Making a Kumquat Pie

Making a Candied Kumquat Tart Pie is not so bad.

If you have three hours to kill.

First Row: 1) Wash kumquats 2) Slice kumquats 3) Be sure to get all the seeds 4) Boil kumquats in sugar water 5) Dry 

Second Row: 1) Roast hazelnuts 1-2) Forget to document boring parts of making dough 2) Throw hazelnut dough on pastry mat 3) Knead 4) Push into pie pan (instead of tart pan recipe calls for) 5) Bake crust weighted with rice on foil (but burn it anyway)

Third Row: 1) Semi-sweet chocolate chips go in bowl 1-2) Do not document heating of cream and pouring of cream 2) Stir together decadent ingredients to make filling 3) Fill tart shell / crust 4) Start arranging kumquats 5) Think about how much your pie doesn't look like the photo from the blog.

Recipe can be found here.

Bored sous chef not included for all chefs

Review: Not dentist approved aka immediate toothache, but excited to know how to candy fruit.

La Cocina

Now that I have a new job and it feels like this HUGE weight has been lifted off of me, things are starting to return to center. Things that felt stressful are feeling good again. Cooking felt like such a chore when all my time off was barely enough time to recover from such a stressful job. I was always rushing in the kitchen, rather than enjoying the process - and it's the process of measuring, chopping, mixing, stirring, waiting, contemplating that I so love about cooking and preparing food. That feeling was just not present when I was consumed with work-related anxiety. So it's no wonder with a job that feels more connected to my core values that I am rediscovering the joy in things such as cooking.

I'm loving the color and smell of things in my kitchen. I'm loving taking my time - Sunday I spent hours in the kitchen. I love having music on in the background or preparing a new recipe in complete silence. I am reminded of my time as a naturalist on a bird sanctuary where our most core lesson with the kids was the five senses and experiencing the world with a sense of wonder through sight-sound-smell-taste-touch. This feels alive and well in the kitchen lately.

Yesterday I had this brilliant idea to add chopped up chocolate-covered pretzels to my favorite oatmeal-flax cookie recipe and they are heavenly!

Creativity and joy can flourish when there is true space for it.

My first galette

I'm super proud of my first galette.

Food I Want to Cook & Eat

These beet burgers.

Possibly this labor-intensive lentil dish.

OMG, Yes.

And I am trying to seriously cut back on my sugar intake, but can someone please make me this chocolate pudding?

Eagerly counting down the days until I get to plant seeds and grow (and harvest) my own food again!*

*My blog can be as boring as I want it to be. 

Extremely Important

I got red lentils.

I made the soup.

It is one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten. (And I wasn't even super hungry, so I am not even speaking from an untrustworthy, delusional, starved state of being.)

I could eat this all the time. All. The. Time.

It's that good.

So many flavors come together beautifully in this. I'll admit using good butter, as I did, helps immensely (and I don't often cook with butter - more of an olive oil gal - but I could taste how the butter brought this to a happy place). And then add the cilantro, mustard seeds, good sea salt, turmeric, and oh.m.gee the dollop of greek yogurt + spinach cooked in that same butter + brown rice. It's my perfect meal. LOVE.

The just in: The blog the recipe came from JUST posted an entry called "Soups Worth Making" and this soup was on the list!

SEE!!

Cooking Alone

I just spent two hours in the kitchen chopping up the fresh vegetables of the local harvest (and a few out of season and out of the region gems, namely AVOCADOS) to try out some new recipes. I think I've found two new favorites.

First though, I have been feeling awfully smug lately when I use things from my own garden in my cooking. For instance, I brought a salad to our neighborhood National Night Out celebration with my own orange pepper, kohlrabi, and tomatoes in it and I was downright obnoxious. Like carrying it over as if it were a winning lottery ticket. (I could just hear the voice in my head singing Ta-Da!!) Granted, this is my first ever successful sweet pepper AND my tomatoes have failed the last two out of three years, but you know, I didn't know I had it in me to be so proud. 

Tonight wasn't that impressive but I did make use of my own: chives, thai basil, sweet basil, and beet greens. Okay, written out like that, less than impressive. But I do think the combination of basil varieties brought my dressing to a whole new level. So that's kind of fun.

Here are the deeply satisfying vegetarian recipes you too should try, from a newly discovered cooking blog:

http://www.sproutedkitchen.com/home/2012/4/24/shitake-mushroom-lentil-asian-tacos.html

http://www.sproutedkitchen.com/home/2012/3/20/beet-green-chopped-salad.html

They both have a lot going on and, given that, were a lot of work. Gut reaction: worth it.

It was additionally really nice to spend some time alone in my kitchen: chopping, mixing, tinkering, tasting, thinking, humming, and stepping out to the garden every once and awhile to grab more herbs. I've had a whirlwind of a few weeks and coming home today with nothing on the calendar and deciding to make a wholesome, delicious meal just for me, was exactly what I needed. Cooking has really become a respite for me in an otherwise very chaotic busy life.

As I cooked I was able to think over the last few weeks, full of celebration and visitors and so much  love...and ultimately bittersweet goodbyes that are always a part of getting visits from friends who live far away. As of yesterday afternoon, when I dropped Joseph at the bus and said my last goodbye, I've felt a deep, deep quiet.

It's the quiet that comes after a beautiful storm. And as I've always known, I'm happy to be able to feel such deep sadness at the end of such uplifting, joyous merriment. To be able to access the extremes - all of them - makes life worth living. The good is better when we know the other side just as intimately. Seeing 'long-lost' friends and then having to say goodbye again, without certainty of when they will come back, is just a part of this crazy, beautiful existence.

So tonight I sat at my table alone, eating a very delicious meal, thinking of all the people I have seen or connected with over the last month who I would have liked to share it with. But then I thought of the ways all my far-flung loves and friends are constantly with me - Hannah in the moments of pure poetry, Adam when I have a crazy YAY moment, Sarah C when I am tending my garden, Joseph when the world moves me to laughter or tears - and I ate on happily, alone in body but not in spirit.

gratin of my heart

First of all, many of my pictures this week have centered around food. Tonight's for instance:

This captures the start to an excellent, hearty, warm creation from one of my most beloved food blogs, Smitten Kitchen. I had a potluck tonight with my kickball/broomball team, and the sweet-potato-chard-gratin disappeared quickly. I'm a little sad I didn't get leftovers out of this, but it's a cook's dream to watch their food be gobbled down...and then to watch their housemate literally lick the pan. Yes, it's that good.

I will have more to write on besides what food I am devouring these days, but it's been a busy few days and I only just kicked the cold that arrived last week, so I have been prioritizing sleeping over writing. To be continued...