Biscotti? Coffee anyone?

WELCOME.

I just feel like saying that. I am so excited to show you the face lift on my humble little blog. Truth be told, my site has been under construction—or renovation—for almost six weeks. Much of the time it has been in tandem, my old site receiving less and less attention, my new site getting more and more.

It is still me. Janelle. Talker of Tomatoes, Rambler of Radishes, Chatterer of Chipotle—you get the idea.

Here it is: my new site. You might have liked my old site, but I move my furniture in my house every six months and my blog is no exception. I am a big fan of keeping it interesting, trying new angles, slicing and dicing it differently. I hope you like it!

I do need to apologize: in the twist and transfer of it all, I lost about a month of lovely, thoughtful comments. To all of you out there among them: sorry they are lost, I did read them and appreciate them. My posts were caught in the middle as well, so I am happy this site has officially landed and I can dip into more of a routine of pull up the chair, coffee-sipping, tomato-talking.

Oh, the cookies? I walk into a coffee shop and see them at the counter staring at me. I couldn’t resist taking a photo: they were begging me. Besides, I plan to make biscotti for this holiday season, I already have a few in mind (and they make awesome gifts for friends, neighbors, teachers and hostesses), and will post on them in the coming weeks.

So: lift a cookie, sip your coffee, pull up a chair for a little talk. Tis the season to linger.

We adore roasted veggies at our house. It seems the possibilities are endless when it comes to roasting veggies. Roasting is especially important for those eyebrow raising, face wincing vegetables (translation: not sure about these, mom.); roasting seems to assuage any concerns about flavor, texture and ultimately consumption. The proof is in the roasting: none of us liked brussel sprouts. BUT when roasted with olive oil and coarse salt they become an immediate favorite, a request in the name of side-dishes. Cooking them this way causes two of us to become giddy, and a third to keep saying: “I really don’t like brussel sprouts… but I really like these.” And a fourth? The jury is still out.This Thanksgiving, we have a history-marking, unusual dinner to attend. My dear friend is getting married, and Thanksgiving week is the time she chose. It is perfect, really. Not only is it her favorite holiday, but it will involve a pile of people coming together to be thankful for love, for festivity, for cause to celebrate over a table bursting with food.

And we each signed up for a plethora of food favorites, must-haves for the big meal, memories from families near and far. My contribution will be brussel sprouts and orange rolls. I will roll up my sleeves and help everyone else, since these brussel sprouts—which often appear on our table at home—will take no more than 10 minutes to prepare:

Roasted Brussel Sprouts
brussel sprouts
olive oil
coarse salt (fleur de sel is best)

Cut tops off sprouts, slice in half if they are nearing the size of golf balls. Douse with olive oil, use hands to toss, so all are lightly coated with oil. Sprinkle with salt. Place in 400 oven for 30 minutes. Give thanks and serve.

I got a racing ticket the other day, on my way to dropping the kids off at school. I was whizzing by at a whopping 31 mph. Granted, it was a school zone and I was supposed to be going 20 mph. When was the last time you drove 20 mph?

Now that I have been ticketed, I am painfully careful to drive that paltry 20 mph whenever the school zone lights are flashing. Mind you, this is on an arterial where people are usually clipping comfortably at 40 mph. So when driving my kids to school, and slowing to 20 I have this nagging urge to chirp the JAWS music. You know, when the shark is slowly creeping up to its prey, softly and slowly, and that disturbing music begins on cue? Da-dum, da-dum, da-dum. At 20 mph, any shark could catch me. Heck, even I could catch me.

Go drive 20 mph somewhere where you normally drive 40 mph and you will feel my pain. I know, [it is of course] for the safety of the kids. My 30 mph was normal compared to a lot of the backup-illegal-reversal-loopy-we’re late! driving done by a lot of moms and dads out there (who me?). But in my pursuit of improving, I have taken on creepy, yet slow, shark-like behavior. Go figure.

Oh yeah, this is supposed to be about food. So, my son’s teacher (that is school related, see I was going somewhere with the whole speeding racing ticket thing) had a birthday; my friend and I signed up to deliver him a special lunch. My part was soup, dip and plant. Sounds like stop, drop and roll. I am thick into digressing today… here, this is more official:

Teacher Birthday Lunch
Special Soda (sparkling something or other. Oh, but if you have the chance try these new dry sodas, you should: rhubarb)*
Mini baguette with dipping sauce (’dip‘)
Small container of mixed olives
Eggplant Parmesan (that is the ‘plant’)
Fennel Pear Soup (’soup’)

Eggplant Parmesan
2 medium eggplants (cut crosswise into 1/3 inch thick rounds)
4 tsp salt
Red Sauce (buy 6-8 roma tomatoes, some tomato paste, garlic and click for recipe)
1 cup flour
4 large eggs
2 cups panko (Japanese) bread crumbs
2/3 cup finely grated Parmesan
1 1/2 tsp Italian herbs
1 LB 1/3 inch sliced, fresh mozzarella (I was lucky: I found fresh mozzarella medallions, so I had mozzarella sans the slicing)

Toss eggplant with 2 tsp salt, let drain in colander over sink for 30 minutes. Make red sauce (click on link, above). Oven to 375; take out 3 bowls. In the first stir together flour with salt and pepper; in the second, whisk eggs and in the third, stir together crumbs and 1/3 cup Parmesan. For each eggplant sice: dip in flour, shake off excess, dip in eggs, shake of excess, dip in bread crumbs. Heat 3 T olive oil in skillet on medium high. Just when the oil shimmers (before is smokes), sautee four egglplant slices, a minute and a half per side. Place on paper towels to drain. Repeat, adding another 2 T per batch of slices. When finished, stack eggplants: put scant 1 T tomato sauce in a circle where you plan to place eggplant layer (4 circles in dish). Then layer: eggplant slice, [2 T] red sauce, mozzarella [to cover], eggplant, red sauce, mozzarella and then a sprinkling of Parmesan. Bake 35 minutes.

Serves 4.

* here is a great excerpt on these dry sodas from Seattle Bon Vivant.

I was in a slump: I admit it.

I cooked impressive-sounding things like pinot noir braised red onions with roasted chicken, and soy braised beets with salmon in arugula cream sauce, and bruschetta with rosemary white bean puree. But things—these recipes—were just not going my way.

Some of them took too long to make, involved step upon step upon step and the end result while good, wasn’t worth the ardor. Or the recipes were adequate but not exquisite. Or even worse: they were merely decent but took a lot of effort to make. My goal is employing shortcuts, cutting out unnecessary steps, keeping all the necessary flavor and delivering a great tasting meal.

Life is short: our palate only has so long to enjoy flavor combinations and find favorite recipes. So as much as I can help it, when choosing between ‘eh, that was okay’ (aka functional food) or ‘wow, shut my eyes and enjoy the savory moment’ (aka fabulous food), I am going to have to go with the latter—for myself and those who sit around my table.

A tall order, and no, not every bite in our family is to die for. BUT I am always trying to find recipes that work for us, that we sincerely appreciate and enjoy, a sort of treasure hunt to find food that entices us, that beckons us to pull up a chair and stay awhile…

All of that to say this: I don’t share every recipe with you that I try. Many of my recent endeavors have fallen short. Translation: I won’t be making them again, so why would I share them? I am not going to send recipes to your kitchens, if it fails to pass the test in my kitchen.

That said, sometimes pressing on through a slump is the only way out. I pressed on, and [whew] have two new recipes that I am quite tickled with. One is Eggplant Parmesan: watch for the post and recipe soon. And the other, an appropriately fall Fennel Pear Soup (recipe follows).

I love soups. For a special first course at dinner, for lunch the next day… with a big wedge of just-baked bread… It isn’t a stretch to believe that soup is good for the soul—especially this one:

Fennel Pear Soup
2 bulbs fennel
1 yellow onion
2 comice pears
2 T butter
4 cups chicken broth
2 T flour
coarse salt & white pepper
½ cup half and half

Trim base and stalks of fennel, thinly slice bulb. Do the same with the onion. In skillet: add fennel, onion, butter and 2 T water. Cover, cook over medium high for 5-7 minutes. Add 2 T flour, stir for 1 minute. Add peeled and chopped pears and broth; cover and simmer until pears are soft, 5 minutes. Puree. Return to pan, add [coarse] salt, pepper and the cream. Simmer 6-8 minutes, serve. (optional garnish: fennel fronds).

I am in love with fennel; read more of my obsession in what to do with 2 bulbs of fennel. Oh, and if you DO make this as a lovely first coarse for Thanksgiving, also consider mixing up the Ginger Orange Cocktail (skip the Halloween rantings, this ginger-forward drink can easily squeeze in a chair at the Thanksgiving table).

I was shocked how little time and effort were required to make these little rounds of harvest bliss. In fact, I had the ingredients on hand for over two weeks before I finally capitalized on an opportunity to deliver them to my table top. And now, in hindsight? I wonder why I didn’t make them earlier.

(Okay, to be honest I have the ingredients on hand again. My intention is to make this dessert again so I can snap a much lovelier photo, but alas I am procrastinating again. And why should you have to wait for this recipe? I will sub a prettier photo soon. Or you can send me yours!).

We had guests pop over for a quick visit on a weeknight. I thought it would be a nice touch to provide dessert beyond the coffee and chocolates, so I pulled out some frozen puff pastry (key shortcut: look for the box Pepperidge farms that already comes in six individual rounds or ’shells’). One box serves 6—how easy this would be if I had to serve 12 or even 24?!

With the holidays coming, it is nice to have such a dessert in your arsenal.

Individual Pecan Apple Tarts with Rum Cream
2 large green tart apples
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup raisins
2 T water
2 T dark rum
puff pastry (1 sheet or 6 tart rounds), thawed
4 T toasted, chopped pecans
1/2 cup chilled whipping cream
1 tsp sugar

Combine apples (cored, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces), sugar, raisins, water and 1 T Rum in small saucepan; cover and cook over medium heat 15 minutes (stir a bit). Let cool. Preheat oven to 400; roll pastry into 4 1/2 inch rounds (cut if using pastry sheet; for pastry rounds, just roll out to 4 1/2 inches). Press 1 T pecans into center of each round, leaving border. Spoon apple mixture onto each round, leaving 1/2 inch border. Bake 20 minutes. Meanwhile mix cream, 1 tsp sugar and 1 T rum until stiff peaks form. Place a dollop on each tart and serve.