Springing forward

Happy first day of spring!

The most vernal of vegetables, asparagus, nestled in the tastiest of cheeses (fontina and gruyere), spread on the puffiest of pastry, accompanied by a soft-boiled egg [the breakfastlunchdinner breakthrough of 2012].  Hello, spring.

photo via (by Kana Okada)

Asparagus and Cheese Tart (Food Network Magazine, April 2012)

1 pound asparagus, trimmed

1 sheet frozen puff pastry (about 1/2 pound), thawed

All-purpose flour, for dusting

1 cup grated fontina cheese (about 3 ounces)

1 cup grated comte or gruyere cheese (about 3 ounces)

1 tablespoon minced shallot

2 large egg yolks

3 tablespoons whole milk

1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Fill a large bowl with ice water. Bring about 1 inch of water to a boil in a large skillet. Add the asparagus; cook until bright green and crisp-tender, 2 to 5 minutes, depending on the thickness of the asparagus. Drain and transfer to the ice water to stop the cooking; drain and pat dry. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Roll out the puff pastry into a 10-by-16-inch rectangle on a floured surface. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet and prick all over with a fork. Bake until light golden brown, about 12 minutes. Let cool slightly on the baking sheet.

Meanwhile, mix the fontina, comte, shallot, egg yolks, milk, nutmeg and a pinch each of salt and pepper in a bowl until combined. Spread the cheese mixture evenly over the puff pastry, leaving a 1-inch border on all sides. Toss the asparagus with the olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste. Arrange the asparagus on the tart and bake until the cheese mixture is slightly puffy, 15 to 20 minutes. Sprinkle with the lemon zest. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Spring is like a perhaps hand
by E. E. Cummings
III Spring is like a perhaps hand (which comes carefully out of Nowhere)arranging a window,into which people look(while people stare arranging and changing placing carefully there a strange thing and a known thing here)and changing everything carefully spring is like a perhaps Hand in a window (carefully to and fro moving New and Old things,while people stare carefully moving a perhaps fraction of flower here placing an inch of air there)and without breaking anything.     What are your spring plans? Changing everything carefully - or seismically?

South By

On Saturday we headed to Austin to see a friend from St Louis at her radio station's (the awesome KDHX, you can stream it here) SXSW day party at Jovita's.

Hi Caron!

We caught most of Joe Pug's show, a great songwriter.  Eager to hear more of his material -- he is touring now, so if you like this clip, you can check him out soon in a city near you.



Outside on the patio of Jovita's

View from the Jovita's patio to other side of the creek

 Then Luke played a show at Sam's Boat, enjoyed a green beer, made some new fans.  If you haven't liked Lucas Jack on Facebook, you should!

Can you believe all of this fits in a 2005 Equinox?

View from the front seat (supervisory role).  Bottom half of piano.

Speaker #1 and top half of piano

Speaker tripod

Speaker #2
Not pictured: bag of cables, keyboard, lights, monitor, et cetera

As the 'Nox has been slipping in terms of transportational tenability/sustainability, Luke has been shopping for vans recently, an activity we have dubbed:

Vanderlust

Vanity Lair

Van envy

and so on.

Swiss Charred

If you have read this blog before, you have read about my many attempts to use the Swiss chard that has been a part of my CSA share for the past 15 weeks.  Sauteed, stirred into slow cooker balsamic chicken, folded into enchiladas... this week I wanted to try chard chips, following the logic that everything is better with oil and salt.  I followed the recipe here with the following results:



So pretty this week: yellow, orange, white.

Cut into bite size pieces, sprayed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt.



Swiss charred

So, yeah... marginal improvement.  Folded into enchiladas and this scrumptious bacon-and-butternut pasta are by far the tastiest ways to employ chard.  (And today I found frozen chunks of butternut squash at the grocery store, so I will make the squash pasta more often.  Prepping the squash is labor intensive and requires a very sharp knife - mine are just too dull most of the time).

On a sweet note, these pistachio baklava tartlets took 10 minutes to make and have all the salty-sweet goodness of baklava minus the hassle of working with finicky phyllo dough.  Opa!

photo via

Directions

Melt 5 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium heat. Place 15 mini phyllo shells on a baking sheet and brush with 1 tablespoon of the melted butter. Bake at 350 degrees F until just golden, 10 minutes. Meanwhile, add 1/4 cup chopped pistachios, 1/4 cup each honey and sugar, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest, 1/4 teaspoon allspice and a pinch of salt to the butter in the skillet; cook, stirring until thick, 5 minutes. Divide among the shells and sprinkle with grated chocolate. Let cool.

Feeling Full

from 'Feeling Full' by Anne Lamott (Oprah, April 2012)

All I ever wanted since I arrived here on Earth were the things that turned out to be within reach, the same things I needed as a baby—to go from cold to warm, lonely to held, the vessel to the giver, empty to full. You can change the world with a hot bath, if you sink into it from a place of knowing that you are worth profound care, even when you're dirty and rattled.

via

CAPS LOCKED AND LOADED

You can freeze buttermilk?  YES.  Another tip: to save bacon fat, strain any sediment and refrigerate for up to 6 months.  Use in place of butter or oil in anything.  (Make the Most of Your Groceries, Everyday Food, March 2012) 

... armed with this tidbit, I purchased a little Mason jar of fat from Restaurant Gwendolyn's stand at the farmers' market this Sunday, which the seller/butcher/chef told me was not just rendered bacon fat but fat of  'the whole pig'.  Sounds very Upton Sinclair, but in a good way.  WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE.

When using just the white or just the yolk, I throw away the other component.  NO MORE.  Leftover egg whites can be refrigerated for 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.  If not using yolks, cover with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming and refrigerate for up to 2 days.  (The Fearless Baker, page 15)

 

This gorgeous essay.  READ IT.

This ATK recipe for lightened-up carrot cake calls for 1 jar of carrot baby food (DUBIOUS) and 1 cup of marshmallow creme (BACK ON BOARD).

Bless Her Heart blog I read very few blogs (AT ALL) and most are written by people I know. This Austin blog is just lovely - her photography is gorgeous and the author is just so likable. (I understand a personal blog can serve all sorts of purposes- humor, diary, catharsis, cooking, kvetching and on and on) Ms. Blessherheart puts good energy out into the world. Isn't that the highest calling?

BRANCHING OUT... Today's Letters for a glimpse of a pretty cute couple being adorable.  Maybe too saccharine for daily perusal; save for rescue in straits of emotional hypoglycemia.

Betsy & The Breakfast Sandwich

Jeff, Tracie and Betsy just moved to Denver and my mom sent a care package of Wolferman's English muffins to greet them- Tracie posted this photo as a thank-you, saying they made the perfect Betsy-sized breakfast sandwiches:

And I thought:

Betsy is so cute!
and
I really want a breakfast sandwich!

I had some sausage patties on hand that I had cooked for breakfast-for-dinner the other day (CSA beef sausage, which renders no fat during cooking and is so flavorful) - next step, biscuit.

Enter "The Best Buttermilk Biscuits" from America's Test Kitchen Baking Book:

3-3/4 (18-3/4 oz) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered buttermilk*
2 T sugar
4 t baking powder
1-1/2 t salt
1 t baking soda
12 T (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 0.5 inch chunks
4 T vegetable shortening, chilled and cut into 0.5 inch chunks
1-1/4 whole milk*

*you can use 1-1/4 regular buttermilk for the milk and omit the powdered buttermilk, which is what I did.  The authors write that powdered buttermilk imparts the best flavor.

1.  Place oven rack in middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
2.  Pulse the dry ingredients in a food processer to combine, about 3 pulses. Scatter butter and shortening over the top and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, 15 pulses.
3.  Transfer flour mixture to a large bowl and stir in milk (or buttermilk) with a rubber spatula until flour comes together.  Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead until dough is uniform, about 30 seconds.  Roll dough into a 10 inch round about 1 inch thick.
4.  Using a floured 2.5 inch biscuit cutter, stamp out 12 biscuits, reforming dough from scraps as needed.  Arrange biscuits upside down on prepared baking sheets, 1.5 inches apart.
5.  Bake for 5 minutes.  Rotate pan, reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees and continue to bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes.  Transfer to wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes.

To make ahead: the cut, unbaked biscuits can be covered and refrigerated for up to 24 hours; bake as directed.

The verdict: Delicious biscuits with a lean and flavorful sausage patty.  Mmm breakfast sandwiches!  Luke said, Those are really good biscuits, and I don't even like biscuits.

Breakfast breakthroughs abound  After watching this episode of Cook's Country, I wanted to try the fluffy diner-style omelet, which also appears in the Cook's Country cookbook, of which the Baltimore Sun wrote:

"The people who worked on this cookbook are fanatics about details, and they are not afraid to use cream."

Which pretty much falls in line with my personal ethos.

You'll need:
3 T heavy cream, chilled
5 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 t salt
2 T unsalted butter
1/2 cup shredded cheese

1.  Heat oven to 400 degrees with rack in middle position.  With an electric mixer, beat the cream until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes.  Set aside.  Beat eggs and salt on high speed until frothy and eggs have tripled in volume, 2 minutes.  Fold cream into eggs.
2.  Melt butter in 10 inch ovensafe nonstick skillet over medium-low heat, swirling to coat sides.  Add egg mixture and cook until edges are nearly set, 2-3 minutes.  Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of cheese and transfer to oven.  Bake until eggs are set, 6-8 minutes.
3.  Remove pan from oven (handle is very hot!)  Sprinkle with remaining cheese and cover until melted, about 1 minutes.  Tilt pan and slide half of the omelet onto a carving board, then use the pan to flip the omelet over onto itself. Cut in half and serve.

So fluffy

Luke makes a breakfast sandwich

 

Yum.  As Buddhists say, after the ectasy, the laundry.  To the gym! 

Friday Finds

Hello, Friday-after-work:

Little finds from the Interwebs and beyond:

These gorgeous portraits of Eleanor Callahan by her husband, photographer Harry Callahan

Cartography, meet Couch: map pillows and other prints (here's the Missouri!)

Boho forever!  Love this dress.

Need a gift for the tweens in your life?  High school friend Travis Nichols is a cartoonist and author and you can buy his newest book right here.

Home scent: water, splash of vanilla, sliced lemon and a sprig of rosemary.  Fabulous.

via One More Moore

Bumble and Bumble straight blow dry balm: great scent, tames the hair

To try: No-Knead Pizza Dough (Jim Lahey, Bon Appetit)

I have a pile of books, wintry weather, husband making music, sweatpants* warm from the dryer and nowhere to be... heavenly.  Have a great weekend, dear ones!

*also, no shame