CityMama™

Walnut, Blue Cheese, and Cranberry Tart [NaBloPoMo Day 19]

As promised, here is a recipe for a savory tart that can be served as a first course along with a simple green salad or with your Thanksgiving meal. I first came across the recipe about 10 years ago in an ad for Diamond walnuts.  As is to be expected, it is heavy on the walnuts.  I like nuts, but I found the tart a little too walnuty for my taste. This time when I make it, I will decrease the amount of nuts.  I am also going to adapt it slightly this year and use caramelized onions instead of regular sauteed onions. I'm going to use 4-6 onions depending on the size and caramelize/reduce those down to one cup.

If you don't like cranberries you can substitute firm pears or figs.

Also, the quality of the tart depends on the kind of blue cheese you use.  My family (especially Bunny and Wallie) are blue cheese freaks so I am going to increase the amount of cheese by about 2 ounces.  One of my issues last time around was that it wasn't cheesy enough. For best results, I highly recommend you use one of the following of my favorite blue cheeses:

• Italian Gorgonzola
• Italian Gorgonzola Dolce which has a creamier, sweeter flavor
• Pt. Reyes blue cheese (eat local California!)
• Australian Roaring 40's (one of my all time faves)
• Irish Cashel blue cheese
• an artisinal blue cheese from Wisconsin like Hook's (eat local Mid-west!)
  

So without further ado, here is the recipe for the tart. Ground walnuts can be found in the baking aisle if you don't want to grind them yourself.

And if tarts aren't your thing, just try not to drool while looking at the photo and recipe of this Blue Cheese Cheesecake. I might have to make both!

Shakshouka

There is a Middle Eastern restaurant not too far from where I live that makes Shakshouka so delicious that I literally dream about it. Ever since I first tried it, I haven't been able to get the flavors out of my head: the tender zucchini sauteed with onions and herbs and feta, served with rice...heavenly.

Recently I went to the restaurant for lunch because I was craving this dish so badly only to discover that they don't serve Shakshouka at lunch. That's when I discovered that I needed to learn to make it myself. I read lots of recipes and discovered that there as many ways to make this dish as there are people who make it. I tinkered and think I hit on a method that's even better than what is served at the restaurant. If you make Shakshouka at home, I'd love to know how you do it.

My girls devoured this. Both are crazy about feta so they instantly loved it. Wallie especially loved the way the silky egg yolk mixed with the squash and tomatoes. Hope your kids like it, too!

SHAKSHOUKA

I used tomatoes and herbs from my garden. All the other ingredients were local except for the feta. Serve with rice pilaf or warmed pita bread. Simple yet so delicious.

• extra-virgin olive oil
• 4-5 cloves of garlic (less if you don't adore garlic like I do)
• 2 sweet onions, halved and sliced
• 3 Korean squash (paler and more gourd-like than Italian zucchini), cut lengthwise then chopped into half moons (zucchini is a fine substitute)
• 3 tomatoes, quartered (more if you want it more tomatoey)
• 1 sprig of fresh oregano, leaves chopped
• 4 eggs
• 4 ounces of good-quality feta, crumbled
• 8-10 basil leaves, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

Heat a large saute pan (with lid) over medium heat, pour in a generous amount of olive oil (at least 4-5 glugs or tbsps). Add garlic and onions and saute for about 5 minutes until onions are soft and garlic is golden. Add in zucchini and tomatoes. Stir, then cover and let zucchini and tomatoes cook down, about 15 minutes. Stir occassionally and lower heat if needed. Add in oregano and salt and pepper to taste. make four little wells in the shakshouka and crack an egg into each. Sprinkle liberally with feta and cover for 5 more minutes until eggs are just set and feta is melted. Remove from heat, sprinkle with basil and serve at once. Serves four.

Shakshouka dished up in my bowl ready to be eaten!

Herbed Fresh Mozzarella (or from "boring" to "something")

You take some of this (drained, quartered if the balls are large):

Add some of this (fresh basil, oregano, parsley; chopped):

And a drizzle of this (your best, most-fanciest olive oil):

Two of these:

Crushed (please give up the pizza flakes in favor of crushed whole dried chilies, I wouldn't steer you wrong on this one, promise):

Toss with a little salt (it needs it) and serve:

The herbed mozzarella is delicious on its own as an appetizer or antipasto, or you can add it to cherry tomato salads or pasta salads or sandwiches.

Scenes from a weekend

Last week I was a little, um, grouchy. All week. I wasn't sleeping well among other things and life has been extra-busy. But I felt better after getting a few things off my chest (ahem), and after witnessing Barack Obama sweep all the Democratic primaries and caucuses this weekend. Yesssssss.

Friday night we had our family movie night—a bath, some jammies, and a little Jungle Book and fondue:

The dippers: boiled taters, green apple chunks, nitrite-free kielbasa, sweet gherkins, blanched cauliflower...and baguette, of course! (not pictured)

Grated emmenthaler gets added to the bubbly wine 'n cheese mixture.

Wallie shows us how it's done. Spear bread with the long fork and stirrrrrrrr...

...then push the cheesy bread onto the plate with the regular fork.

And while the cheese drips, catch a little bit of Jungle Book.

Then I took two Tylenol PMs and slept for 12 hours. I needed that.

On Saturday it was gorgeous and in the mid 60's here in NorCal so we went on a long bike ride. Then friends couldn't use their tickets to see a Children's Theater performance of Stuart Little so we did that. This is the third Children's Theater performance that I've tortured myself with taken the girls to this year, and I just gotta say, the performances would be 1000% better if the kids would just project and e-nun-ci-ate. Costumes, make-up, sets, I don't care. Perform in all all black in front of a black scrim. I just want to hear the frickin' lines. That is all. I'm too young for assisted listening devices.

J. wasn't feeling well (and neither was our sitter) so we cancelled date night and stayed in. I finished reading one of the best books I've ever read (Pleeeeease go read it, even if you don't like football. You will not regret it.). Then again with the sleep thing.

Today we went to hippie church where suddenly and surprisingly I find myself helping out with one of the CRE classes. Everyone always asks me if I am going to go back to teaching and I always say no, but this might be one way that I can keep up my teaching chops. Plus we do fun things like make Chinese dragons and stuff.

Later in the afternoon we went to a party thrown by Disneyland. They are trying to woo mommy bloggers and pride themselves on their mommy blogger outreach. They told us so. But when one of the Disney execs asked who I was, it was like I was speaking another language. ("Uh huh! Rilly! That's cute!") I've been one of Family.com's parent team advisors for a year and am featured on the Wondertime site...hello? Crickets. So much for doing their research on who was attending their party. Never mind, though, the kids had a great time and we took enough pictures that we should be able to convince them when they are older that yes, we actually did take them to Disneyland.

It took Wallie 45 minutes to get up the courage to take a picture with Cinderella.

Now I wrap up this post in time to watch Cirque du Solame do a vomitous tribute to The Beatles on the Grammy's. And y'all know how I just love The Beatles. /eye-roll.

Huh. Maybe I'm not quite done being grouchy.

White Asparagus with Ham and Gruyere

For this easy side dish, I tossed a bunch of white asparagus gently with a little olive oil (not too much as the cheese will release some oil), salt, and pepper.  I arranged it in a baking dish and topped with:

• 1 large slice or 2 small slices of Black Forest Ham, julienned
• a handful of grated gruyere
• a handful of grated parmesan

Bake at 350º until asparagus are tender but crisp, about 10-15 minutes depending.

Creamy Brussels Sprouts

When Mary Tsao mentioned the creamy brussels sprouts the first time, I sat up and took notice. When she mentioned them a second time, I knew I would be making them ASAP.

ASAP was last night. I cooked up two pounds of sprouts and Bunny, my five-year-old brussels sprouts freak, ate about a pound and a half of them. Next time I think I'll double the recipe and that'll be dinner along with a loaf of crusty bread.

They were creamy and cheesy and nutty and in a word: gooooooooood.

"Steakhouse" Salad: Tomatoes, Sweet Onions, and Blue Cheese

This salad, is hands-down, my family's favorite. What's not to love about thick slabs of sweet, juicy heirloom tomatoes; thinly-sliced piquant onions; and crumbles of sharp and salty blue cheese (in this case Stilton and gorgonzola)?

Bunny and Wallie love blue cheese (just like their parents) and by the time I get around to serving this salad, I notice that there are far fewer crumbles on it than I thought...Hmmmm...

Simply arrange the tomato slices on a plate and lightly salt them (just a touch to bring out the tomato flavor; the cheese is salty), top with onions and cheese and fresh ground pepper, then drizzle with fruity olive oil.  We had this alongside grassfed tri-tip from Whole Foods, and it was the perfect complement to the meal.

Pre-dinner snack: Cheese Plate

This is what "'doing it up' looks like" says my chef/sister.

The cheeses—from the Bronx grapes going clockwise: robbiola, idiazabal, stilton, and pepper cheddar. In the middle are picholine olives (my absolute fave).

We also had truffle honey served along side to drizzle over the cheeses or figs.

We opened a bottle of Archipel 2002 (a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, and malbec) and it went perfectly with the strong cheeses which we prefer in my family.

Yum! Now on to dinner!

Cheese Pizza in Under 15 Minutes

Now, I'm not a huge pizza fan but, my family is. So I make it when forced to, and making it this way is almost too easy. I usually use whatever cheese I have on hand (in this case it was P'tit Basque, my five-year-old's fave) and make my own fresh tomato concassé to top the pizza.  It goes like this.

Preheat oven to 350º.

Make the tomato concassé: In a blender or mini-food processor blend 6 small tomatoes (seeded, just give 'em a squeeze) with a glug of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt. Add a clove of garlic if you like.

Spread the tomato mixture over a store-bought round bread crust (I used Trader Joe's herb crust). Heap with shredded cheese. (photo) I use a MicroPlane medium ribbon grater to shred the cheese.

Bake for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Slice and serve to your pizza-lovers.

Snack Attack: Cheesy Tortilla Roll-ups

I'm thinking about back-to-school these days and what I will put in my daughter's lunchbox for her snack. I want her snacks to be healthy, tasty, and easily portable.  For the month of August I'm going to be blogging snack ideas and if you have any to share, please let me know!

Cheesy Tortilla Roll-Ups

• Tortillas (any style or flavor)
• 1 cup each shredded low-fat cheddar cheese, shredded mozarella cheese (or whatever combo your kids prefer), combined
• light cream cheese
• thinly sliced green onions
• 1 chopped seeded tomato
• 1/2 chopped, seeded red, yellow, or orange bell pepper
• 1 can of sliced olives drained
• optional: chopped, leftover chicken or turkey

Spread tortilla lightly with cream cheese. Top with shredded cheese. Let kids add remaining toppings of their choosing.  Roll up tightly and serve immediately alongside lime-cilantro yogurt dip. Or, wrap securely in plastic wrap and refrigerate. Keeps well for at least a day. Makes 4-6 roll-ups.

Lime-Cilantro Yogurt Dip

In a food processor or blender, whiz until uniformly smooth:

• 1 cup low-fat plain yogurt
• juice of one lime
• a handful of fresh cilantro leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
• salt to taste

Serve alongside tortilla roll-ups.