Corn Chowder

Corn Chowder

1/2 C diced bacon

4 medium potatoes chopped

1/2 medium onion, chopped

2 C water

2 1/2 - 3 C corn (creamed or frozen - I used a combo)

2 t salt

pepper to taste

2 C half-and-half

shredded cheddar cheese, for garnish

Saute bacon until crisp; add onion and potato and cook for a few minutes, until onions are translucent.  Add water, corn, and salt.  Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 20 minutes.  Add the half-and-half, stir.  Serve with cheese to garnish.  If you want it to look even prettier, reserve a little bacon and chop up some green onions or chives to garnish as well.

A New Year's resolution and some olive oil granola

So I have been very, very bad at posting all fall.  As in, no posts.  Well, guess what my New Year's resolution is?  You guessed it, to post more!  I know it's the same resolution I made last year, but I'm going to go for it again.  If all goes to plan, I will post consistently every Monday.

So, with that said, I found a fantastic granola recipe that I love.  I found it at the kitchn, where they reviewed it over a year ago.  It was originally published in the New York Times.  The link is http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/recipe-review/watch-out-dangerously-addictive-olive-oil-granola-recipe-review-092132  If you follow this link, it will lead you to the original recipe.

This granola uses pistachios, raw pumpkin seeds, maple syrup, and cinnamon and cardamom.  I was going to include dried blueberries, but decided at the last minute to leave them out.  I'm glad I did.  This granola is fantastic, free of dried fruit.

The resulting granola was full of delicious chunks, caramelized, nutty, and cardamom-y.

I made a few modifications from the recipe, due to what I had on hand.  It calls for raw pistachios, but I only had roasted/salted.  They worked fine.  I also didn't have any dried apricots, and thus included no dried fruit.  I had dark brown sugar instead of light brown sugar, but I think that just lended itself to the caramelized finish at the end.  Finally, I lined my baking sheet with parchment, which made transferring the granola to a jar that much easier.

I took this granola to work this morning for a co-worker's birthday.  I also brought some ricotta and fresh blueberries to serve with it.  Yum!  I will be making this one again for sure!

Bounty from the garden

Bush beans. I love the purple striations they get when they are still growing.

Walla Walla food adventures!

Burgers w/ green bean and feta roasted potatoes

Truffles. The one in the foreground is shiso sesame.

Farmer's Market is open!

sugar snaps

little tiny strawberries

I'm excited that it's finally Farmer's Market season! Pictured are the sugar snap peas and the strawberries I picked up from the Tuesday evening market. I feel lucky to live in a city that has not one, but four farmer's markets during the summer. That means four times a week that I can go to an outdoor stand and get fruit and veggies picked fresh that day.

The snap peas above were cooked with shrimp in a ginger-soy stirfry over somen noodles. It was okay, but nothing too exciting. The peas were definitely the stars. I prepared the rest of the snaps with a lemon-chive dressing. It is marinating in the fridge as we speak, we'll see how it turns out!

For some reason I have a hard time eating strawberries whole - if I leave them that way they tend to go bad. So I quartered the strawberries and tossed them with blueberries. Yum. That's my favorite summer fruit salad.

More food I made

salted brown butter crispy squares (from Smitten Kitchen)

dill popovers

beef stroganoff with green beans (my first attempt at cooking with mushrooms)

chipotle chicken salad with mango-papaya salsa

December in Food

A quick dinner using leftover stuffing breadcrumbs: cornbreaded chicken and steamed broccoli. Simple, healthy, and very good.

It doesn't look like much, but it's beouf bourgingon (or however you spell it) from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Time-consuming to make, but worth the effort. This was Christmas dinner.

I know I didn't make this, but I have to pay a little homage to the best Friday-night food combo: cheap beer, pretzels, and yellow mustard. Best when paired with bowling. How I miss bowling.

Another thing I didn't make, and technically I ate it on January 1st, not in December, but this lamb burger I ate at Louisa's Bakery and Cafe in Seattle was delicious. It was lamb with a cucumber relish on top. Very tasty.