Author: katiecarryedaway

I have dreamed about having a home of my own where I could host as many dinner parties as I wanted since I was a teenager. Every time I have special guests for dinner, my heart is so happy to look around the table and see who is sitting there, enjoying the food that I made, at the table in my home. Feeding someone is how I show them how much I love them and it’s always something I love to do, but I have to say, last night’s “Menu of the Month” dinner felt extra special. For some reason, it usually takes me several days- if not longer, after my “Menu of the Month” dinner to upload and edit all of the photos, sit down and write the post and share everything here, but this month, I just couldn’t wait! I am sitting down to write this less than twenty-four hours after serving this month’s menu and I have to say, this one was my favorite.

I am lucky to have a small, screened in porch on the front of my house constructed almost completely of giant windows that frame the view of the lake (sigh…). For a while I’ve wondered if one of the large plastic party tables my parents keep in their basement (I told you- we have lots of parties!) would fit in that space to serve dinner al fresco. Most of the month of May in Michigan was either pouring rain, lightning and thunder or eighty-seven degree heat, so when I saw that the weather forecast for the last weekend of the month was called for sixty-eight degrees and sunshine, I dragged my little wicker sofa from my porch, replaced it with one of my parents’ giant tables and set it for six.

The table and chairs fit perfectly and eating on the porch provided the BEST atmosphere. I got to use my grandmother’s beautiful white embroidered table cloth and some fun blue and white dishes. I gathered lots of pretty soft green Lamb’s Ear from my back yard, strung up some patio lights and lit tall white pillar candles and it was MAGICAL. All of the trees and grass on my street right now are so green and fresh and my house is surrounded by yellow wild roses, lilacs, the first hot pink peonies and of course, the lake. Once the sun started to go down just a little, we snapped some of my favorite pictures in the golden light.

And that doesn’t even include the food! I made Tri-Tip Steak with Tiger Bite Sauce , Charred Peppers with Lemon Ricotta and Cucumbers (although I replaced the peppers with zucchini because I couldn’t find them) and a sort of retro Curry Rice Salad that is a recipe of my Granny’s and an all time family favorite. It’s a very nostalgic dish for my siblings and me and it was fun to pair it with some new recipes. Dessert might have been the best part. I made Salted Pistachio Crumbles with Berries and Vanilla Ice Cream, which I made almost entirely ahead of time and then INHALED. This morning, I wished so badly that I had saved some of the dessert because I would have taken no issue with eating a huge second helping for breakfast. Does anyone else eat last night’s dessert leftovers for breakfast more often than they’d like to admit? No? Just me? Liar.

Anyway, this meal was my personal favorite so far (I think a few of my guest agreed) because it felt so perfect for summer. The best part was every dish was perfect at room temperature. I was able to get the steak to the table medium rare and hot despite a momentary grill snafu (thanks Dad!) but I might say the second helping devoured at room temperature long after the sun had gone down was even better. Both of the salads were perfectly fine to sit out while we lingered around the table late into the night and the dessert involved store bought ice cream which meant I spent more time on the porch with my family. My sister and I sang too loud to Taylor Swift. We sat and talked and let the candles burn just about all the way down (without a single drop of wax on Grandma’s table cloth!) and my mom told a few pretty classic stories.

The views were amazing, the table was beautiful and I have to admit I was pretty proud of the meal but the best part was, and always will be the people I did it all for. I cannot WAIT to do it again.

Brunch on porch anyone?

Last month I shared my goal of cooking at least one recipe from Bon Appétit magazine each month throughout 2020- and so far I’ve kept the dream alive for two months!

I had my little sister and her boyfriend over for my February “Menu of the Month” dinner (do I need to come up with a better name for my endeavor?) and we had a ton of fun.

I made Chicken Braised in Lime and Peanut Sauce and paired it with Cabbage Slaw with Charred Scallions and Lime Dressing and some fluffy white rice. It was pretty delicious (if I do say so!) and perfect for having people over because I was able to prep everything and let it the chicken braise and the slaw sit in the fridge while we each had a Bees Knees (or two). It was also nice because we are officially at that point in Michigan were we start to believe that winter will eventually end (it won’t) and so some charred, slightly spicy flavors warmed everybody up and made us dream of spring. Sigh.

For dessert I continued my exploration through my Sister Pie cookbook with a super fancy Honey Lemon Meringue Pie, for which I got to use my blowtorch- it was gorgeous, but we forgot to take a picture before diving in!

My guests also spent the night and we ate another Sister Pie treat for breakfast- I started these MASSIVE Lemon Poppy Buns on Friday (they were are able to be assembled ahead and sit in the fridge) and hopped (Ok…crawled. My sister and I share quite the affinity for Merlot) out of bed to proof and bake them Sunday morning and absolutely drown them in glaze. In all honesty, they didn’t rise quite like they should have- I think my kitchen was too cold, but I am inspired to try more yeasted pastries again if warm weather does eventually appear in Michigan. They were a little denser than I hoped for but boy were they pretty.

I am already planning March! It looks like I may be treating my little brother to something “Al Pastor”… stay tuned!

As a lover of cooking and food and a language arts teacher, I have an obsession with cookbooks and food magazines. I subscribe to several, but my favorite is probably Bon Appétit. I look forward to my issue arriving in my mailbox every month, sitting on my couch and looking at all of the delicious looking and cool, kind of trendy recipes, folding over the pages of each dish I’d like to make and…tossing it on my coffee table only to stuff it in a drawer a month later.

At the end of 2019 I realized that I almost NEVER make any of the dishes I see in any of my monthly subscriptions, and I couldn’t think of a single reason why. So I didn’t “technically” set any new years resolutions for 2020. I always fail at resolutions anyway and it always bums me out. And usually, I set a resolution for something I really don’t want to do. Like at all. I don’t want to train for a half marathon, or devote myself to never letting a load of laundry sit in the basement for a week or swear to stop eating sugar. So this year, instead of focusing on something that I “cant” “shouldn’t” or “don’t want to” do, I decided to do something that I really, really do want to do. I want to cook more. I always want to cook more. Cooking and reading are two of my favorite hobbies and its like my perfect storm when they come together. So for 2020, I have decided that I am going to make at least one recipe from Bon Appétit every month. I definitely cook more than once a month, but it’s pretty much always my old weeknight “stand bys” that I make for myself. I rarely get the chance to indulge in a bit of a project recipe, outside of a special occasion, but this year I am going to make the cooking itself the special occasion.

As I was thinking about some of my favorite moments of 2019, I realized how much I loved the final season of Game of Thrones. Yes, I liked the show, yes I thought the endings of several of the storylines were stupid or left unfinished, but most of all, I liked how for about six weeks in a row, one of my brothers would come over on a Sunday night, I’d cook a pretty fabulous dinner, and we’d watch that week’s episode. This little ritual made regular old Sundays feel fun and special and a little sentimental. And those simple Sunday nights when I luxuriated in having nothing to do but slow roast tomatoes for three hours or make homemade pizza crust were some of the happiest of my year. I hope to recreate that feeling this year, once a month with Bon Appétit- and I’m off to a decent start!

Two weekends ago, I cracked open my January issue of Bon Appétit, and had my parents and little brother over for Alison Roman’s Brisket, Claire Saffitz’s Winter Crunch Salad and a big, huge chocolate coconut pie (not from Bon Appétit, from Sister Pie- an amazing cookbook by an amazing bakery right here in Detroit). It was magical. I braised the brisket for four hours while I made chocolate ganache for the top of my pie and listened to Taylor Swift. My house smelled amazing, my family came over, had a few cocktails and gushed the appropriate amount about how delicious the meal was. Afterwords, we even got my mom to dance a little to Simon and Garfunkel in my living room and caught it on snapchat to share with the sibs who weren’t there.

So one month down, and eleven to go. I’m very excited and I’m already looking forward to February- I plan to have my little sister over this time, and I can’t wait to share it all here (hopefully it keeps me on track!)

Wish me luck in my delicious endeavor!