Author: Annie

Weekend Finds 6:30:18

June 30, 2018June 26, 2018

It has been a while since I wrote a weekend finds post! I already have a handful of go-to recipes and ingredients for this summer that I wanted to share with you. Do you have any favorite summer recipes or restaurants you’re digging? Send them my way!

Rhubarb Custard Cake

I’ve made this cake twice now and here are the things I like about it:

Rhubarb
It takes no time at all
It is so easy

Those are all the reasons I need. Read through the recipe and remember that it’s supposed to be gooey, so don’t freak out when it comes out seemingly under-baked.

Lovely’s Fifty-Fifty

I hadn’t been to this amazing pizza place in North Portland in a long time, but we snagged a table outside after a day of strawberry picking on Sauvie Island. It’s a little on the pricey side for pizza, but holy moly it is so amazing. Hyper-seasonal toppings, the best crust in the city, all accompanied by beautiful salads and vegetables and a lovely staff and and and. I could go on. If you haven’t been, get your butt into a seat at this place.

Roasted Tomatoes | Serious Crust by Annie Fassler

It’s Tomato Roasting Season

If you haven’t roasted tomatoes before please do it. The time is now. Here is a recipe to get you started, but basically put your oven at about 250°, slice your tomatoes in half, nestle them in a baking dish, pour over a healthy amount of olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast for about 3 hours. You can nestle in sprigs of fresh herbs (I like oregano and thyme) and unpeeled, crushed cloves of garlic for some aromatics, but really there’s not much you can do to mess these up.

Trader Joe’s Chile Lime Seasoning

I bought Jonah a bottle of this stuff because he really likes the chile lime cashews from Trader Joe’s. But then it sat in our spice drawer untouched until I brought home a perfectly ripe melon from the store months later. Now I want to sprinkle it on all the fruit! Cut up your melon, toss in some lemon juice, and sprinkle this on for a mouth-watering, refreshing summer snack. It’s perfect for those hot days where you don’t want to move.

Soy-Basted Chicken with Citrus Sesame Sprinkle

I’ve already used this recipe from last summer’s Bon Appetit grilling issue three times this spring/summer. It’s so easy and you can skip the citrus sprinkle sesame if you don’t have time for it (but if you do have an extra minute, I’d highly recommend including the topping – it comes together in no time). Bonus: the marinade is so good with tofu for any vegetarians that might be attending your bbq! (Photos above are the tofu, plus my husband and friends out by the grill skewering chicken after a soccer game.)

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Spring Pea Blintzes

June 27, 2018June 26, 2018

I’m going to be honest folks. It feels a bit challenging to write about summer and my garden and produce when the world is falling apart. But here we are. I know, pea blintzes can feel trivial – they do to me too. I can’t spend 100% of my waking hours reading articles and calling representatives and being depressed about the state of the world, so I am doing my best to act like everything is normal and it’s all going to be fine. Despite the fact that at the moment it’s looking pretty bleak.

Now that we’ve got that depressing shit out of the way, I guess let’s talk about my garden. That sounds fun doesn’t it?

I feel like I’m in produce overdrive! Between our expanded beds and the CSA we have this year I’m having trouble keeping up with the lettuces, greens, peas, and radishes. I’ve been eating salads for every meal and adding sautéed collards or bok choy to everything I make. When shelling peas started coming in from my garden, these blintzes popped into my mind and I wasn’t able to get them out. I don’t recall eating that many blintzes as a child, but I know it happened, and that they were a treat filled with sweet cheese and topped with fruit. But every since eating blintzes stuffed with mushrooms at Malka’s chanukah pop up, I feel like the world of savory blintzes is a whole new world.

My little garden didn’t produce enough shelling peas for a full batch, so I supplemented with some frozen ones, steamed them with some lemon juice, layered them on top a creamy spiced cheese filling, and wrapped it all up in pillowy crepe-like pancakes. The result was just this side of savory, delicate and lovely, a dish that could be eaten at brunch or for a light dinner.

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Rhubarb Blondies

May 21, 2018July 27, 2018

A little while ago, I went to lunch at one of my favorite cafés (which, disclaimer, is also owned by my dear friend) with Jonah and another friend who was in town. After we finished eating, we were waxing poetic about their brown butter miso cookies. These cookies are quite possibly my favorite cookie of all time, and I do not say that lightly. They are certainly in the top three cookies I’ve ever had in my life. Why? First, when the miso mixes with the brown butter and sugar, it creates this amazingly complex butterscotch flavor. Second, I love anything with miso. You know that, I know that, why even pretend like it’s not true? As we were sitting there, talking about The Cookies, we decided to play a game called “will it miso?” We decided that pretty much all produce will miso (though I’m sure there are exceptions). Will cheese miso? I’m not so sure.

This got me thinking about the bag of rhubarb I had at home in my fridge. I hadn’t decided what to do with it yet – there was talk of ice cream, as well as the previously posted gluten-free rhubarb poppy seed bread – but all this talk of miso in baked goods got me thinking. We got home, I did a little research, and I got cooking.

Don’t be scared by the (optional) miso in this recipe. As I mentioned above, it mostly provides an extra butterscotch flavor, making it a little richer and complex. If you don’t have any miso, head to the store and pick up a small tub. You can use it every which way, and once you learn its magical power of making everything delicious, you won’t be able to stop using it. If you get stuck there are plenty recipes on this very blog that feature it, like this caramel apple cake, this sticky toffee pudding, these roasted vegetables, this roasted squash and tofu, and these vegetable quinoa bowls.

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Warm Lamb and Lentil Salad

April 27, 2018April 27, 2018

I have never really liked lentils. When I was young, lentils and beans both had this texture (I think from cooking them into oblivion until they became mushy and grainy) that I just couldn’t stand. And so I stopped eating them, simple as that. Mexican food became a slight challenge (back then, it was because I didn’t like beans, now it’s because I can’t eat corn), but I mostly got away with it. Beans re-entered my life when I started living with my friend Carmelle and she made the most amazing refried beans and vegetarian chili. But lentils… I still couldn’t get behind. I hadn’t ever had them and thought, “Now those are good lentils!”

Recently though, my sister has been on a microbiome and gut-health kick, telling us all that we should be eating this or that, sending us articles and books to read. And when she sent along a recipe for lentils on our family WhatsApp thread, I told her I didn’t really eat lentils. She proceeded to yell at me (as much as one can yell via text) and tell me that lentils are good for you and that I should be eating them. It also happens that around this time, I was in the thick of cooking my way through many recipes in Alison Roman’s Dining In. From it, I made a recipe for spiced lentils (used in a rendition of a salad nicoise) that I found to be incredibly delicious. So delicious in fact, that I told the checkout guy at the grocery store that he had to make it immediately, and I let him take a picture of the recipe I had on my phone.

So I was working on liking lentils, and I was off to a really good start. Now I’ve become a person that, instead of cooking a batch of rice or farro on Sunday afternoon for lunches that week, will cook a batch of lentils to be used in salads and bowls or seasoned with oil and herbs for a side. I feel like I don’t even know myself anymore.

As I’ve been looking for other ways to use this batch of lentils, a recipe slowly started formulating in my brain. The warmer weather has got me itching for all food that is representative of spring, and a warm salad with lentils and crispy lamb sprang to mind (pun very much intended). With a little heat from the onion, some creaminess from the yogurt, bites of juiciness from tomatoes, and a little tang from the feta, this recipe became a quick favorite. It’s easy enough to throw together, makes great leftovers, and doesn’t make too many dirty dishes. I think you’ll like it.

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