Celebratory Fruit Turnovers

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by Caroline

We were watching the Giants/Braves playoff game Sunday afternoon with nothing to munch on but little bowls of peanuts (it was almost time for dinner; I’ve been sick for two days) when the boys started dreaming of how our snacks might improve as our team plays deeper into the postseason. “Crackerjack!” one shouted. “Yeah, homemade crackerjack!” “Sure,” I promised, “I’ll make homemade crackerjack if we’re playing for the pennant.” “And It’s-Its?” Eli asked, “It’s-Its for the World Series?” “Yes, I assured him, “It’s-Its for the World Series.”

We are a long way from the World Series still, and the last time the Giants got that far Ben looked like this:

eight years ago...

But Sunday’s game went well, and as we turned off the TV and turned our attention to dinner, I looked around the kitchen to see what I could make to celebrate. There was a sheet of puff pastry in the fridge; I’d gotten it out of the freezer a couple days ago to make some savory apple, beet and cheddar cheese tarts, but then I came down with a stomach bug. While I was in bed, the beets got turned into soup and the cheese and apples got eaten, but the puff pastry was still ready for use. We had a bowl of ripe pluots on the table (probably the last of the season), plus an orange, so I turned the oven on to preheat while I improvised dessert.

I chopped up the pluots, sprinkled them with brown sugar and cinnamon, then zested the orange into the mixture. I rolled the puff pastry out and cut it into six pieces, spooned my filling into the center of each one, and crimped them shut with a fork. I didn’t have an egg for the egg wash (a couple days out of commission and our supplies start to run seriously low), but a little milk and a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar worked just fine. By the time I was finished assembling the turnovers, the oven was hot and I slid the pan into bake. I tossed the remaining fruit filling into a saucepan to cook down into a chunky sauce. Half an hour later, our pluot turnovers were ready.

You won’t find these at any ballpark, but I didn’t hear any complaints on that score. We’ll plan a bit better for the games to come, and I’ll post recipes for some baseball-friendly snacks. In the meantime, this dessert served as a good reminder that it doesn’t take much advance thought or planning to come up with a nice finish to your meal. Obviously, we don’t all have thawed puff pastry ready to go at a moment’s notice — it was a first for me — but I could have just as easily (and quickly) made a fruit crisp; all you ever really need, as we find ourselves saying again and again, are a well-stocked pantry and some fresh produce. I’m looking forward to the next game already.

Bake Sale Chocolate Chip Cookies

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by Caroline

On a recent episode of Top Chef: Just Desserts (yes, I watch it, and I watch Top Chef, too), the contestants were asked to make items for a bake sale. One made a milk chocolate ginger pudding. Another made strawberry shortcake. Have these folks never been to a bake sale?!

The winning recipe, for a chocolate chip walnut cookie, is happily traditional and looks delicious. But this is the cookie I made earlier in the week, pre-Top Chef, and while I know (I know) we don’t really need another recipe for chocolate chip cookies (the one on the back of the chocolate chip bag really works just fine) I had to give this one a try, and I have to say, it’s particularly good. So the next time your kids are clamoring for chocolate chip cookies, get out more butter than usual, and then delight your kids by letting them dig out the dough with an ice cream scoop. You won’t be disappointed.

Puntarella. And what to do if you can’t find any.

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by Lisa

The original story of Rapunzel involves a plant called rampion. This is the plant that the pregnant woman sees in her neighbor’s yard and for which she longs uncontrollably. She says things like, “I will die if I can’t eat some of that rampion.” So her husband steals some for her. Still, she is not satisfied. More theft ensues.  The neighbor, unfortunately, is a witch, who catches the vegetable thieves.  The witch promises the unhappy couple all the rampion the wife desires in return for the unborn child. Thus, the eponymous Rapunzel. Thus the tower and the hair and the unfortunate blind prince and all those years in the wilderness.  I wonder a little if the title of this tale refers to the little girl and her unfortunate fate or to the addictive plant which led to the illicit activity that led to her miserable life.  Rapunzel may be the first child in literature traded for a vegetable. Or her mother’s cravings. Or she may be evidence that the husband loved the wife more than the unborn daughter.

I am not announcing here that I am pregnant (I am not.) Nor am I writing about rampion.  Nor even about weird things that pregnant women eat. The story of Rapunzel has been obsessing me lately because it is puntarelle season here, and puntarelle makes me crazy. As in Rapunzel’s mother crazy. I would not say that puntarelle is my favorite food. In fact, I forget about it completely 10 months out of the year, and then one Sunday–bam!–there it is and I am completely unable to control myself. I cannot get enough of it. I hoard it and spend hours preparing it. I eat bowls of it all day long. I might even steal it out of a witch’s yard.

Three bunches of puntarelle, unprepared. I ate 2 by myself. The other I shared.

Puntarelle is in the chicory family. It has long, serrated leaves like dandelion, a pale white, tender interior, and alien looking spikes that are hollow inside. It is bitter. It is so bitter that my kids won’t touch it.  Kory likes it, but not as much as I do. I like this arrangement. There’s more for me.

It’s an odd, slightly time-consuming vegetable to prepare. First, I chop or strip off the dark green leaves.  These can be tossed raw into a salad if you like bitter things. Or you can chop them and sautee them in olive oil with some salt, and carmelized onion or shallot or garlic. You can squeeze a bit of lemon over it. The leaves are tender crisp and slightly bitter and the very best green I’ve ever eaten.

Puntarelle is on the top. Paired with braised beef and smashed celery root and potatoes.

The core and the spikes and the  pale white bits take more work. These you slice into the thinnest slivers you can imagine,then you set them in a bowl of ice water. Leave it over night in the refrigerator, and in the morning they will be gently curled, crisp tendrils. Think lovely little curls of tender bitter greens. Like celery with a pedigree. These you drain, dry and dress with a classic vinaigrette of:

  • garlic clove smashed with coarse salt
  • smashed anchovy (from a glass jar)
  • lemon juice or lemon juice and red wine vinegar in equal amounts
  • olive oil (twice as much as juice/vinegar)

Puntarelle salad with garlic and anchovy dressing. Paired with gazpacho and country potato salad.

But since puntarelle is really hard to find, if the idea of fresh, crisp, lovely curled salad appeals to you, you can do exactly the same thing with celery, and then you get much of the deliciousness and none of the bitterness. This celery variation is one my kids love. In fact, I made it for years before I discovered puntarelle. And the minute I learned how to prepare punterelle I knew that this Celery Salad with Anchovy Vinaigrette from Food and Wine must have been adapted from a classic puntarelle preparation.   It’s not quite as addictive as the puntarelle version, but it’s pretty close.  And you won’t have to worry about witches. At least until the end of the month.

Egg-adilla

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by Caroline

I’ve been feeling a little badly about disparaging quesadillas the other day. I would not have survived my first year of motherhood without them, but that’s also what I was remembering when I called them an “uninspired” choice for lunch: those weary, can’t-make-it-out-of-the-bathrobe days of new motherhood, when a good lunch was anything I could make and eat one-handed while my fussy child nursed in the sling. I’d often prep one early in the morning, before Tony had left for work, grating the cheese into a tortilla and then setting it into the frying pan to cook at lunchtime.

Today’s quesadilla was much better than that. I felt like a new mom only in that I was starving, so I made the extra-protein brunch treat — good for a quick kid supper, too — that we call an eggadilla: after the quesadilla is out of the frying pan, you scramble a couple of eggs quickly in the hot pan, and then tuck them into the tortilla. Since I didn’t have a baby hanging from me, I took the time to cut up some tomatoes on the side, and drizzled them with an impromptu cilantro vinaigrette (cilantro, lime juice, and olive oil, whirred in the food processor). If I knew of any new mom in the neighborhood, I’d have invited her over to share, but instead I ate it all myself, sitting down at the table with a knife and fork, reminiscing about how much has changed.

Weeknight Strategies: Salads + Spaghetti

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by Lisa

Like all other families with school age kids, we’re back in full swing,which means afterschool activities most days of the week, homework for the 3rd grader, and a generally full schedule from 3-6:30, which is more or less when my kids start getting ready for bed.  We have an early lights out around here, basically because my two need it to stay tantrum free rested.  This discipline really does work to keep the peace here, day after day, but it does mean getting dinner on the table fast and early.  This can be a challenge when we don’t get home from swimming or soccer until 5:15 or 5:45 pm.  I have to plan ahead, know what I want to cook, what I need to prep at lunch or after school while Ella is doing homework, so it’s all ready to go as soon as we walk in the door.  I aim to get dinner on the table in 20 minutes most nights–which is the time it takes for them to wash off the dirt and sweat from the field in the bath.

I try to set the table (or counter in this case) after school while homework is being finished and playing ensued.

Generally speaking, I’ll have a small salad or two ready to go as an appetizer as soon as they sit down, so they have something to eat immediately post-bath, in the event that the the main course takes a little longer.  Last night it was this:

Tomatoes, Roasted peppers, pimentos di padrone, romaine leaves

This looks like a lot of work, but it’s not:  The Roasted peppers with garlic and capers I had made on Sunday and simply had to pull from the refrigerator before we went to practice); padrones take 60 seconds to fry; romaine salad had been prewashed and bagged, also on Sunday, and the mustard vinaigrette I made on Sunday for the week–equal parts country mustard and red wine vinegar, smashed garlic clove, pinch salt, olive oil; fresh cherry tomatoes with olive oil, balsamic, and torn basil took maybe 2 minutes  The early prep meant all 4 of these salads were on the table in less than 5 minutes. Even though I do this all the time, it is a huge relief and great satisfaction every single night I can get dinner on the table swiftly and easily. It never gets old.

I like serving several small salads for two reasons:

  1. It looks pretty. I say never underestimate what the good looks of you food can do for your happiness at the table and your kids enthusiasm for eating.
  2. It gives them choices.

The corollary to #2:

With choices, the kids learn to serve themselves, take a variety of foods and adjust their portions.  Exercising control and self-control is a crucial part of learning to eat, and I’m not just talking about manners. We work on that, every night (sigh), too.

All that was left to do was slice some fresh bread and cook a very simple but very flavorful pasta with oil and garlic, which can be made in the time it takes to cook spaghetti–about 12 minutes, water boiling include.

This is one of my favorite vegetarian ways to eat: a very simple pasta + lots of side salads.  Think Italian: This rubric is really just an antipasto + primo –which is all we need most weeknights. Add a glass of wine for the grown-ups and a dolce for all (we had peach sorbet and waffle cookies)–and your time is spent enjoying a fresh, home cooked meal and not stressing over how to get it all to the table.

Spaghetti with Garlic and Oil

  • 2 garlic cloves
  • Olive oil, probably a scant 1/4 cup. (About enough to coat the pasta)
  • A handful of chopped parsley
  • 1/2 lb spaghetti
  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
  2. Finely chop garlic.
  3. Heat oil in a small pan & sautee garlic until it just barely turns brown. Remove from heat.
  4. Break pasta in half and cook until finished. Drain and return to pasta pot.
  5. Pour most of oil over the spaghetti, scraping to get most of the garlic out. Toss oil, spaghetti and parsley until well mixed over very low heat.
  6. Remove from heat and add the extra tablespoon of oil.
  7. Serve immediately. With cheese if you prefer–but it’s not necessary.

*Note: We had so many salads, a small serving of pasta was sufficient for us. But if you have fewer salads, go ahead and use 3 cloves of garlic,  a little more oil, and 1 lb. spaghetti.

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