Easy Summer Cakes

Raspberry Vanilla

Light Chocolate

Wild Blueberry

Repeat Performance

Also great with yellow tomatoes!

Exploring Rum

The Dark and Stormy:  dark spiced rum, ginger beer, lime juice.  I skip the sugar because I like it bitter.

Tomato Season Begins...

We'll be eating this every other day, at least until the tomatoes give out.

Ambitious on a Weeknight

Sometimes, you get a taste for risotto on a weeknight.  I call this one "leftovers con risotto".

Fika Means...

An intriguing and charming little book, with some rather simple baking that I'm looking forward to trying.

Manhattan Time!

This Should Be Fun

2000 recipes of Italian goodness, give or take a few.  I know what I'm doing this weekend.

Simple Summer Supper

A simple summer supper from Ottolenghi's "Plenty" and "Plenty More":  smoked cheese and cauliflower frittata, with a cannellini and quinoa herbed salad.  Both recipes are solid and easy to modify.  These two dishes will go into regular rotation at our place.

A Standard, in a New Pan

Bought a new paella pan!  Not the easiest thing to work with, but the results made it worth it.  Lots of crunchy bits on the bottom of the pan of this fairly standard veg paella, again from Ottolenghi's "Plenty".  If you make paella, or any sort of composed rice dish, often enough, a paella pan is a worthy investment.

This Damn Tart

This little tart, from Ottolenghi's "Plenty" literally took half the day to make.  It doesn't have to be so hard!  Recipe is in desperate need of a streamlining rewrite.  Tasty though...

Cognac Herbed Chicken

Braised on the stove top and finished in a very hot oven. Served with a plan sauce of the rendered fat, shallots, garlic, celery and chicken stock, reduced down.

Wild Blueberry Muffins

A basic muffin recipe for using up a half bag of frozen wild blueberries, sprinkled with turbinado sugar before baking to add extra crunch.

Wild Rice Gratin

Based on the recipe from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook:  a wild rice and baby swiss gratin, with caramelized onions and kale. The original recipe is rather bland and dry, so I added extra stock and was generous with the salt and pepper.  I also added a fair amount of paprika. Thinking on it now, it could probably use a few minced cloves of garlic next time around as well.

An Odd Little Bruschetta

My take on a recent restaurant dish:  grilled and braised romaine with herbed ricotta over toasted French bread, with Fava beans and shrimp, in a basic pan sauce of butter, garlic, herbs, chicken stock and white wine.

Mustard Milanese with Arugula Salad

(Recipe from Smitten Kitchen cookbook.)

A fairly simple recipe - anyone who has made a schnitzel before can manage this one. I added an extra egg to the mustard/egg dip, and used the whole egg rather than just the white.  I also added heirloom cherry tomatoes to the salad and a pinch of grated Parmesan.