i’ve been completely enthralled with my current book. setting aside stacks of quick fiction and girly rom-com books, it was time to actually absorb something beneficial from all my reading i’ve been doing lately (wil works a lot of nights!). this book floated around the back of my mind when a good friend was reading it a couple years back, so when i saw a client walk into the salon with that in hand a few weeks ago, i knew the time was now to pick it up.

fulfilling the portlander in me, i of course needed to stop wasting time and get a library card. our library system is the oldest on this side of the mississippi, and as of last year, it ranked number one highest in annual circulation of items being checked out and renewed. wow!

it took a week or two of waiting for someone to return their copy, and then to be transferred to the location of my choice (how convenient!)…but i am about a third of the way into animal, vegetable, miracle, by barbara kingsolver. her family, after moving from barren tucson to the lush appalachians, decide to embark on a year of living truly within their own land and community. if they can’t grow it, raise it, or get it from a farmer they know in their community, they don’t eat it. it may seem drastic to our convenient, exotic, fuel-based diet of today, but it’s refreshing to know that it’s not some crazy new idea, but what this country, let alone the entire planet, has spent most of history doing.

i know the concept of living on a piece of land to have a vegetable garden, and maybe an animal or two is a romantic ‘someday’ dream for me and wil. this book just makes me wish i could jump into their life right now…step into their muddy boots in the garden. it also is just a great reminder of the seasonality of foods. if you’re eating a watermelon in april, that means it came from somewhere that was hot enough in january to seed…meaning it probably was shipped from continents away.*

it’s probably a bit of mental retraining to buy and eat what is in season at the moment…but the item will be much more enjoyable at it’s peak of harvest anyways. and right now, of course is tomatoes. hallelujah, tomatoes! and boy are they great right now. stopping by a small farmers market nearby work on my way home on wednesday, i picked up a big juicy green and red splotched heirloom tomato. while so good just sliced and drizzled with balsamic, oil and basil, i had big plans for my tomato.

i love david lebovitz’s commentary on french life and cooking…another book on my list is his sweet life in paris. i decided to go with his french tomato tart. being without a tart pan, and recently being introduced to how ridiculously fabulous galette’s are, i did a free-form pan-less variation. i didn’t modify the recipe much…only using small chunks of fontina instead of goat cheese, just to let the tomatoes stand in the spotlight.

david lebovitz french tomato tart

* (paraphrased from pg 65)

i’m fairly convinced popcorn has some magic qualities. cities rise and fall because of popcorn. ok, maybe not quite that magic, but there’s something about girlie movie nights with a bottle of wine and a big bowl of popcorn nestled in the middle of the couch. or late night poker with mixed drinks and again, a big bowl passed around the table. or just those nights where you don’t want to cook anything for dinner and sit on the couch with a big bowl just by yourself.

tonight was just that for me. i’ve got a lot of evenings to myself as wil conquers the culinary world at work… and while i start out with great intentions in the early evening to conquer the homefront, most of the time the chores get thrown to the side, and instead i grab my book or get the instant netflix going. and any hopes of cooking a real dinner for one also fall on the floor along with the mental checklist, blown around with the tufts of dog hair in the corners.

after having more than one conversation with my mom about her new favorite way to make popcorn, i finally tried it, and upon first taste, was kicking myself for taking so darn long to make it! so many bowls of plain popcorn that were missed opportunities…

so here’s for the next time you feel the need to spruce up your movie or game night.

brown butter & rosemary popcorn
enough for one greedy person, or for two to happily share

1/2 cup corn kernels
2-4* tablespoons butter
1-2* tablespoons chopped rosemary
kosher or sea salt

pop corn, either in air popper, or in a couple tablespoons of oil in a skillet.

while popcorn pops, melt butter in a shallow pan, and slightly simmer until it begins to brown. it will start to smell nutty and delightful! don’t be afraid to let it get fairly brown, but be careful- the transition to burnt butter is quick if you’re not watching it. take off heat and toss rosemary into butter and something fabulous happens: the rosemary will kind of sizzle and pop, crisping up nicely.

pour over the popcorn, tossing and stirring to evenly coat, and finish with salt.

*the range of amounts is for you to gauge how heavily buttered you like your popcorn. i tend to lean towards the lighter side.

-sleeping in my old room…it still feels like my room with the same green walls, old quotes painted on the ceiling, and some trinkets and pictures, but the furniture is updated and more ‘guest room’ friendly. in other words- an awesome king size bed. somehow, with being the only ones without kids at the holidays, wil and i luck out by still getting my room, and we love the king bed!

-homemade ice cream…mom always has a batch of homemade ice cream in the deep freeze out in the garage. if my dad didn’t have a crazy metabolism (that i was lucky to get in my genes), he’d weigh so much more from homemade ice cream every night. vanilla is her standard, but ever so often there will be a fruit, coffee, or mint chip in the mix.

-free food…every college student enjoys going home to get free homecooked meals, but when i say free food, it usually means free groceries. i always walk away with fresh herbs cut from her pots, some meats she bought and froze way long ago to even remember, and some produce here and there if they plan to leave for a trip after my visit.

this past visit, those benefits became a beautiful collision. i followed mom around the house while she updated me on things she bought, plants she’s growing, etc, while i carried in hand a bowl of mint chip ice cream on the ‘tour’. i had to stop and tell her just how good this batch of mint chip was. i couldn’t figure out why that would be funny, but she immediately started laughing at the compliment.

to make a long story short…she harvested a ton of mint at our family cabin, stuffed it into a couple jars with vodka and let it sit in the sun for a month. but by the time it was done ‘fermenting’ into extract, she thought it seemed weird and threw a good portion of it out, leaving herself just one bottle for the heck of it. while making  this recent batch of mint ice cream, she ran out of the store bought mint extract, and warily used her homemade version instead. well, she laughed because it ended up being the best batch of mint chip ice cream…my dad had already separately raved about it a few days before i was ever there.

so how did i luck out? i got this fabulous idea from mom, and then i got to ransack her planter of fresh mint to go home and make my own. i’m not as ambitious of an ice cream maker as my mom, so i did a small batch. but i think it could also be fun for mixed drinks or chocolate desserts. and while doing our usual mom-daughter routine for the latest fashion deals at ross the next day, we came across a vanilla extract set…bottle and beans ready, so we just had to get that too. i might need to do a results post on both extracts in a month or so!

mint extract
she initially googled and came across this quick how-to

ratio: 1 pound of peppermint or spearmint leaves to 1 quart sized jar filled with a decent vodka. my jar was about 12 fluid ounces (1.5 cups), and i had about 3 or 4 ounces of mint (one big bunch). i’m guessing/hopeful it’s one of those things that’s pretty forgiving; it might not go ‘wrong’, but maybe just be weaker or take longer to achieve the right flavor.

wash & dry mint. pull leaves off stem, crush and bruise- i just gave them some good squeezes and slight wringing, and my hands smelled heavenly! stuff leaves into jar, pour vodka over leaves to fill.

place in sun for 3-4 weeks. strain with a new cheese cloth into desired jar or bottle.

vanilla extract
2-3 beans, sliced in half lengthwise
12ish ounces vodka

store in dark cool space for 4-6 weeks

you can choose to leave beans in jar, begin to use, and then continually ‘top off’ with vodka, or you could pull the beans out and make vanilla infused sugar by placing them submerged in a container of sugar for a month or two! no need to strain, but be sure to shake the bottle before use to distribute the vanilla that settles to the bottom.

wanting to shy away from the usual girly or fluffy side of showers (don’t get me wrong, i love that too), we threw around some ideas. picnic on the lawn! asian take out! we mushed the two together and had a great little soiree with sushi, spring rolls, thai peanut chicken salad and even homemade fortune cookies with serious and silly questions about bethany and luke, for her to answer for us all. i don’t think we got her cheeks to actually blush, but there were definitely a few answers of “well…that part’s just a little fuzzy…!”

it was a perfect afternoon with lanterns hanging in the trees, oriental fabrics and pillows strewn across the grass, and koi fish happily swimming alongside us in the nearby pond.

the menu was light and simple, being in the odd hours between lunch and dinner, but everyone was well fed. i thought i’d share the easy how to for the spring rolls…there were just too good. crunchy, fresh and with a simple soy dipping sauce, you felt like you could inhale 3 or 4 or more, without feeling bad! and even my mom, cook extraordinaire, didn’t realize how easy they were to make.

salad spring rolls
miss laura degraw initially made these on an impromptu ‘asian’ night with us and wil’s school friends.
12–14 rolls

2 to 3 large carrots, peeled and sliced julienne
bunch of cilantro
1 large cucumber, thinly sliced
1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced
bean sprouts (no more than a 12oz bag)
3-4 green onions, mostly just the green part sliced lengthwise, yielding long strips the length of the roll
*bell pepper, sliced julienne (this is not original, but as i type i thought it might be a good addition, including some interesting color to the mix)
spring roll wrappers (in most grocers, just in the international section)

with a bowl or pie dish of water nearby, dunk the stiff wrapper into the water, letting it fully coat both sides, but don’t let it sit. it will absorb and soften quickly by the time you’re rolling in the ingredients.

lay the wet wrapper on a work surface, and fill the center with a handful of each ingredient… about a third of a cup. keep the fillings linear- thus the julianne- rather than one big mound in the middle. because the wrapper is semi-clear, i laid a few leaves of cilantro down first, than 3 round slices of cucumber on top… and then the chopped stuff all on top of that. kind of gave a pretty pressed flower look to the outside/top once rolled.

roll the edge nearest you over the fillings, turn the sides in, and then roll to close. the paper should stick to itself, but if it’s heavily filled, you’ll need to keep pressure on it while you roll and at any seams until it’s wrapped. try and keep it tight, although the paper will shrink a little. either serve immediately (your preference to cut in half), or store in an airtight container lined with wet paper towels in the fridge, to keep the wrapper from drying out. we made them the night before and they were still crunchy and fresh the next afternoon!

and this is our go-to dipping sauce. enjoy!

our tastes continually change the more our eyes are opened to ingredients we’ve never seen before, never used to like, or just never paid much attention to. just like our newfound love of asparagus, figs have become gold in this household.

as a kid i used to love fig newtons. but i knew nothing about the fruit, and to me they were just cookies that seemed healthy since they had ‘fruit’ in them. i probably couldn’t have recognized a fig in a basket of fruit, nor would i have realized how beautiful their flesh is or how great they taste, both savory and sweet.

wil came home with two crates of figs. very sad figs, most of them bruised and beaten and ready to be put to rest, as the first yield of their season is nearing an end, until fall. what a perfect opportunity to utilize them in a way that allows us to enjoy the fig flavor over time…jam! and lucky you, dear reader, you get a second recipe…feeling ambitious, i made a batch of homemade fig newtons as well.

fig jam
adapted from here; more like a chutney if we want to be particular.

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 lb. figs (about 12-14 figs)
1 cinnamon stick
2 two inch slices of lemon peel, both pierced with 2 whole cloves each (otherwise you wouldn’t be able to find the cloves once cooked)
1/2 lemon juiced (my lemon was very sad, so i added some orange juice to get a decent amount)

dissolve water and sugar together in a saucepot over medium heat.

remove the stems from the figs and cut into quarters*. add figs and rest of ingredients into pot once your water/sugar syrup is clear. bring to a simmer, and continue simmering over low heat (uncovered) for about 1 hour or until thickened. remove from heat and cool. store in jar or container, and refrigerate.

*i cut mine into quarters, but by the time it was done cooking the jam was too chunky for my preference, so i threw it in the food processer real quick to get a more spreadable consistency. but i know if you started with smaller pieces it’d cook down to a nice chunky jam, without the need of the food pro.

homemade fig newtons
adapted from here

filling:
1 1/2 cup chopped figs (about 1/4-1/2 inch size pieces)*
1 1/4 cups water
1/4 cup orange juice (i happened to have blood orange from a drink wil bought, but it originally called for apple)
1/4 cup sugar
it called for some citrus zest, but i didn’t have any…could be good with it.

cookie dough:
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg white
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon orange juice (again, no zest on hand)
1 1/2 cups flour

combine all filling ingredients in saucepan, bring to a boil and then let simmer uncovered to an hour or so…till thick. use a food processor or blender to get it to a smooth spreadable consistency. set aside to cool.**

cream together the butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes on medium speed in a mixer with the paddle attachment. scrape down the sides, and then beat in the egg, vanilla, and orange. scrape down again and add the flour and beat on low until the dough comes together. wrap in plastic into a disc and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

preheat to 350; line baking sheet with parchment. (i didn’t read this part and just used my silpat and they slid all over the sheet throughout baking when my sheet bent from the heat!)

cut the dough in half, keeping the second half in the fridge while you work with the first…just to keep it cold. roll out the portion of dough into an 8×12 rectangle, and slice in half, making two 4×12 strips. spoon the filling down the middle of each strip, then tri-folding it closed…press the seam. carefully place the ‘roll’ seam side down onto baking sheet. repeat with second strip, and then repeat all those steps for the second half of the batter in the fridge. 

put sheet of four rolls into fridge or freezer for 10-20 minutes, to firm them up to make slicing easier. slice rolls into size of your choice…8 cookies per roll looked close to the ‘original’ size to me. bake 12-15 minutes, until golden; let cool, and store airtight! they’re a little crisp and sugar cookie-ish the day of, but they’ll soften by the next day or so.

*the original called for dried figs & a higher proportion of liquid if that’s the route you’d like to go.

**after making the jam, and then making this filling, i’d just assume you could just as easily use any fig jam of your choosing (or any fruit for that matter!), especially when you can’t find fresh or dried figs.

our second thought to that question, is, well, we like to cook. wil cooks all morning, and most afternoon evening, and on our days off, we still like to be in the kitchen together. we are part of the 1% of the world where grocery shopping is one of our favorite things to do together (borderline being a date). and when we brainstorm about our time off, or even our future lives, it often is dreaming up a meal, or type of food to one day make. we happily allow our lives to be enriched by savoring and celebrating meals, ingredients and beverages.

sushi is one of those things that i always bring up wanting to make when we ponder what to do on our days off. my wish finally came true, when we had enough produce and short grain rice on hand, as well as an alien looking crab leg trying to claw it’s way out of the fridge. this by no means is a post with a recipe. we are not masters, or even novices. we just acted like we knew what we were doing as we bumbled along, and enjoyed capturing the mess and process.

while i had my minor complaints of the outcome, we both were pretty excited with how well it came out, and laughed at the irony of when we order two rolls each when we are out, it’s never enough, but we made three each and couldn’t even finish!

wish us luck at the tables!

and this isn’t even a post to really kick things off to get us back on track.

just a hello and to say we are still alive (although, i think our only readers are ones who see us at every family get together…).

i’m not sure what’s the cause for our lack of activity on here. maybe a combination of sorts. we’ve hit some penny pinching times, and while writing on here is free, the groceries are not. i’ve gotten into the routine of working a 5 day week, wil’s been making desserts and candies in school, and by the time we see each other in the evening, we plop on the couch with dinner on our laps, and jeopardy on the screen.

since our last post, we enjoyed a quick one night visit with our dear friend tom (introducing him to the portland food cart scene), wil drove halfway across the country in a day (just for kicks!! kidding…), we spent a quick weekend at the parents (helping them ‘clean’ their deep freezer of extra cuts of meats!!), and even had a lovely mothers day enjoying a ridiculously wonderful spring day of portland sunshine with family. and besides that, we continue to hole ourselves up for hours at a time watching entire seasons the sci-fi shows ‘firefly‘ and ‘dr. who‘ (yes we are nerds).

still been cooking of course…some meals more interesting than others. while buying a small bag of grocery store dog food *CRINGE* to hold the girls over till we could make the trek to petsmart, i saw four pounds of strawberries for only $4.40! i didn’t think twice about carrying that back up the hill to our apartment along with the dog food, and was so excited to get so much out of them…strawberry buttermilk cake, strawberry cobblers, creme fraiche strawberry muffins, as well as a handful every day at lunch and a bag to freeze for later baking.

wil has had his own developments, landing a job at zupan’s market (think fancy pants like whole foods) a few blocks from our place. he’ll be working in the deli and prepared foods section, and he is excited to be surrounded by great foods and ingredients…discount on high end groceries maybe? his start of training is to be determined, but we are both blessed and relieved.

keep us in line on continuing to post on here… be sure to throw out a comment if we are slacking. we like to know we are making our readers happy!

more pictures can be seen on my photostream…