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summary: radish leaf omelette made with onions, goat’s cheese and havarti; how to “cook” greens using salt; cast-iron pan rave (click on image to see larger view and more photos)

It’s radish season now and there are fabulously beautiful bunches of radishes at our vegetable store these days.

When I was little, I didn’t much like radishes. So much that I thought I didn’t like radishes at all until relatively recently. Last year I set myself straight. Radishes are fantastic!! I adore radishes!

I love their crunch. And slightly hot refreshing taste. And they look so pretty too!

But as much as I adore the radishes themselves, I find myself buying radishes just for the greens after discovering last year that radish greens are not only edible but delicious as well. It turns out that it wasn’t Hollandaise Sauce that made the radish greens so good in Eggs Fauxrentine.

This morning, T made the most wonderful radish greens omelette with onion, goat’s cheese and radish greens. The greens have an almost tea-like quality. They are slightly bitter yet sweet at the same time. If you haven’t already, you got to try them! (read more…)

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summary: recipe for baguettes and boule; the need for better fridge management; using an inverted roasting pan to create steam and oven spring; submission for YeastSpotting; (click on image to see larger views and more photos)

Follow up to: yeast + summer temperatures = oh oh!!

Two days ago, in spite of my whining, I was rather pleased with the shaped loaves that were in the fridge to rise overnight. I couldn’t wait to see how the bread would turn out. And I was very excited the next morning. I raced downstairs to take it out of the fridge to bring it to room temperature.

Hello!!! What did I find??

I’m still wondering how it happened that someone managed to choose to put a casserole dish on top of one of the large foreign looking containers covered with a giant plastic bag marked RISING BREAD in the fridge… and moved a large soda water bottle to sit on the side of the container as well. Did I mention that the message was in red ink?

Happily, bread WANTS to be bread and in spite of the over-risen preferments and crushed shaped dough in the fridge, we still ended up with lovely loaves.

Ha. It turns out that it doesn’t matter if there is a honking big casserole and giant soda water bottle placed on top of the loaves rising in the fridge. (read more…)

summary: summer temperatures make yeast very active and dill collapse; (click on image to see larger view)

This year, our spring was very cool. We really didn’t have anything approaching summer temperatures until the official first day of summer a couple of days ago. Now it’s 30C outside and last night’s temperature was in the teens.

I just can’t seem to remember that in the summertime, bread dough takes much less time to rise. I made two pre-ferments late last night and foolishly left them on the counter overnight. This is what they looked like early this morning. The one on top is supposed to be a biga.

The poolish is in the larger bowl and the bottom was completely liquid: a veritable pool. (I did not take a photo of that. I’d already put the camera away.) (read more…)

• inspired by
• SAVEUR magazine, Issue #120
• "The Real Afredo"
• By Todd Coleman
• (learn more by following this link)

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summary: recipe for fettucine Alfredo, based on an article and recipe by Todd Coleman in SAVEUR magazine; information about Presto Pasta Nights (PPN); (click on image to see larger views and more photos)

Okay okay!!! I’ll post about the Fettucine Alfredo we made!

I’ve always loved Fettucine Alfredo but found that it would often get gummy. And there was just too much cream. (I know. Can there really be too much cream?!) But this Fettucine Alfredo is different from any versions I’ve had before! If you’re on the “lots of butter” diet, you’ll love this version. Even if you’re not, you’ll love it….

Butter?!! In fettucine Alfredo? I bet you thought it was supposed to be cream, didn’t you? So did we.

It turns out that the only ingredients in real Fettucine Alfredo are fettucine, butter, cheese and - wait for it - pasta water!! A recent SAVEUR magazine (issue #120) article, “The Real Alfredo” by Todd Coleman set us straight: (read more…)

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summary: recipes for wine poached pears with goat’s cheese, toasted pecans & thyme, oven-dried pear slices; information on thyme and Weekend Herb Blogging; information about Lisa Orgler’s Lunch Box Project; (click on image for larger view and more photos)

Not long ago, I was wandering through Lisa Orgler’s wonderful Lunch Box Project * and came across several lovely pear drawings. I was particularly intrigued by Lisa’s lunch of sliced pears and white cheddar on pecan fruit bread.

It got me thinking about pears and wondering why I didn’t poach pears more often. A pear poached in red wine is one of my favourite things but I can’t seem to remember to take photos when I do make them! This had to be remedied!

It doesn’t really matter when we buy pears here in Toronto. They’re bound to be rock-hard. It’s really very sad. But I have found that they can be rescued and cajoled into tasting like pears by either oven-roasting them or poaching them.

The last time I poached pears, we put goat’s cheese into the centers of the pears. And always before that, we shaved Parmesan or Parmesan-like cheese over top of them. (Ooooh, I just thought of using gorgonzola! Wouldn’t that be phenomenal?!)

But I really liked the sound of Lisa’s pears with cheddar and pecan fruit bread and thought that adding pecans to the mix might be very nice.

But rather than making fruit bread, I decided to toast some pecans and add them as garnish. And while cheddar must be lovely with pecans and pears, I know that goat’s cheese is wonderful with pears. And besides, it fits so well in the cored area of the pear!

Straying even further from Lisa’s lunch, I started thinking about the thyme in our garden. I’ve not used thyme in a dessert before and thought, why not? It might be fun to add thyme. Because there’s never enough thyme, is there? (read more…)

summary: coffee made in a Vesuviana Coffee Maker; finding the right tamper; who uses all the spoons? (click on images to see larger views and more photos)

The only thing missing from our Vesuviana coffee maker was the tamper. The first couple of times we made coffee, we used the back of a spoon to tamp the coffee.

But we knew that wasn’t quite right, not to mention that we’re ALWAYS running out of clean spoons. (How does that happen? When I wash the dishes and put them away, it appears that we have hundreds of spoons. And yet a short time later, all the spoons have disappeared from the drawer. Are there people sneaking into our house to use the spoons while we’re not looking? )

So we headed out on our bikes to visit several kitchen stores for an actual tamper but the Vesuviana basket is slightly larger than standard baskets. We were going to compromise by using the bottom of an inexpensive wine glass when I suddenly remembered a set of tea light holders we had been given. The bottom of the candle holder fits exactly! And it is the perfect weight and size.

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summary: Cafe Latte made in a Vesuviana Coffee Maker; Kona coffee from Hawaii; (click on image to see larger views and more photos)

On Saturday, it was so beautiful out that we had to go for an early morning bike ride. We rode through the neighbourhood, remarking on all the irises in almost every garden (they’re amazing this year!) One of the streets was having a lawn sale festival. Several houses had all kinds of wonderful (and not so wonderful) items for sale. After visiting about 8 lawns and not seeing anything we wanted or needed, we were getting tired of the game and decided to go to just one more lawn.

Bingo!!! Isn’t it interesting that it really is the last place you look that you find things?

We were just getting back on our bikes when I noticed something shiny on a low table. Something shiny and very interesting looking. Much to T’s chagrin, I got off my bike and hurried (in a casual sort of way) over to the table, calling for him to follow me.

A closer look at the shiny gizmo and I said in a hushed voice, “Is that an espresso maker?”
(read more…)