Hometown Glory

I recently came back from a trip to my native New Hampshire for a week and a half of barbecues, beach time, birthday parties and quality time with my parents and childhood friends. One of the best things about being home is being able to cook and bake in my mom's kitchen. It's not too special in terms of kitchens, but it's full of great ingredients and she has things like a standing mixer and food processor that I can only dream of in my tiny little apartment. She also has a grill! It's great. We somehow managed to use it every night we ate at home. I have every intention of requiring that my next place to live in SF must have a back yard so I can get a grill. Living on the third story of a ancient building in a cramped city block has few perks but hey, it's where I live. Here is a recap of some of the things I made and ate while I was back in the great state of New Hampshire:

Eating outdoors on our screened porch made everything that much more tasty.

Being able to grill was such a treat for me. Here is some grilled chicken marinated in (homemade by my mom) Italian dressing, grilled zucchini, yellow pepper, summer squash and broccoli (all brushed with garlic infused olive oil), potato salad and kale salad. The broccoli was grown in the plot my mom has at the local organic community garden! I have no clue how my mom made the potato salad, but it was good. Kale salad is something that I was introduced to recently by my friend's roommate. It's so easy and quick to make and is packed full of flavor and nutrients. Here's the recipe, adapted from Cookus Interuptus:

Massaged Kale Salad with Feta

Makes a big ol' bowl, about 8 servings as a side

Should take 20 minutes from start to finish (including prep)

1 bunch kale
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup toasted sunflower seeds 

1/2  cup diced red onion

1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons unfiltered apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

fresh cracked pepper

salt (as needed)

Directions: De-stem kale, chop, and place in a large bowl. Sprinkle salt on kale and "massage" it for about 4 minutes. Basically, rub it between your hands so the salt gets lots of contact with the kale and breaks it down a bit to make the leaves less tough. I like to use this step to rip up the kale a little to make the pieces more fine. There will be a bit of liquid extracted from the kale at this point. Drain liquid and put a splash of water on the kale to rinse off a little of the salt. This isn't totally necessary, but it gets a little salty tasting in the end if you don't. Squeeze excess liquid out of kale. Mix in red onion, red pepper, and sunflower seeds. Dress with oil and vinegar. Give it a good twist (or three) of fresh cracked pepper. Mix in feta and add more vinegar, oil, salt or pepper as needed. This salad is great served fresh, but the flavors really deepen if you let it sit for a few hours (or even overnight) covered in the fridge. Enjoy! Note: this salad is great with virtually any vegetables or cheese. It's great with diced apple, too. I like to make sure everything is chopped finely so that you get a good mix of everything in each bite. 

Next up are homemade Chipwiches. Ever heard of one? They were an absolute favorite of my best friend, Katelyn, and I decided to make them one night after hearing her mention Coolhaus, an LA/NYC/Austin company that sells gourmet ice cream sandwiches. A classic Chipwich is quite simple: vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two chocolate chip cookies, then rolled in mini chocolate chips. I'm sure that mixing and matching ice cream flavors and types of cookie (a la Coolhaus) would be amazing, but I wanted to keep it basic for my first time. I used this recipe from Family Spice, which I think turned out well. Although the cookies are made with whole wheat flour and wheat bran, they definitely do not taste it. If anything the wheat bran adds a touch of nuttiness to the cookie which I enjoyed. They stayed crisp but not too hard after being frozen. One thing I may add is that if you plan on doing a full recipe, get two quarts of ice cream instead of just one. 

Nom

One thing I accomplished for the first time ever was making a pie. I got the inspiration from seeing this link posted on the internet. I picked blueberries with Katelyn at the local organic farm stand and busted out my mom's food processor to make my first ever crust. It was surprisingly more easy than I would have thought, though I wasn't too keen on the flavor results (so tart! not nearly enough sugar). The final product, however, was beautiful...at least I think. I used a cookie cutter that my mom used to use when making little tiny sandwiches for my lunch when I was in preschool. I won't post a recipe because I don't think that it was that great, and it would require me to pick my brain as to where I found the recipe in the first place.

My first ever pie!

For a barbecue that my mom was going to, I made her a green bean caprese salad with a quick homemade balsamic vinaigrette. It was so easy!

So fresh and easy to make.

Green Bean Caprese Salad
Serves 6-8 as a side

3/4 lb of fresh green beans cut in half with ends snipped
8oz container of cherry tomatoes, sliced length-wise
8oz container of mini fresh mozzarella balls
handful of fresh basil, roughly chopped
1/2 cup of balsamic vinaigrette, or more as needed
salt and pepper

Directions: Blanch green beans for 3 minutes in boiling salted water, draine and put in an ice bath. Drain again. In a large bowl, mix green beans, tomatoes, mozzarella and basil with vinaigrette. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately or keep refrigerated until ready to serve. 


One of the things I was most proud of were carrot cake whoopie pies I made for a beautiful party I went to at my friend Luke's. It was his birthday along with my friends Will and Alex. Will requested I made a carrot cake, then we decided I should make carrot cake whoopie pies instead. I have to give credit where credit is due: Katelyn did the majority of them. I just baked the pies and made the cream cheese frosting. They were a huge success. I got my recipe from Tracey's Culinary Adventures. Thank you, Tracey! They were great. Here they are with three candles in them for each of the birthday boys.

Happy Birthday, boys!

Here are a couple more pictures from the party...

I don't think I've ever loved a burger more...

I ate a lot of burgers (okay like three) while I was home, all from Organic Prairie meats, purchased from the great little health food store in town. A lot of meat really freaks me out, so it was great to know that I was eating quality organic beef that I can enjoy and not think of the gross living conditions and horrible diets the cows were raised in (I'm paranoid like that). The flavor of the burgers was incredible. Just a little salt, pepper and garlic were all they needed along with a whole wheat bun and Vermont sharp cheddar. I will definitely be buying their products if I find them here in SF. 

The famous 'spread'

 Luke's house is gorgeous and he was so great to let us all celebrate there. It's a log cabin on top of a mountain in the woods. I can't imagine what it is like to live there in the winter, but the summer must make up for it. The house, the land, the view..all perfect.Food at the party included whole wheat chicken-scallion dumplings, three loaves of rustic bread (plain, sesame seed, and olive) that I wish I knew where they were from, an array of amazing cheeses (including brie and Manchego, which I probably ate half of), fruit salad, green salad, and potato salad. The party was perfect, the type of gathering that makes me wish I still lived in town to enjoy all of the fun gatherings my friends have on a regular basis. I did, however, have a few too many blueberry vodka lemonades (boozeberry lemonade) and said silly things to everyone at the party. Oh, well. Recipe soon on on that one.

Resident chickens, Consuela and Santa Maria

The view from the porch

It was, in all, a very successful trip home. I had a hard time leaving, but will be happy to be in San Francisco come late October when the ground freezes in New Hampshire and it doesn't thaw out till March. 


xoxo Cathleen