Category: Cooking and Eating

Cooking and Eating: Menu of the Month (Quarantine Edition)

Published on by katiecarryedaway1 Comment

Hi there! I hope everyone is surviving staying at home-and staying healthy! Normally, I live alone but during this scary time, I’ve been lucky enough to be able to stay with my mom and dad and little brother. I am so thankful that I’ve gotten to be with them and not completely alone for what is going on ten weeks now…

We’ve been going on lots of walks, reading lots of books and participating in many, many zoom meetings. Lots of my family (including me!) are teachers and boy is it absolutely crazy how school has been completely upended. In all honesty, I’m not a fan of virtual school and can’t wait until it’s safe for everyone to be back together. I teach high school, which means I spend most of my (usual) work day surrounded by so much energy and noise and bad jokes and awkwardness and it’s the best part of my job. It’s the part that makes it fun, makes me feel fulfilled and effective. It’s just not the same from behind a screen. I know that online school is absolutely what’s best for the health and safety of pretty much, the entire world right now, but the one of the only things getting me through is dreaming of being back in my classroom, with my amazing colleagues and hilarious students.

I actually got the saddest news I’ve had in a while just yesterday. I’ve worked at SCAMP in Bloomfield Hills since I was I think, 15 years old. SCAMP is a summer camp for children and adults with a range of disabilities and special needs. It is always the highlight of my year and it renews my passion for Special Education and my knowledge that I’m in the right place, that I’ve chosen the path meant for me. I’ve known deep down for about a month that SCAMP probably wouldn’t be happening this year, and I found out yesterday that I was right. For the first time in 14 years, I won’t spend my summer at SCAMP. Again, my rational brain knows that it’s what’s best. But my heart is a little broken. And so I simply have to start the countdown to SCAMP 2021!

But anyway! One of the positives of our current situation is ALL THE FOOD. This month, I hosted my “Menu of the Month” dinner from my parents house. This was one of the simplest meals I’ve done so far but honestly, might have been my favorite? Probably because it was pasta. I just love pasta. I made Tagliatelle with Prosciutto and Peas from of course, Bon Appétit , and it was so simple and so delicious. My little brother raved. I served it with a simple Caesar salad that my family has made probably a thousand times- should I post that recipe too?

For dessert I made this awesome Cardamom Pistachio Carrot Cake which was frosted with a bright orange glaze! I was never able to decide which I liked better- but why choose when you could just make both?

This meal was particularly awesome because it kept it a little more simple- I didn’t get as “carryed away” as I usually do. But it was completely delicious anyway.

I’m looking forward to May’s menu of the month which is looking like it’s going to require me to drag the grill out of the garage for the first time all season!

So here’s to the changing of the seasons from spring to summer, to spending lots (LOTS) of time with family, to hope for being together again, and to your health!

See you soon ❤

Cooking and Eating: Menu of the Month

Published on by katiecarryedaway2 Comments

Another month, another fun dinner party featuring a recipe from my monthly issue of Bon Appétit magazine! My younger brother Jack’s birthday is in March, so he and his lovely friend Molly were the guests of honor this time around. The title of the issue this month was “Taco Nation” and the magazine featured lots of mexican specialties, so I was excited to give Pork Volcánes al Pastor a try!

At first I was a little bit intimidated because the recipe included several ingredients that I had never heard of before, including guajillo and morita chiles and achiote paste, but I ended up ordering everything on amazon without any difficulty. After that, the recipe was much easier than I expected and actually really fun to make! The best part was that lots of steps can be done ahead of time including marinating and cooking the pork. I was even able to assemble the volcánes ahead of time and keep them hot in the oven while we had cocktails and guacamole. I served homemade pineapple salsa and a grapefruit and fennel salad by Alison Roman alongside.

For dessert, I had my little brother look through all of my cook books with me and help pick out something he would love. We decided on a Dark Chocolate Terrine with Orange Sauce by Ina Garten which was AMAZING and very fun to make. It was so elegant, even though I served slices that were way, way too big. In fact, we discussed how I could easily have cut each slice into three or four pieces to serve quite a crowd with a really elegant dessert. We had such a fun time talking for several hours after the meal and I was proud of myself for making it to month three of my “challenge”!

On a more serious note, this meal was one of the last times we were able to be together for a celebration like this. Shortly after this meal, we learned that due to the overwhelming spread of Covid-19, we needed to start practicing safe social distancing immediately. It was right after we were informed that schools were shut down and I wouldn’t be going to work. At the time, we thought it was only going to be four weeks. It was the last time I was able to go to the grocery store without a face mask and gloves. It was the last time I had guests in my home for what seems like the foreseeable future.

I am very fortunate to be in quarantine with my mom, dad and little brother. I decided early on, before the state of Michigan initiated it’s stay-at-home order, that I just couldn’t be completely alone during this time. So we have all been together for five weeks. We have been watching lots of movies, reading a ton, walking, cooking and watching my mom get out, and put away many, many puzzles. We are all so lucky that we are able to stay at home and spend so much time together, but we are missing my other siblings terribly. We, like everyone else cannot wait until the world is healthy and we can be together again- but we are happy and willing to do what we can and STAY HOME.

This all means that my next “Menu of the Month” dinner will take place at my parents house! I think I know what I am going to make and I certainly have a willing (and bored!) audience ready for a special meal…

Cooking and Eating: “Menu of the Month”

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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.

A half-sipped Bees Knees and a very purple slaw.

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!

Pre meringue and blow torch…

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!

Cooking and Eating: Something New Each Month

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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!

Cooking and Eating: All Things Alision Roman

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For quite some time, I’ve been admiring a lot of these really cool, effortless and stylish recipes in Bon Apetit magazine, and often the recipes contributed by Alison Roman in particular. The first recipe I made of hers was those “internet famous” chocolate chunk short bread cookies that were all over instagram last fall and they were completely amazing. Best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had. Right after the holidays this year, everyone was making her coconut curry and chickpea stew which took on the same insta-fame as the cookies. At the same time, I was in bed with the flu for just over twenty four hours and all I wanted to do once I regained my strength was make the famous stew. It was just as good as I had imagined and actually incredibly simple!

For some reason, I was slightly intimidated by Alison Roman’s cookbook “Dinning In”- it just seemed so cool. Cool recipes. Cool photos. Cool serving utensils. The cool people eating the food in the photos even have cool manicures. “I am not cool enough for this book” I thought, but I was so curious about other recipes I may be missing out on, that in the middle of another dark, very dark, Michigan winter I ordered myself “Dinning In” and…let it sit on my shelf for about two months before finally just picking a recipe, picking an audience (thanks Christopher!) and going for it.

My brothers and I are, like everyone else, obsessed with Game of Thrones. So on the Sunday of the season eight premiere, I had my older brother over for a celebratory dinner/viewing party. My older brother Christopher is a great guinea pig for trying out new recipes because he’s a pretty adventurous eater and will respond enthusiastically enough that I know when the food is good, but not so enthusiastically that I feel like Rachel in that episode of friends when she made that tragic custard-beef trifle situation which everyone either scarfed down or threw out the window to avoid hurting her feelings. So on about the chillest Sunday I’ve had since summer vacation, I spent all day “putzing” around the house while I roasted the tomatoes for Roasted Tomato and Anchovy Bucatini from “Dining In”. I paired the pasta with what is basically a “Creamsicle” salad also from the book and let me tell you -it was very good. Both dishes felt a little fancy, a little impressive, but I was able to make a pretty gorgeous meal with so little stress that I was already relaxed and enjoying the food before we even sat down.

Very pretty. If I do say so myself.

I have absolutely no idea why I thought I “couldn’t” cook from “Dinning In”. I wasn’t wrong about it being cool. It is. Each recipe seems to have some interesting element that makes me want to make the dish and snap a fabulous photo before devouring it. But the five (!) recipes I’ve made from the book so far have been completely simple and doable, and absolutely delicious. I went on to make a salad from the book for our Easter dinner and plan to treat my little brother to a similar dinner party when he comes home from college for an episode of “Thrones” in a few weeks.

I plan to challenge myself to cook more from Dinning In, and from all of my cookbooks and old issues of Bon App too. I’ve noticed that with Pinterest if I’ve had to plan a menu, I’ve logged on a scrolled for hours completely ignoring a pretty great collection of cookbooks and dog-eared pages of magazines that I’ve subscribed to for years. Our entire Easter menu was selected from my print collection and was pretty amazing- so far so good.

This school year has been something else, and I’m sitting here looking out my window at all of the plants popping up around my new garden and dreaming about cooking, grilling, staying up late…is it June yet?

Cooking and Eating: Rosé and Elderflower Spritzers

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This past week,I turned 27 years old! I’ve had a wonderful week (month really) of celebrations and so many excuses to get “carryed” away. My birthday was on a Thursday night, and while the main event was a fundraiser for the summer camp I’ve worked for since I was a teenager, the entire family started the evening off with a cocktail hour on the sunporch. My parents have a gorgeous screened-in porch that we pretty much live on from April until October. Before heading out to dinner, we made Rosé spritzers from Bon Appétit and sipped them on the patio during that fabulous “golden hour” when the sun starts to go down in the summer. I love pretty much any cocktail with Elderflower liqueur, so I particularly loved these. Plus, they were pink! And that added to the festive feel.

Rosé and Elderflower Spritzers
From Bon Appétit Magazine

Ingredients
2 Lemon Slices
4 Dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
1/2 ounce St-Germain (elderflower liqueur)
4 ounces sparkling rosé

Preparation
Place lemon slices, bitters and St-Germain in a rocks glass. Add ice; top off with sparkling rosé; enjoy the fact that your cocktail matches the sunset.

Cooking and Eating: The Barefoot Contessa’s Pecan Shortbread Cookies

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Every winter my grandparents head down south to Florida to get away from the cold, ice and snow. They spend the majority of the time camping (yes camping! Even though they’re both over eighty years old!) in Florida, but they alway stop in Georgia and bring me back Georgia pecans to bake with. Every year I look for a way to use my pecans that highlights, not hides them. Enter; Ina Garten. I love Ina Garten. I love watching her shows on the Food Network and ask for one of her cookbooks for every Christmas and birthday. I love that all of her recipes and ideas about entertaining are simple, elegant and timeless, just like her pecan shortbread cookies. For the past several years, I have used my precious Georgia Pecans to make them and each time they have been absolutely amazing. The recipe is simple, and the cookies come out buttery, crispy and not too sweet. These cookies are perfectly simple and delicious! You can easily find the recipe online just like I did- give them a try! You (and whoever you choose to share them with) won’t be sorry!

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