making it an easier transition for us form a family of two to a family of three. He is also the sweetest, giggliest and freakishly strong babies I’ve known so he is a lot of fun to hang out and be silly with, by far my current most favorite activity. Continue Reading →

The Comfort of Swedish Egg Kaka

Well, here we are, 2013. Our holidays were pretty low key- a trip back to the Twin Cities for some family time and rang in the new year with an epic brunch with friends. Now we’re easing our way into a new year, our only resolution being to start traditions for our new family. Why? Well, because our family of two will be a family of three in July. Which kinda explains the lack of posting for the last three months – lets just say the first three months were spent sleeping and existing largely on a diet of carbs and orange juice. Now that my body has adjusted I’ve found myself back in the kitchen and once again experimenting with new recipes. Continue Reading →

Adventures With Sourdough: Crumpets

Now that the wedding is over I have a bit more time on my hands so I’ve been setting up a few new culinary challenges for myself. First up is sourdough, specifically sourdough starters. When I was in culinary school I spent a lot of time caring for my little family of starters, there was a sturdy biga, a rye with a heavy flavor and a sourdough with a good bit of zip to it. When I left school I also left behind my starters, I was a pastry chef so  there was no need for me to maintain my starters if I wasn’t going to make breads regularly. I never really looked back, that is until lately when I’ve found myself wanting to tackle some heritage bread recipes that call for a stable sourdough starter. So a few weeks ago I began my starter using the method from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Bread Bible. After three weeks of feeding Chuck ~ yes I do believe you should name your starters, they develop their own character so they might as well get their own name ~he was finally healthy enough to start testing out his flavor and I remembered that making crumpets is a really good way to get a taste of a new starter and figure out what tweeks need to be made. Continue Reading →

Italian Plum Torte

This one is going to be a quicky, mostly because I’ve been cooking like a crazy person over the last few weeks and the recipes are starting to pile up which is only contributing to the crazy person status. So I figured I’d get this recipe out there since a friend of mine, who is lucky enough to have a plum tree in her backyard, was looking for the recipe. This one is I’ve thrown together whenever I have stone fruit that needs to be used up (it works beautifully with apricots and peaches) so if you ever find yourself in the same spot then give it a go.

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Kale Saute With Runny Yolks

One of the best wedding gifts we received was a four week membership to a local CSA. I really love the idea of a CSA not only because it is a fantastic way to eat local and support the local community but because the randomness of what you get is a great excuse to get creative in the kitchen. Last weekend’s CSA bag included sweet potatoes, onions, some beautiful garlic, mustard greens, apples, kale and a whole lotta jalapeños. A strange collection of foods to be sure but when combined with my desire not to go to the grocery store on Tuesday after work there was enough inspiration to pull together a pretty damn good dinner.

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If You Will Dare, I Will Dare

Yep, while I was busy not blogging I was back home marrying my best friend. The weekend couldn’t have been more perfect, my mister and I exchanged the vows that we slowly pieced together over the week leading up to the big day while surrounded (both literally and in spirit) by the friends and family that make up the community we so cherish. The amazing group of people who traveled from all over the world to join us in the back woods of Wisconsin for a weekend of whiffle ball, brats, late night swims, brats, cornhole, brats, dancing, brats, beirut, brats and relaxing represented the many groups of people Ry and I have been blessed to have gathered along the way – both as individuals and as a pair. They are the people who have been with us through thick and thin; the ones who stood by us through our awkward teen age phases, cheered us up after break ups, challenged us to epic game nights, joined us for “family dinners”, supported us during my Ernesto experience, waited on line with us to get in to the shows we absolutely couldn’t miss and have given us great advice and even greater memories. Our wedding weekend was as much a celebration of the official union of this community as it was the official union of us – and we wouldn’t have had it any other way.

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Non-traditional Szechuan Chicken

This is a recipe that has been sitting in my drafts for a while now. I just needed to get the right picture of the dish before I could post it – which requires time and that is something I find myself in scarce supply of lately. There are only two weeks left until Ry and I head back to the midwest for our wedding and there are lots of things that need to be done in that time. Ah, the glories of a DIY wedding. I really can’t complain though because we have the most incredible family and friends who are all contributing to make the three days of wedding celebration come together.

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