» Ginger

I am starting to get a little antsy for spring. We’ve had a few days of invitingly warm weather with all of the trimmings of spring—lovely temperatures and blue skies filled with drifting white clouds. The trees are beginning to send out anxious green leaves and the tulips are exploding with color. It seems like the season is taunting us though, because just when we set up the patio, the temperatures take a dive and we hurry back inside to warm up. I don’t really mean to complain, but this year I am really looking forward to the warmer months ahead.

Since the weather is not consistently cooperating yet, I’ve begun to force the issue at the table with our menu choices. The comforting and filling soups of winter are gone, saved for another season. My roasting pan is taking a bit of a break from cauliflower and cabbage. Instead, I’ve been looking to vegetable combinations in crunchy salads to make our meals feel a little lighter. I pulled my mandolin out of the pantry and I’ve been thinly slicing everything from radishes to fennel and endive. For some reason, the paper-thin slices of these vegetables evoke spring, even though they have been in my salad rotation for months now.

Our unusually warm winter may have had a hand in it, but I have a row of arugula from last year that is coming on in full force right now. It is a wild variety with leaves shaped like that of a small dandelion. Tufts of dark green foliage are sprouting up in the garden and growing at a surprising rate. While there are not enough greens to fill the salad bowl, I know I’d better keep them trimmed before they get ahead of our salad habit.

So when I found a salad recipe that plays the tongue-tingling pepper bite of arugula off of salty halloumi cheese and tart cherries, I was excited to give it a try. Around here, halloumi is known as “barbecue cheese” by my son. During the warm summer months, I like to throw a couple of slices onto the grill, pairing it with just-cooked vegetables or fresh salads. In this recipe, the cheese is cooked on the stove, which works well even if your patio is not quite ready for spring!

Spring greens and halloumi salad
Serves 4

Adapted from Sunset magazine

Dressing

3 tablespoons olive oil
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1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon dried mint leaves, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Salad
1 small fennel bulb, trimmed and sliced thinly
1 tablespoon lemon juice
5 cups salad greens
1/2 cup dried tart cherries
1 package halloumi cheese, drained and sliced into 1/4-inch slices
4 small sprigs of oregano

To make the dressing, combine the ingredients in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.

To make the salad, toss the sliced fennel with the lemon juice in a bowl. Combine the salad greens and dried cherries on a platter.

Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat, add halloumi slices and oregano sprigs. Cook, turning once, until the cheese turns golden brown. The cheese will give off some brine as it cooks. Once the brine dries, it will be time to turn the cheese. Cooking time will be about 4 to 6 minutes. Remove the pan from heat and discard the oregano.

Toss the greens and cherries with just enough dressing to coat, then toss in the fennel. Arrange the halloumi slices on top of the salad and drizzle with any remaining dressing. Serve immediately.

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Cheesecake

No matter what I am baking or prepping in the kitchen, Blaise wants to make a blue version of it. Most often, it’s blue cupcakes. And not just any blue cupcakes, chocolate blue cupcakes. While I am still trying to figure out how to make a dark chocolate cupcake appear sufficiently blue, Easter eggs seemed like the perfect diversion. With the help of a little dye, we could create all the shades of blue he would ever want to imagine. It all started out innocently enough, but little did I realize the complexities of egg dyeing. There were tough decisions to be made, highly saturated liquids to be spilled and room to be made in the fridge for all of those eggs. But back to those eggs…

Around here, we house no sacred Easter bunny myths or traditions. It hasn’t been a careful plan, just a holiday that we have not really spent much time or tradition on. I have always been a fan of a delicious batch of hot cross buns, but I don’t need an occasion for those treats. When it comes to egg decorating, I do fondly remember the tradition as a kid, but I don’t think I’ve revisited that process since my pre-adolescent years. High time, right?

Several weeks back, I found a little mention about making your own Easter egg dye. The colors were lovely—warm and earthy. I don’t quite remember all of the colors pictured, but there was a blue, a yellow and a reddish color that I thought Blaise would like. Plus, I thought it would be the perfect use for a red cabbage that was languishing at the back of the fridge. The question of the dye seemed settled.

But when I got down to the real business of figuring out what we were going to do with all of the eggs, I saw some pretty amazing posts of beautifully dyed eggs. Of course, there were the vegetable-dyed ones that first caught my eye. But then there were the neon eggs and the bright stripes. They were so bright and so cheery that on a recent shopping trip, I all but abandoned my plan of vegetable dyes for a package of glowing neon tablets. But when I got back home and read over the packet, I couldn’t do it. The ingredient list scared me off. The veggie dyes were back on.

What I may have lost in other-worldly egg hues, I made up for in natural ones. I feel particularly lucky in the egg department in that I know people. Yes, that’s right. I get a weekly supply of fresh eggs that I treasure. If I was going to go through the process of making my own egg dye, I was going to color some delicious eggs while I was at it. I even got a special order of a dozen barely blue eggs that already looked Easter-ready. And you can bet we were going to eat them. Hard-boiled eggs are always a big hit at our house. They are easy to throw into a sandwich or a salad and some days, Blaise simply insists on adding one to his meal, whatever it might be. Besides, the prospect of egg salad sandwiches for days certainly didn’t hurt as I was trying to justify all of those eggs cartons taking up space in the fridge with other concerned members of my household.

Making our own dye certainly wasn’t the quickest route for egg dyeing, but we enjoyed the process of watching the colors deepen hour by hour.

And just when I thought my work was done with the blue eggs, that there were no more blue shades to be achieved, Blaise proclaimed that all he really wanted was black. Boys….

Happy Easter!

While there certainly are a lot of colors that you can create at home, I decided to keep it to just three—red, blue and yellow. The great part is that most of these ingredients are common enough that you could easily add them onto your shopping list if you don’t have them already. Add variety by using different colors of eggs and different dipping times to achieve a range of shades. And if you need more variety, you can hop online and find a few more ingredients to round out your color palette.

Vegetable dye

Makes about 4 cups of dye in each color, enough to dye dozens of eggs

1 small head red cabbage
2 pounds beets
3 tablespoons turmeric
Water

Hard boil eggs to your preference and cool.

Make each color in a separate, non-reactive pot.

• To make the blue: Chop cabbage into rough pieces, about 2-inches wide. Place in pot and add just enough water to cover the cabbage.
• To make the red: Cut beets into quarters. Place in a pot and add just enough water to cover the beets.
• To make yellow: Add 4 cups of water to a pot and stir in turmeric.

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Bring each pot to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for about 30 minutes. Turn off heat and allow the liquid to cool. Once cool, strain out the vegetable pieces, if any. Place the liquid in a glass bowl or jar and add 1/8 cup distilled white vinegar to each color.

Add hard-boiled eggs to the liquid and allow to sit. One to two hours gives a pale shade. Allow the eggs to sit in the liquid for several hours or overnight for a deep color. Don’t crowd the eggs or you might have light spots where the eggs touch. Place the dye and eggs in the fridge while they sit. Jiggle the jars occasionally to ensure everything gets evenly coated.

Once desired shade is reached, remove eggs from jar. I had the best luck using a second clean jar and pouring the liquid from one jar to the other until it was empty and I could retrieve the eggs. Rinse in cool water and set eggs out on paper towel or a drying rack and let them dry completely. Refrigerate eggs until ready to use.

Last, but certainly not least, these dyes are highly saturated and will stain. Working in the sink seemed to contained the better portion of my splashes, except for the jar of turmeric water that I sloshed all over my kitchen floor. Shh…I don’t think anyone will notice the yellow hue by the sink.

Part 2, you might wondered? What is there to follow up on after Tina’s post of the Magic Rose Custard Cake. Well, it started a few months back with an order of new cookbooks. I think I’ve mentioned here before that I tend to be a little behind the times on the newest releases, but only because I’m still cooking through something else! But amongst this particular batch was the amazing book by Aran Goyoaga, of the inspirational food blog Cannelle et vanille. There is a lot I could say about this book and how Aran’s way of gluten free cooking has influenced my kitchen over the past few months. But I am going to cut that story short for now and just tell you that now I have a better selection of flours in my cupboard. And there is nothing dull about variety…

Baking with a new range of flours has been a quite a process for me. While I typically charge headlong into most any new recipe, now I take a step back and wonder if I could make this same dish with different flours. Baking without gluten is a whole new learning curve, blending flavors and textures of various flours to achieve new results. It has added a new level of experimentation to my cooking and a great appreciation of my kitchen scale. So when Tina shared the Magic Custard Cake recipe that appeared on White On Rice Couple’s blog, you can probably guess what I was thinking.

Some careful consideration was given to the recipe before I made my tweaks. First off, this custardy cake has no intention of being a mile-high event. The comfort of this cake is its crepe-y texture, topped with a silky layer of custard and dusted with a snowy finish of powdered sugar. And since ensuring the batter would rise didn’t seem to be an issue, I was off to improvise. Rice flour, coconut flour—what was it going to be?

My first attempt was the chocolate version and it was delicious, so I decided to keep playing with flours and flavors. As you can see, the magic in this cake is the seperation of the three layers of cake, right in the pan while it bakes. A few cakes were made and I may have shared pieces with anyone who would come over with their own plate! What I finally settled on was the coconut custard cake. The slightest hint of coconut flavor in the cake creates a delicious note for me. And while I haven’t tried to make this cake with regular wheat flour, I would wager that most anyone who tastes this cake won’t even miss the wheat flour.

Magic custard cake with coconut
Adapted from White On Rice Couple

½ cup unsalted butter
2 cups milk
4 eggs, separated
1/8 teaspoon white vinegar
1 ¼ cups (150 g) confectioner’s sugar
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½ teaspoon coconut flavoring
1 cup (115 g) super fine brown rice flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Generous pinch of salt

Extra confectioner’s sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line an 8″x8″ baking pan with parchment paper, leaving a little paper to hang over the edge of the pan.

Gently warm the milk until just warm and set aside. Melt the butter and let it cool a little.

In a medium mixing bowl, beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks, adding the vinegar at the halfway point. Set the egg whites aside.

In a second bowl, beat the egg yolks and confectioner’s sugar until the mixture is a pale yellow. Add the melted butter, water and coconut flavoring and continue to mix until well incorporated.

Mix in the flour and salt. Slowly add milk and vanilla extract; continue mixing until the batter is smooth. Divide the egg whites into thirds and fold in one portion at a time, gently mixing until all of the egg whites are folded in and there are no large clumps of egg white in the mixture.

Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and bake until the top of the cake is golden, about 50 to 60 minutes. The cake will still jiggle a bit at this point. Allow to fully cool in the pan, maybe even in the fridge, if you are a bit anxious. Once cool, carefully lift out the parchment paper and cake, cut into squares and dust with confectioner’s sugar just before serving.

The winter months aren’t often thought of as big preserving months. Maybe preserving your own sanity through the cold and grey months is enough! And when it comes to saving the season, I don’t have much to save. Except for this year when I couldn’t quite seem to get enough of the Meyer lemon. I’ve been using them in cocktails, zesting and juicing them into salad dressings and pretty much any other dish that could use a bit of bright flavor. Not to mention that a pretty bowl of them on the kitchen counter couldn’t look more sunny if they tried!

But Meyer lemons definitely have a season around here, unless you are one of those lucky people with a tree in the greenhouse or a shrub at your front door step, ahem. So when I found a short video posted on Food 52 with a quick glance at how they were preserving lemons, I was hooked. I headed down to the grocery store and picked up a bursting bag of Meyer lemons. I think the check out girl may have looked at me a little funny. Then it was off to the kitchen supply store for another oversize jar. I like the old school ones with wire bale closures. I do have a few, but as it turns out, they are full of kimchi!

My favorite taste of preserved lemon came at the Marché des Enfants Rouges in Paris. The late autumn afternoon was filled with a strong, cold wind. The clouds hung dark with rain and off in the distance, I heard the rumble of thunder. As we entered the market, the downpour began. We huddled by the glass display counter, filled with platters piled high with delicious offerings—tagines, salads, couscous and breads. On the counter just behind stood shining stacks of ornate tea glasses. Nearby, a grey-haired man poured glasses of fragrant mint tea. We ordered and the waiter hurried our food off to a sheltered table just under the eaves of the building. All around, the rain rushed and splashed. But the vegetable tagine, enjoyed from a rough earthenware bowl, sparkled with the bright flavors of lemon and green olive. Fingers curled around the burning hot glass of tea, a downpour couldn’t have come at a better moment.

Thinking back, I don’t know why I didn’t rush home to try some preserved lemon in my own cooking. Maybe that memory was enough to last me for a little while. Or maybe it was the mint tea binge that ensued when I returned home and completely captured my attention for months. But now that I’ve returned to that lemony flavor, I can’t wait for all of that salt and some time to work their magic on those lemons. In the meantime, I’ve been dreaming of pairing that deep lemon essence with spring-fresh asparagus when it finally arrives in from the fields, or maybe even brightening up a potato salad or deviled egg filling.

As I read through the comments following up on the Food 52 post, I found suggestions of using the lemony brine to flavor martinis and salad dressing. Genius, I’m guessing! I can’t wait to try a little dash with some sautéed spring peas or to season a simple sauce for pasta. I also found reference to a Paula Wolfert recipe for preserved lemons, which includes a handful of spices in with the brine—cinnamon, cloves, pepper and bay leaves. And I can attest that hanging my head over a jar filled with lemons and topped with those spices was intoxicating.

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This is not so much a recipe as an idea to get started you started. It also doesn’t matter so much what size jar you use. The biggest one you have, or just plain old mason jars should do the trick. The main matter is how many lemons you want to get you through until next season. I made two jars…

Preserved Meyer lemons

Meyer lemons, organic, if possible, scrubbed
Kosher salt
Spices, 3 to 4 pieces black peppercorn, pink peppercorn and cloves; 1 cinnamon stick and 2 fresh bay leaves, if desired
Sterilized jar

Cover the bottom of the jar with a layer of kosher salt. Working one at a time, trim the top off the lemon, cutting into quarters length-wise. Don’t cut all the way through the lemon so the quarters remain attached. Carefully pull apart the quarters and generously sprinkle with kosher salt. Press the lemon back together and place in the jar. As the lemons accumulate, gently press them down with your hand to release the juice and allow for more room in the jar. Continue until the jar is almost full. I got about 14 lemons in my 1½ liter jar. Top the lemons with spices, if using. If there is not enough juice to cover the lemons, squeeze another lemon or two to fill the jar.

Cover and let sit in a cool, dark spot. Within the first couple of days, open the jar once or twice during the day to release pressure from the fermenting process. Sealed tightly, turn the jar over once a day or so to allow the salt to mix well.

Let the lemons ferment at room temperature for three to four weeks, then place in the refrigerator, where they can keep for months. Before storing, remove the spices, as they may get bitter with time. Just be sure to use clean utensils when retrieving the fruit from the jar.

A new month is upon us. March is here and there isn’t any time to look back. The days of February went flying by in a greyish blur—how did that happen? One thing I really appreciated at the beginning of February was Tina’s post on pausing for a moment. It reminded me to take stock of where I was and where I wanted to be. I have this good-intentioned list of things I want to make a priority in my day. Some days it is harder than others to focus on those things. But taking the time to acknowledge that I may have slipped on some of those items is an act of faith that I can right that wrong. And that if those things are still a priority, I can bring them back into focus. I’m kind of loving that idea of restarting with each month.

Cooking gives me a similar opportunity to restart with any meal. There is always room to keep learning and reworking ideas with my next meal no more than a few hours off. Things don’t have to stay the same. Which brings me to the cauliflower…

I’ve been stuck in a bit of a cauliflower rut. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been a tasty place to be and I’ve been quite happy here! For me, cauliflower has been a surprise vegetable. For many years, I just ignored it, thinking I had no real interest in it. But all of that changed when I figured out that tossing the florets in a little olive oil and salt, plus a hot oven, created something entirely different. Given over to the high heat, the cauliflower sizzles and spits and in short order develops a golden crunch that is like nothing that ever came out of the steamer. Prepared this way, I think I could eat cauliflower for days.

But back to the preparation of the cauliflower, I was reading a recipe for a salad—a hearty dish that seemed like it would be a perfect one-dish meal—when the listed method stopped me in my tracks. Cauliflower, in a skillet—no more need for a roasting pan or high heat oven. I couldn’t wait to try it out. And just like that, I was starting fresh. There is still hope…

This salad’s bright lemony dressing revives my taste buds while I await the arrival of some fresh spring produce. It sits amazingly well, so packing it up for a little al fresco lunch is a great idea. And leftovers are still delicious the next day. I’m big on the idea of a one-bowl lunch, so the addition of a fried or poached eggs really fills out the meal for me.

Warm cauliflower salad

Adapted from Bon Appétit’s recipe here

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¼ cup Pardina lentils, sorted and rinsed
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
½ head cauliflower, divided into florets
7 oz. gigante or butter beans, about ½ can, rinsed and drained
¹⁄3 cup flat Italian parsley leaves, washed
1 tablespoon French tarragon, finely chopped
2 eggs, cooked to your preference

Place lentils in a small pot and cover generously with water. Season with salt. Bring water to a boil, then turn the heat to medium. Let lentils simmer until just tender, about 20 minutes. Drain lentils and rinse in cold water. Set aside.

To make dressing, combine mayonnaise, lemon zest and juice, white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and 3 tablespoons olive oil. Whisk to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Heat remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add cauliflower florets and cook until they begin to brown, about 6 minutes. Add a tablespoon or two of water to the pan, cover with a lid and allow to steam for 2 minutes.

Place cauliflower, beans, lentils, parsley and tarragon in a bowl. Toss gently with dressing to coat and add more salt and pepper, if needed. Garnish with a little parsley and top with a warm egg, if desired.

The idea of fermenting anything I was planning to eat took me by surprise. For some reason, it sounded a little risky to prep any food and leave it sitting around, waiting for some miraculous transformation to occur. Truth be told, you can’t just offer up any food to the process of fermentation, only some things will respond gracefully to this process. But as it turns out, this idea had been sitting with me for quite some time.

A few years back, I was reminded of my grandfather’s recipe for sauerkraut. Every autumn, Grandpa would make a big bucket of sauerkraut in the quickly cooling evenings. My favorite memory from those evenings were of the little pinches of salty shredded cabbage that he would pass me out of the bucket as he worked the cabbage. I can’t quite remember what brought that memory back to me. Maybe it was a guy who started bringing homemade sauerkraut, kimchi and pickles to the farmer’s market, but when I saw him there with his fermented jars, I figured I’d better give it a go. Things progressed—I bought jars, I shredded pounds of cabbage. My pantry was lined with slowly bubbling jars. What came next delighted all of us. Crisp, sharp and sour, we couldn’t stop eating the sauerkraut. I couldn’t keep up with the demand. A fermenting time of at least four weeks turned out the best flavor. But in the time it took to eat the first batch, the second was nowhere near ready. A few seasons later, I’ve got the timing figured out, but I’m also eager to try out some other fermented foods.

Long: This herbal ingredient with its botanical name is caryophyllus aromaticus is commonly called as clove and this ingredient was tested on male rats to find that these will not purchase cheap levitra work for them. Psychotherapy can discount levitra frankkrauseautomotive.com be helpful in ameliorating psychic pain, anxiety, depression or sexual dysfunction. It slows down your aging http://frankkrauseautomotive.com/testimonial/honest-friendly-very-easy-purchase/ cialis buy online process. Usually they get erection issues due to obesity, lack of physical activity, smoking, drinking alcohol or http://frankkrauseautomotive.com/?buy=8760 viagra 25 mg eating too much salt to even stress or genetics. A month or so back, Sarah Britton, of My New Roots, posted a little feature that she called Fabulous Fermentation Week. She shared a recipe for kimchi that piqued my interest and since then, I’ve been carrying around a mental shopping list of the ingredients. Finally, this weekend I accumulated everything save the daikon radish. But, it seemed a critical mass had been reached and the kimchi was happening, daikon or no. Chopping and shredding ensued until a large bowl was filled with vegetable goodness. Topping that off was a big scoop of tongue tingling ginger-chile paste and salt that was massaged into the cabbage. Resting for a few hours, the veggies started to lose their water and shrink down in the bowl. Stuffed into jars, this mixture now sits on a quiet corner of the kitchen, awaiting the miracle of fermentation. And good news, the kimchi only takes a few days to ferment, then it is off to the fridge, where it can sit for months.

Since my kimchi is still in progress, I’m going to send you straight to the source. You can find Sarah’s recipe for kimchi here. Go on, try it out. I’ll be back with a kimchi recipe in a few weeks if all goes as planned on the countertop!

For me, the best gatherings happen in the kitchen—food preparation in full swing, maybe a little snack or something to sip on, all the while chatting with friends or family. The meal comes together at a leisurely place, but the time spent preparing and enjoying it together is the event itself. These are the cooking moments that I hang some of my best food memories around.

One of my favorite “cooking as the event” moments happened in Paris with my sister. Since when does an evening cooking dinner in a tiny rented kitchen upstage an afternoon wandering the avenues of Paris, right? It was years ago, but I still remember the deep pleasure of shopping for our dinner items at the market, deciding what suited our mood for the evening, then negotiating with the market vendor on the exact specimens, according to our estimated meal time. Hauling our supplies up flights and flights of stairs to our apartment, deciding to while away the chilly evening hours in the kitchen. At some point, the hot steam coming from the pots bubbling on the stove fills up the tiny space forces us to throw open the window to the narrow courtyard that our building wraps around. Outside we hear the clatter and bustle of dinner coming together for everyone else in our building and we feel at ease.

Of course, not every meal is a magical Parisian memory. Most often, I enjoy the company of friends and family in my own kitchen where we partake in the age-old ritual of preparing and sharing a meal. It’s likely not a fancy meal, but nourishing and prepared with care—the very acts of chopping and dicing friendship at its best. And in these dark days of winter, it is something to look forward to. So in that celebratory spirit, I created this cocktail to share.

Meyer lemons are a seasonal favorite of mine—but hording fresh fruit is only advisable when there is a good use for it in sight. This cocktail proves to be a delicious way to highlight the sweet and pronounced flavor of the lemon.

Meyer’s Refresher

Serves 2
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3 oz. Meyer lemon juice
3 oz. gin
4 dashes grapefruit bitters
Scant 2 teaspoons rosemary simple syrup, recipe follows
Sparkling wine or cava, to finish

Combine all ingredients and shake over ice. Pour into two small glasses, add ice and top with sparkling wine. Garnish with a slice of Meyer lemon.

Rosemary Syrup

Makes 1 cup

1 cup white sugar
1 cup water
1 cup fresh rosemary sprigs
peel of one Meyer lemon

Combine water and sugar in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for about 5 minutes, until all of the sugar is dissolved. Add in the rosemary and lemon peel and stir to incorporate. Remove from heat and let steep for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour. Remove peel and rosemary and store in the fridge.

We’re bringing Valentine’s in-house this year. I know there is a case to be made for a lovely evening out, but this year, I think dining in is going to be just as much fun. And let’s be honest, finding a babysitter on Valentine’s evening is no easy task! At the request of a three-year-old, we’re going to “build” a raclette. He’s still working out the details of the accompanying meats and vegetables he’d like to cook, but I think he’ll come up with a good plan. And with a starting point of melting cheese and crusty bread, it’s hard to go wrong.

My son has always been accustomed to time in the kitchen. His first baby swing was set up in a corner of the kitchen and stayed there throughout his infancy. As a result, he has become keenly interested in what is going on—what is being prepared and more importantly, when can he have a taste of it? I take full responsibility for making an occassion out of every treat in the oven—turning on the oven light, and “voila,” pulling back the tea towel curtains with a grand flourish. Any baking process that involves a mixer has him standing at the kitchen counter, tightly gripping the rail of the chair, mesmerized by the spinning beaters. It hasn’t taken him long to learn the location of the baking staples and he dashes back and forth from the pantry, retrieving sugar and flour. He takes great pride in the moments when he alone holds the whisk over the bowl, attempting to stir with as much bravado as he can muster. I couldn’t be more pleased.

As he has gotten a little older, I’ve been looking for ways to get him a little more involved with whatever I am working on. It’s no surprise that he is more willing to try things he has had some hand in. Try as I might, I can’t get him interested in salad. But put him at the sink with a head of lettuce to wash, and suddenly the boy is crunching through leaves with the enthusiasm of a small rabbit! And while I generally don’t have to do much to get him interested in treats, I’ve been trying to include him in more of the baking steps. The gingerbread twigs I baked at the holidays were perfect for him and the inclusion of sparkles made them that much better. For Valentines, I’ve been looking for something that we could make together. This holiday is rich with fancy sweet treats, but what about something for a three-year-old to get involved with? How about some no-bake bars that require little more than a few swipes of the spatula through the melted chocolate, mingling marshmallows and crunchy nuts in a few deft movements? Sounds like a plan to me!

I hope your day is sweet, whatever your plans may be!

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Rocky Road

There are hundreds of Rocky Road recipes out there. This version uses dark chocolate, 60 to 75 percent cocoa is a nice range, for a rich flavor without quite as much sweetness. I added salted pistachios to bring a little savory note to these treats and a bright pop of color when cut into squares. A sprinkle of salt adds sparkle and brings balance to the rich chocolate. Perfect for assembling with children and sharing with sweethearts.

11 oz of good quality dark chocolate, chopped
10 oz. mini marshmallows
2/3 cup pistachios, shelled
Sprinkle of flaky salt, optional

Line an 8×8 baking pan with aluminum foil. Set aside.

Melt chocolate in a large bowl over a pot of steaming water. Remove from heat. Stir in the nuts and marshmallows. Place mixture in the prepared pan and sprinkle with salt. Let sit for at least two hours to set. Lift foil from pan and cut chocolate mixture into small squares. Wrapped tightly, squares will keep for several days.

Makes about 16 squares.

There’s a low-lying fog that has wrapped up our valley for the past few days. Maybe it has been even longer, as I tend to forget those details. It’s almost mysterious in the way that it seeps in overnight and envelops the morning horizon, muting the sun to a vaguely bright spot in the fog. Depending on the day, the thickness of the fog varies—sometimes so thick that I can’t see much more than a car or two in front of me on the street. Other times, it is wispy and soft, bringing a romantic blur to the horizon. At night when I walk the neighborhood streets, sometimes I can see the stars through holes in the fog while street lights glow orange with fluorescent halos. The fog never fails to make me feel cozy, wishing for a blanket and a cup of tea.

On foggy days, I search for brightness elsewhere, like on my plate. While I can’t control the weather and shaking my fist at the sky has brought little result, the meals on my plate are completely under my control, so I adjust as needed. For some reason, the weather has me reaching for the vinegar. The bright acidity brings life to some warm comfort foods and an irresistible sharpness to crunchy salad greens.

The flavors of this salad are not ones that I would readily dreamed on my own. The pairing of quick-pickled red onion with the candy sweetness of Medjool dates is brilliant and I knew immediately I would love it. It’s just one of those combinations I could already imagine before putting vinegar to onion. The recipe jumped off the page as I was browsing through my new cookbook, Jerusalem, this weekend. I know the book has been out for a while, but sometimes I have to pace myself through the myriad of new cookbooks released every fall, adding some of my top picks to my Christmas list, then stacking them up beside the bed for evening reading. (Tell me I’m not alone in this little habit.) There are plenty of dishes I am hoping to make from this book, but this was the one I had to make first while I plotted out my plans for the next dishes.

Spinach salad with almonds and dates

Adapted from Jerusalem, by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
½ small red onion, thinly sliced lengthwise
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1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup whole raw almonds, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons sumac
½ teaspoon Aleppo pepper or chile flakes
5 oz baby spinach
2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
Salt, to taste

Combine the vinegar, red onion and dates in a small bowl. Sprinkle with a little salt and stir to combine. Let sit for at least 20 minutes. When ready to use, drain and discard any remaining vinegar.

In a small pan, combine the butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add the chopped almonds and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Once almonds are toasted and golden, remove from pan and set on a paper towel to drain. Sprinkle with sumac, pepper flakes and a little salt and allow to cool.

When ready to serve, add the spinach to a large mixing bowl and top with the almonds, red onion and dates. Dress the salad with lemon juice and remaining olive oil. Toss to coat and add a little salt, if needed. Serve immediately.