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!

Gearing up for Thanksgiving [NaBloPoMo Day 18]

Our Thanksgiving table last year, a hodge-podge of vintage pieces, Anthropologie linens, IKEA plates, and wedding china and crystal, both my mother's handed down to me, and my own.

I'm going to admit it right up front: I've been a NaBloPoMo failure.  It was definitely a lofty goal for me to try to post here every day, but unfortunately, I just can't do it, during November or any other month. My heart it is rebellious, and even though my intentions are good, I just can't post this often. (I'm trying!)  If you blog every day, my hat is off to you.

Having said that, however, I do want to talk about Thanksgiving since it is my favorite culinary holiday. It's the holiday that in the United States and in my house, always features the best of what fall has to offer: fresh poultry, grains, nuts, legumes, potatoes, berries, greens, fruity olive oils, and local wines. I so look forward to this Sunday's Farmer's Market trip. We've been avoiding the farmer's lately in the interest of saving a little money, but you couldn't pry me away from the farmer's market the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

I break my Thanksgiving into three parts: appetizers, main meal, dessert.  (This is last year's menu.) Because my family traditionally eats our Thanksgiving dinner late, at dinner time, the day is spent noshing on an assortment of lovely hors d'oeuvres accompanied by drinks as we take in the Thanksgiving Day Parade and also a parade of football games.  My sister and I cook and fiddle about in the kitchen, cousins play, my brother and J. spend the day on the couch (or making us martinis), my mom is in charge of hors do'oeuvres and making oyster bisque. Our list of Thanksgiving Day pre-dinner nosh doesn't change much and usually includes:

• assorted cheeses and salumi
• chicken liver-truffle paté with plenty of cracked pepper and accompaniments (French cornichons, onions)
• Wallie's favorite smoked salmon and accompaniments (capers, onions)
• clam dip and potato chips
• crudités
• beer/wine
• martinis and old fashioneds

Here are some of my thoughts about Thanksgiving last year in the hopes that it might inspire you to start thinking about your own meal. But we're far from done here. Let's keep talkin'.

How to: Make Homemade Salad Dressing [NaBloPoMo Day 14]

This is an oldie but a goody. Because it's Friday. I'm hoping that because the economy blows, people are going to stop spending money on bottled dressing (which I find outrageously expensive for what it is) and start making their own.

Don't get me wrong, there are some bottled dressings that I adore (Girard's Champagne and Trader Joe's Cilantro for starters) but I'd much rather eat a salad dressed with a vinaigrette of my own creation.

So this weekend I challenge you to grab a jar and make some dressing, then report back and tell me how it went.

How to: Not Make Chicken Nuggets for Dinner [NaBloPoMo Day 13]

As I made homemade panko-crusted chicken for dinner tonight (because let's face it, breaded chicken is delicious), I got to thinking that it's so easy to do "fresh" chicken dishes like nuggets at home there's no excuse for making frozen chicken parts anymore.  This is a subject that I've written about ever since I started writing my now shuttered food blog, Family Food, years ago.

I took my organic chicken pieces (I use boneless, skinless thighs), dipped them in flour, then egg, then coated them in seasoned panko, arranged them on a pan and stuck the pan in my convection oven for about 30 minutes until they were crispy-crunchy on the outside, juicy on the inside. These were served alongside steamed rice and snap peas briefly stir-fried in peanut oil with gingr and garlic. Simple and yummy.

So what do you if your child is a chicken lover and you just can't break out of the chicken nugget rut?  Here are some ideas for you:

• Make versatile chicken paillards ("pie-yards") on the grill or off
• Try indian-spiced roasted chicken (this makes the best chicken soup later)
• Make a Mexican Chicken Mole Adobo
• Coq Faux Vin is always a hit in this house (what's not to love about bacony chicken?)
• One of my 6-years-old's most requested meals is chicken curry
• Make chicken chili

I'm sure you all have other ideas for how to serve chicken and keep it versatile so please share! We all benefit!

How to: Improvise when you don't have a Crock-Pot [NaBloPoMo Day 12]

Throughout my cooking life, I have had a love/hate relationship with slow cookers. Even with the help of two slow cooker cookbooks, I have never been bowled over by anything that comes out of a slow cooker. It seems to me that they are best used for keeping soups, stews, and chilis hot on a buffet.

I think my biggest problem with Crock-Pots (and I use that term to mean all plug-in slow cookers) is that when cooking meats, to get the best results, you have to brown it in a separate pan first then transfer it to the Crock-Pot and add the remaining ingredients. Those looking for a mess-free short cut to cooking (me) now have to deal with a crusted pan and a splattered stove, and that totally defeats the purpose for me.

Two recipes that I do think work really well in a slow cooker are chicken breasts that are cooked with a little water and then shredded to use in tacos or enchiladas (they do stay moist this way), and chile verde also made with chicken.

I have owned slow-cookers and always ended up giving them away. Here's what I do instead.

How to: Cook Balsamic-Roasted Brussels Sprouts [NaBloPoMo Day 9]

Howdy, folks. Today we're kicking off "How To" week here on CityMama.  I promised a tutorial every day this week and that's what you're going to get. If there is anything that I've written about that you have questions about and/or you'd like me to "show" you how to do it, please leave me a comment below. I don't pretend to be an expert, but I am pretty darn good at explaining things in an easy-to-understand way. And I promise to take lots of pictures. Which reminds me, my Sony a100  DSLR seems to have crapped out on me which is why recent pictures (taken with my point/shoot) may be even more mediocre than they usually are.

Last week we covered "Kitchen Gadgets Everyone Should Have." Granted, I am not a gadgety kinda girl, preferring to stick to tried-and-true kitchen basics (knives, graters, etc.), but there are some gadgets everyone should have either because they make a cook's job easier or they are just plain fun to use.

We're going to start this week off with a tutorial on how to make sweet and nutty Balsamic-roasted Brussels sprouts. It's perfect for Fall and if you practice now, these could even make an appearance on your Thanksgiving table. My entire family loves these cute little cabbages and this is one of my favorite ways to make them. I know you've heard this a thousand times before, but even if you think you don't like Brussels sprouts (because the only way you've ever eaten them is boiled to death--a truly stinky preparation!), you'll like this. I think you will like this. Okay, even if you don't you should at least try it. Here's how it's done.

BALSAMIC-ROASTED BRUSSELS SPROUTS

Preheat oven to 400 deg. (If you have a convection oven, even better, preheat to 375 and reduce cooking time by about 10 minutes.) Wash and trim a pound of Brussels spouts by slicing off the dry stem and removing tough or dried-looking outer leaves. Cut sprouts in half and place on a baking tray:

Kitchen gadgets everyone should have: Egg Slicer [NaBloPoMo Day 8-late]

I don't know what I would do without my trusty egg slicer. It's not the most often-used gadget in my drawer, but it's one I am always glad to have on hand when I need it. 

To slice eggs, you just lay your hard-boiled egg* on it, close the metal wires down over it and voila, perfectly uniform slices.  To chop them further, I carefully pick up the sliced egg making sure it stays together, give it a quarter turn and slice again. Take the chopped egg and combine with mayo and mustard for a quick egg salad, or scatter them over a spinach salad with bacon. (Or any salad, really. I love egg on salad.)

I also use the egg slicer for slicing membrillo or quince paste to serve with manchego cheese. And speaking of cheese, I bet it would be good for slicing some medium-soft cheeses. I hear it's also great for slicing mushrooms, but I haven't tried that.

(I know this is a belated post, but I wanted to squeeze it in under the wire before starting in on the tutorials.)

*Don't know how to properly cook a hard-boiled egg? This is my method and it works great every time. No gray-green yolks. No rubbery whites.

Kitchen gadgets everyone should have: Stick Blender [NaBloPoMo Day 7]

My Braun stick blender is one of my most beloved kitchen gadgets. I'm not one for using a million kitchen gadgets even if I do have two kitchen drawers full of them. Sadly, most of them were bought on a whim, used once and cast aside. This one, however, gets weekly use in my house.

As a blender, I use my stick blender for pureeing soups (Cauliflower, Butternut Squash) and vegetables right in the pot, and I definitely used it to make all my kids' baby food.  I use the mini-chopper when I want to make smaller quantities of pesto or for chopping shallots, anchovies, or nuts. The whisk is handy for whipping egg whites. 

I have a thing about dirtying dishes as I cook—I am a "clean as I go" girl—so having a stick blend blender is great for keeping my mania at bay. I'm betting if you have one of these you love it as much as I do.

Kitchen gadgets that everyone should have: Three really sharp knives [NaBloPoMo Day 6]

I blame Rachael Ray for the Santoku knife trend that has been sweeping the nation for past few years. Suddenly everyone had to have "Rachael's knife" and then they proceeded to use that knife for every chopping chore even if another knife would have served a better purpose. (Jacques Pepin is probably mortified.)  There is nothing wrong with Santoku (Japanese-style) knives. I own two of them myself, but I here's the difference: I only use it for cutting vegetables and fruit, and it could never be a replacement for a really good chef's knife.

I've been collecting knives since I had a kitchen of my own to cook in and am kind of a nerd about having having a specific knife for a specific purposes. I have cleavers for hacking up bone-in pieces of meat, a boning of knife for removing poultry from the bone, paring knives of all shapes and sizes, a Japanese knife only for slicing fish for sashimi, and a long skinny blunted knife I bought in Italy for slicing prosciutto (or ham). I have a drawer full of knives to suit any kitchen need, but the three I turn to most often are these:

A chef's knife. Meet my baby. This Global 8-in. chef's knife is the workhorse in my kitchen. I love the textured handle which makes for a good grip. I love that it feels properly weighted in my hand. I love its samurai-sword-like sharpness. It is my go-to knife for all kinds of jobs from cutting up meat to slicing veggies. Invest in a really great chef's knife and you won't be sorry. (And "really great" doesn't have to mean expensive, I just prefer Global knives. It's a Japanese brand and I suppose I have a thing for Japanese knives.:

A ceramic Santoku knife. I prefer ceramic because it stays razor sharp and is very light. This style of knife is great for slicing and chopping fruits and vegetables. You can also use it for meat, but I prefer a chef's knife with a longer blade for that. My favorite Santoku is made by Kyocera (yes, another Japanese brand.):

A really good paring knife. I love these from Williams-Sonoma. I use them for peeling fruits and vegetables like apple skin and the tough woody ends of broccoli or asparagus. (I'm actually faster with a paring knife than with a peeler.) These are great for small cutting jobs like cubing avocado or hulling strawberries. You almost don't need peelers and hullers if you have a paring knife.:

Anyone else a Knife nerd like me? Let's talk!

Kitchen gadgets that everyone should have: Screwpull wine opener [NaBloPoMo Day 5]

This is a gadget that is especially appropriate today! (Yes we did!) Ahem. If you are like me and have a drawerful of wine openers that you can't figure out how to use, get thee a Screwpull. It is the easiest wine opener that you will ever use.

Here's how it works:

1. Remove the foil from the wine bottle
2. Set the Screwpull atop the bottle
3. Start turning.

That's it. Hold the sides firmly with one hand as you turn the handle with your other hand until the cork comes out. There is no twisting, adjusting those wingy things, setting the bottle between your legs as you puuuuullll the cork out. You don't have to worry about setting the screw exactly in the center. You won't push the cork through the neck of the bottle into the wine. The turning action of the Screwpull gets the cork all the way out easily and with almost no effort.

This is another kitchen gadget that I personally can't live without.  Is it more expensive than a grocery store wine opener? Yes, but it will last years.  Ours is at least 10-12 years old and is still working like a champ. Do you have one? Do you love it? Share!