Monday Morning Coffee Break

Hello my lovely readers!  I hope your 3-day weekend continues on as wonderfully as mine has.  We went down to Cambria for a good friend’s wedding, and spent the evening meeting new friends, laughing, and predicting what pears would be falling off of the tree in the garden (long story, but funny one).  In the meantime, enjoy a few of these quick links.

Lindsay at Love & Olive Oil has tried her hand at making tofu.  I must try this for myself.

Laura at Blogging Over Thyme made an incredibly simple and incredibly beautiful tomato & zucchini tart.  This is one to impress with.

The Kitchn has a great post about 5 ways in which to be a great dinner guest.  Excellent advice from the other end of party hosting.

Out of the kitchen and into the closet: Buzzfeed has 20 ways to improve vintage clothing.  I don’t know about you, but I will definitely be breaking out the sewing machine for a few of these tutorials.

And finally, come back on Wednesday for a special announcement 🙂  Have a wonderful week!

 

Creme Fraiche and Pink Peppercorn Ice Cream

I have reached the pinnacle of dessert making awesomeness: I own an ice cream maker.  I have wanted to make ice cream since I was a little kid.  My mom always told this story about her grandfather who would make homemade strawberry ice cream, and eat it wearing his winter coat.  I remember a recipe for snow ice cream in my old Boxcar Children cookbook which fascinated me.  But, up until now, I had never made ice cream myself.  That has changed.

Since I got my KichenAid ice cream maker, I have made ice cream 4 times: chocolate peanutbutter, homemade Cherry Garcia (intended for my sister, but my parents got to it first), toasted coconut and caramel (for my dad’s birthday), and this one: creme fraiche and pink peppercorn.

I have had this recipe rolling around in my head for months.  The tart creme fraiche with the bite of the peppercorn.  I’ve had creme fraiche ice cream, and peppercorn ice cream, but never the two combined.  Experimentation was definitely in the cards on this one.

First, you start with the creme fraiche.  Most high-end grocers have this, and usually charge an arm and a leg, but did you know you can make it at home?  A little cream a little buttermilk, and a little bit of time and you’re in business.  I keep a jar in the fridge most of the time; it’s a great substitute for sour cream; tart but subtle, more mild and a much creamier texture.  I used cream, milk, and the creme fraiche in this recipe; rich and indulgent, but delicious none the less.  This is definitely not an ice cream you scarf down in a huge cereal bowl; this ice cream is best in single scoop servings, eaten slowly and decadently.  Definitely fancy ice cre

Have you made any ice cream lately?  What’s your go-to flavor? THG

Creme Fraiche

2 cups heavy cream (unpasturized if possible)

2 Tbsp. buttermilk (unpasturized if possible)

In a mason jar, gently mix together cream and buttermilk.  Cover opening with cheesecloth and let stand out in a cool, dry space for 24 hours.  Seal and refrigerate.  Creme fraiche lasts about 10 days.

Creme Fraiche and Pink Peppercorn Ice Cream

1 Tbsp. pink peppercorns, crushed

1 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup creme fraiche

3/4 cup low-fat milk

4 egg yolks

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. sea salt

In a medium saucepan, bring heavy cream and peppercorns to a simmer.  Let sit and infuse for 20-30 minutes.

In the meantime, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until thick and ribboned.  Slowly whisk in warm cream mixture.  Add creme fraiche, milk, vanilla and sea salt and whisk to combine.  Place mixture back on stovetop and bring to a simmer.  Transfer mixture to a mixing bowl and refrigerate until cooled thoroughly, about 4-5 hours or overnight.

Add cold mixture to ice cream maker and set to manufacturer’s instructions.  Serve or freeze immediately.

Makes 1 quart

 

Monday Morning Coffee Break

 

 

Good morning!  How was your weekend?  I had some family in town for a dad/brother birthday celebration.  Good food, good company.  Just the thing to send you into a busy work week.

Are you a big Instagrammer?  These apps will help your photos to REALLY pop.

These vintage food ads might leave you without an appetite.

Let’s cleanse our palette.  These peach caramels by Lindsay of Love & Olive Oil should do the trick.

Adrianna at A Cozy Kitchen shows you how to make one fancy-ass BLT.

 

 

The Humble Gourmet on Babble

Hey friends! Hope everyone is well on this Friday morning. I have been anxiously awaiting the weekend; plans to see the lovely Emily to get an exciting recap of her London vacation. I expect to be green with envy. A trip to the Oakland Zoo (my favorite) and a few new recipes to share with all of you. But, for today some exciting news. I have been featured on Babble.

Sheri from Donuts, Dresses and Dirt has done a feature on recipes using truffle salt and used my truffle caramels recipe. Go to Babble to check it out!
Thanks again Sheri for the notice!

 

Monday Morning Coffee Break

 

Good morning!  Hope all of your weekends went swimmingly.  We spent our time relaxing and indulging on our new Breaking Bad addiction (seriously, cannot stop watching!)  In the meantime, spend your morning perusing these interesting little corners of the Internet:

Jennifer at The Craft Patch has been testing out popular Pinterest tutorials to mixed results.

This brief history on the banana is fascinating.

Ever intimidated by strange cooking terms?  This post breaks them all down for you.  So butterfly/braise/render away!

 

 

Spiced Plum Preserves

 

Now that my energy is starting to come back, I find myself in the kitchen more and more. Baking and cooking, developing new recipes, tweaking and perfecting old ones, trying new techniques and experimenting. I have been so … dormant for the past 4 months, I’m having to rediscover my footing. Aside from weeknight dinners, I hadn’t been cooking at all. I didn’t have the strength to stand in front of the stove, carefully watching a roux, or rolling out and shaping a pie crust, or whisking cream to a perfect peak. Anything that took more than 15 minutes start to finish was more than I could handle. But, with time, I’ve been spending more and more time back in the kitchen. A little here, a little there. I feel like I’m finding my stride again.

And in perfect time too. Our many fruit trees have entered their harvest, and we have more lemons and plums and apples than we know what to do with. Last weekend, Shawn came in from the backyard with about 50 red plums. Sweet and fragrant and perfectly ripe. We gave a few away to friends, ate a few for dessert, and found ourselves with dozens more and no idea of what to do with them. I decided that that was the perfect time to get started on preserves.

I chose preserves instead of a jam or jelly because I didn’t want to mess pectin. A simple recipe that I could put together in an afternoon. I had bought a set of Ball jars about a month ago, so it was just a matter or prepping them for canning.

This is a great recipe for anyone new to preserves and canning. Deceptively simple. Fresh, ripe plums transform into a sweet, syrupy spread. Cinnamon and allspice add a little spicy zip on the finish. Brown sugar creates more of depth than just white sugar. Summer fruit with an autumn spice.

What have you been doing with your seasonal fruit this summer? THG

Spiced Plum Preserves
3 lbs. fresh red plums
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
zest and juice of 1 small lemon
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp. whole allspice

Prep and sterilize 4 500ml canning jars according to directions.

Remove stone and slice plums into 1/2 inch thick slices. Place in a large sauce pot. Add sugar, brown sugar, lemon zest and juice and mix well. Place cinnamon stick and allspice in a large piece of cheesecloth and tie the ends, creating a bundle. Add to the plum mixture.
On medium-high heat, bring plum mixture to a rolling boil. Boil for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer pot until mixture reaches 220-230F and passes setting point test (to test setting point, place a small amount of cooked liquid on a plate and put in freezer for about 3 minutes. If the mixture doesn’t run when removed from freezer, it’s ready. If it still runs, continue to cook for another 5 minutes and test again). When mixture is ready, remove spice bag and spoon into prepared jars, leaving 1/2 inch space between the preserves and the top of the jar. Wipe down the neck and screw on the lid, finger-tight. Submerge in boiling water 15 minutes to process. Let cool to room temperature. Store in a cool, dry space. After opening preserve, store in the refrigerator.

Makes approximately 2 liters of preserves.

 

Monday Coffee Break

Happy Monday everyone!
Welcome to my new weekly post: Monday Coffee Break. Just a look at some of the links I came across this past week, everything from recipes to movies to literature to yes, celebrity gossip. Take a gander and have a great week!

Adrianna at A Cozy Kitchen has started a great new post series where she visits different restaurants and bakeries and learns the secrets to their signature dishes. Her first post in the series was a particularly personal visit.
Pajiba has ranked our top 10 irrational fears stemmed from horror movies. I know I myself am guilty of #5 on occasion.
Pleated Jeans has compiled a list of book titles with one letter missing. I don’t know about you, but “The Princess Brie” sounds like a page-turner.
Read this list of the most perfectly timed Internet moments. Giggles will abound.

 

Friday Instagram Round-Up 7

I am so ready for the weekend, how about you?  Shawn and I got a Blu-ray/DVD/Streaming Netflix device for our birthdays, so this past week has been a blur of work, cooking and Arrested Development episodes (SOOOO good).  Plus, a little time for Instagram.

 

Working from home because of the BART strike.  Nice to final put that office to use after a year.

Leftovers from dinner the night before resulted in this breakfast delight: herb and mashed potato omelette.

Emily and I threw a girl’s cocktail party with small bites; super fun!

Quick dinner: dry rubbed roasted pork, peach and basil yogurt wrap.  So, so good.

Also, for all you bloggers out there, Nichole from Vanilla Extract is organizing her Blog Brunch on Sunday, July 21.  Visit Vanilla Extract to RSVP!

Have a great weekend!

 

 

Let’s Eat Out: Italian Colors in Montclair

Hello chickies!  So, with the start of July, the start of the second half of 2013, I’ve decided to start a new post series: Let’s Eat Out.

I’ve found that we tend to eat out a bit more in the summer; between busy schedules and a house that’s too hot to be cooking in, we frequent local restaurants more than usual.  We have our stand-bys, our favorites, but we are always open to new places near us.  We stick mainly to the East Bay, but every now and then we venture into SF for a day and a meal.  So, for this series, we will visit some of our usual haunts, as well as a few new ones, to give you the best of what the Bay has to offer.

For our first post, I thought I would start with a restaurant that has a bit of personal history: Italian Colors in Montclair, also referred to as “The Birthday Restaurant.”

Source

Montclair is an up-scale canyon neighborhood in Oakland.  Lots of restaurants, little shops and beautiful homes.  Italian Colors is located off in a hillside shopping area off Highway 13.  A small, bistro-style Italian restaurant with a full bar.  They pride themselves is using fresh and local ingredients.  Their menu features simple, seasonal and delicious appetizers, pasta dishes, main courses and desserts.  I call it “The Birthday Restaurant” because in the handful of times I’ve been there, almost every time has been for someone’s birthday.  I first went in high school with a friend who’s favorite restaurant it was.  From then on, I just found myself going there to celebrate various other birthdays, including my own.  That’s how Shawn and I found ourselves there last Wednesday; a birthday celebration.  Our birthdays are two days apart (me on the 25th, him on the 27th), so we tend to celebrate on the day in between.  This year, we ventured out to Italian Colors for a little culinary celebration.

 

To start, Ahi Tuna Cones with ahi tuna tartare, soy sake aioli, guacamole and sesame seeds, served in a sesame cracker cone.  One thing you need to know about me: if ahi tuna tartare is on the menu, you can pretty much bet I’m going to order it.  I love it.  This is an excellent preparation, with the cool creaminess of the guacamole and the crunch of the cracker cone.  Excellent start to dinner.

For my main dish, I had the gnocchi primavera.  Asparagus, sweet peas and artichoke hearts in a light, creamy white wine sauce.  The gnocchi was perfect, fluffy and light without ever being rubbery or chewy, just really well formed.  This dish was technically an appetizer, but it was definitely large enough for one person as a main course.

Dessert was a little different.  I ordered the apricot-tarragon pureé with orange panna cotta and blueberry sauce (YUM!) but unfortunately they were out that night (boo!).  Instead I ordered the chocolate torte with whipped cream raspberry sauce and fresh berries, which was delicious (though not quite as interesting as what I had originally ordered, but still well done).

Italian Colors is always a great date night out option for anyone in the Bay Area; fun atmosphere and delicious food.  Bon Appetit!

 

Let’s Eat Out restaurant recommendations are based entirely on my own taste and opinion.  I am not compensated for any reviews written here.

 

 

Summertime Potato Salad

Potatoes, celery, lemongrass and herbs. Vinaigrette instead of heavy creamy dressing. Light and fresh and flavorful. This salad screams summer.

We welcomed in the warm weather with a backyard feast. We recently remade our patio with a chaise, love seat and fire pit. Polish sausage and hot dogs, cold root beers and this potato salad? We are ready to welcome in the longer nights and hotter days with delicious, seasonal meals. And this potato salad? Well, it’s just the first course. We’ll have many more summertime recipes in the upcoming months. So, pull up a seat, grab a plate, and watch out for ants!

Summertime Potato Salad
1 lb. Yukon gold potatoes
3 stalks celery, diced
1/2 stalk fresh lemongrass, finely minced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 Tbsp. fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 1/2 Tbsp. fresh dill, finely chopped
1/2 lemon
1 Tbsp. sherry vinegar
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
3 Tbsp. walnut oil
1/3 cup olive oil
Sea salt and pepper

Pierce potatoes with a fork. Boil in salted water until fork tender. Drain and set aside to cool.

Dice cold potatoes into 1/2 inch pieces. In a large bowl combine potatoes, celery, lemongrass and garlic. Toss gently to combine. Add parsley, dill and zest of 1/2 lemon. Set aside.

Whisk together juice of 1/2 lemon, sherry vinegar and Dijon mustard. Slowly drizzle in walnut oil and olive oil, whisking the whole time to emulsify. Whisk in sea salt and pepper. Pour over potato salad and toss gently to combine. Serve cold.

Serves 4-6