how 'bout some cats to go with that cooking?

SO.  i wanted to balance out all this cooking action with some cat action.  as you may (or may not) know, i moved into a new apartment in the much nicer brookline area.  the catminos are LOVING the new place.  seriously.  amanda ventures out of my room and into the living room and get this, KITCHEN.  gypse is just as happy as can be.  beeb is nice and confident and finding some new favorite places.  so get ready for some really catlady-y photos right now.


so i know this isn't a cat.  BUT i though it'd be a nice transition from the cooking and farms aspect of this whole thing into the cats part of it.  this is FRESH CATNIP.  my roommate cait brought it back from her garden in vermont.  so rad!

it is in the mint family!

WHY is gypsy so cute.  i cannot even handle this accidental photo.

please forgive my super awkward foot.

hey morgan, what is your patronus?  BEHOLD:
 

i just want to pet beeb SO much but she rarely allows it.

my new apartment has really deep window sills.  perfect for making a cat perch!!

pirate beeb?

and amanda.  her presence in my life is out-shined only by that of my mother.

her eyes are NOT usually that creepy.  have you ever tried photographing
a black cat?  because i do almost every day and its really really
hard to get it to come out okay.

she mostly sleeps all day, but really cutely!

oh yeah, you stretch that arm girl.

i know she is really thin.  also some other parts of her shape are just not normal.  but she is beautiful and i love her just the way she is and if you are mean about it i'll kill you.

even the oldest cats still love a good sun-basking.

OKAY and here is the gem of this post.  are you ready?  dug up from the archives in my grandparents' basement?  a real treasure.  this is some planet earth material right here.

yes that is me. and YES THAT IS AMANDA. the very same morgan and the very
same amanda.  just chillin' in the early 90s. 

potato leek soup.

yay for potatoes and yay for soup.  i can't get enough of either.  so i decided to have a go at potato leek soup.  i've had soup with potatoes and leek in ecuador, but never here.  i assumed that all potato leek soup is the way it is in ecuador, where its not pureed?  i don't know the answer to this, but the recipe i used for this soup was a pureed soup.  maybe it was the recipe or maybe this is the norm.  i don't really care because it was delicious!  this is another recipe from my new favorite cookbook The Enchanted Broccoli Forest (thank you Marianne!!).

oh AND.  as a housewarming gift, meem gave me an immersion blender, which came in absolutely wonderfully handy for this recipe.  i can't even handle how useful it was (thank you meem!!).


potato leek soup.


ingredients
3 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
3 cups cleaned, chopped leeks
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
4 cups water
1 1/2 t salt
1 c milk
freshly ground black pepper

directions
1.  place the potatoes, leeks, celery, carrots, water, and salt into a large pot and bring to a boil.  cover and cook for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.  remove from heat and let it cool to a point that pureeing won't be treacherous.
2.  stick your immersion blender right in that soup and puree the shit outta it.  (if you don't have this handy device, then do it in batches in a food processor or blender).
3.  stir in the milk, and add salt and pepper to taste.
4.  top with cheese if you want!

kind of a gross color in a photo?  my apologies.

roasted root vegetables with sage.

sage is probably my favorite herb.  meem gave me really good jar of some rubbed albanian sage that is absolutely wonderful.  and meem also gave me this really great cookbook!  its a williams sonoma one and is one of the food made fast ones.  vegetarian style.  it is really great and hasn't lied to me yet about how long these recipes will take!  check out this recipe for roasted root vegetable with sage butter!!  i didn't follow the recipe in the book exactly because i improvised some ingredients using what i had on hand.


roasted root vegetables with sage.

ingredients
1 turnip, peeled and cut into wedges
3 parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 yuca root, peeled and cut into chunks
3 carrots, cut into chunks
10 baby red potatoes, some halved and some whole
1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into wedges
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 T butter, melted
2 T dried sage
salt and pepper
balsamic vinegar, 1 T

directions
1.  preheat the oven to 400F.
2.  place all the ingredients up to (and including) the garlic on a baking sheet.
3.  pour the butter over them and sprinkle on the sage, salt, and pepper.  toss until evenly coated.
4.  roast, stirring every 10 minutes, for 30 minutes.  then roast undisturbed about 20-30 minutes longer until they are tender.
5.  drizzle the vinegar over the vegetables, toss, and serve.

potato and corn chowder.

i love me some soup.  i also love me some friends who help make soup.  christina's sister caroline was in town and they decided to prep all the ingredients we had in the house while i went to the store and procured the others.  so this soup was born.  potatoes, corn, love and all!

ingredients
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
2 1/2 cups water
2 T butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 t salt
1 stalk of celery, minced
1/2 red bell pepper, minced
5 cobs of corn
freshly ground  black pepper
1/4 t dried thyme
1/2 t dried basil
1 c milk, room temperature

directions
1.  place the potato and water in a pot, bring to a boil, cover, and cook until tender.  set aside (don't drain em!).
2.  melt the butter in a soup pot.  add the onion and salt and cook over medium-low, stirring frequently.  after five minutes add the celery.  after 5 more minutes add the cooked potates and their liquid, the bell pepper, corn, black pepper, and herbs.
3.  mix it up real well and cover.  reduce heat and cook it for about five more minutes.
4.  use a blender or food processor to puree about half of the soup chunks and then mix that back into the rest of the soup.
5.  stir in the milk.  eat!


this recipe came from (well, i changed a few things) this really really wonderfully awesome cookbook my friend marianne gave me.  it is called the Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen.  i can assure you that you will be seeing many a recipe from this book in the future!

(by the way, this soup happened before i even moved...so probs about a month ago.  i have no excuse for the delay....)

apple tart.

i think apple tart was the first recipe i learned how to cook as a kid growing up.  i don't really know how that happened, but i think its true.  my parents had dinner parties all the time when i was younger and i think that might be the origin of this apple tart.  when people would come over, one of the go-to desserts was apple tart.  i must have just helped make it a lot until it was stuck in my little girl mind!

i didn't actually make this the exact same way as we did in my house, mostly because it was a totally last minute idea that necessitated using ingredients i had on hand (specifically, regular pie crust instead of puff pastry).

this was a great way to use a bunch of delicious csa apples!!!

apple tart.

ingredients

3 apples from your csa box

1 frozen pie crust, thawed

cinnamon

sugar

lemon juice

directions

1.  preheat the oven to 350.

2.  peel the apples and cut them into thin wedges.  OR if you have one of those contraptions you crank that cores and then spirals the apple, you can do that then cut the whole thing (top to bottom) into halves or thirds to speed the slicing process up a bit.

3.  toss the apples slices in a bowl with some cinnamon and sugar (1:1) and squeeze a little lemon juice in.

4.  cut the crust into a rectangle and then improvise by slicing and combining pieces into thin strips to use as ridges of the crust.

5.  place the crust onto a baking sheet and arrange the apple slices in rows.

6.  bake of about 20 minutes or until crisp.

a little baby apple tart!

cantaloupe?

so yes, i'm one of those people.  "i don't really like melon."  i know i know but its true.

SO I THOUGHT.

stillman's csa has yet again broadened my feasting horizons.  of course, when i get a melon in my csa box, i'm gonna eat my csa melon, even if i think i'm not gonna like it.  but....i liked it!  yay for good cantaloupes!

more muffins, of the bran variety.

i know i know i know.  i'm an old woman.  bran muffins = lame.  but not these bran muffins!  I WILL PROVE YOU WRONG.  these ones came out fluffy and delicious with a nice balance of sweet and ...not sweet.  oh and the fiber.  yeah, i'm a big fiber fan.  the cashier at shaws (i hate you shaws) asked me curiously "what do you use this for?" when she was scanning the wheat bran and i was forced to think "....to keep me regular??"  but i didn't say that.  i said "i'm going to make muffins with it."  she accepted.  but yeah, lets be honest, the regularity really doesn't hurt.  we all appreciate that.  BRING IT ON FIBER.

so anyways, i tried to make this pretty low fat by using applesauce in place of half of the oil.  i was planning on using 2/3 cups applesauce and no oil but ran out of applesauce, so feel free to make that change if you wish!  if you use unsweetened cranberries or raisins you might want to increase the sugar a bit.  this recipe as is makes muffins with about 120 calories each and 4 grams of fiber.  i wonder if i can make an even more fibrous version in the future???

the secret to fluffy muffins is to work the batter as little as possible.  stir it until everything is just barely mixed.  there should definitely still be lumps.

this is a double batch that makes 24 muffins (i've just REALLY been wanting them lately, okay?), so feel free to halve it if you just want 12.  the amounts are very half-able.


bran muffins.


ingredients
3 c wheat bran
2 c low fat buttermilk
1/3 c grapeseed oil
1/3 c applesauce
2 eggs
2/3 c brown sugar
1 t vanilla extract
1 c all-purpose flour
1 c whole wheat flour
2 t baking soda
2 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 c mix of dried cranberries, golden raisins, cherries, and blueberries (from TJ's of course)

directions
1.  preheat the oven to 375 and put some paper liners into a muffin pan (or pans if you have two) or just lightly grease the pan.
2.  mix the wheat bran and buttermilk, and let it sit while you get the other ingredients together.
3.  use a fork to beat the oil, applesauce, eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla in a bowl.
4.  mix the two flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in another bowl.
5.  add the wet ingredients into the bran mixture.
6.  stir the dry ingredients into the bran until just barely combined.  you can even leave it with dry patches because you are about to mix it a little more when you add the raisins.
7.  fold in the raisins/cranberries.
8.  fill the muffin cups about 2/3 full with batter and bake for 15 minutes.

pile o' muffinz.

oh and i proactively hid these in a cabinet so gypsy doesn't get into them.  i'm almost positive she can't scheme a way to get in there this time!

csa week thirteen.

where are weeks eleven and twelve you ask?  yeah, i'm really sorry.  they were devoured but mostly not documented.  we got lots of potates, corn, cukes, lettuce, squash, and all the regulars.  we've also been getting melons.  we got a watermelon, then a YELLOW watermelon, then a cantaloupe.  lots of peaches and apples too.  but i CAN tell you what we got this week.

4 corns
5 potates
boston lettuce
a white eggplant
a purple and white striped eggplant
cabbage (this is my FIRST time doing anything with cabbage)
and i'm pretty sure there was some other stuff in here that i happen to be blanking on at the moment...

there may or may not have been other fruit items available in boxes but there was some ambiguity as to whether or not we were supposed to take those...  but i'm not too worried about it because i've got my hands full with this batch!  gotta get back into it slowlyyyy.

please forgive me for abandoning the internet.

hey internetfriends!  i am back.  i've missed you.  things have been busybusybusy.  in some cases i was able to bang out some quick meals but was too busy to write about it.  but i literally didn't cook anything for the whole last week of august.  basically i moved.  from allston to brookline (five million percent upgrade).  no grocery shopping for morgan.  i also had various friends/family sequentially visiting which, you know, necessitates eating at restaurants.

but i am back and ready to blawg.  my new kitchen is to my old kitchen as brookline is to allston, to be precise.  perhaps i'll take some pics!