creating space for beauty & simplicity
A few weeks back I had the pleasure of spending the day with Nan.
We spent time in the kitchen baking, ate lunch and drank several cups of tea together.
Visits are so different without Pop but it felt like he was with us all day long.
It’s comforting to Nan that his beautiful carpentry work is throughout my entire home.
We travel from room to room and reminisce as she strokes the many built-ins and woodwork that his hands once touched.
I hope you all had a lovely weekend and for those who celebrate, a joyous Easter.
We certainly did and will share through photos tomorrow.
For now I will share with you a favorite springtime treat~pickled beet hard boiled eggs.
It really is the perfect combination don’t you think?
Now that spring is here, our hens are laying daily which means lots of hard boiled eggs to be pickled.
I used fresh horseradish from our garden-the first harvest of the season!
The beautiful crimson beet juice soaks right through the egg white and yolk making for a show stopper plate of deviled eggs.
Enjoy!
Pickled Beet Hard Boiled Eggs
6 medium beets
1 medium white onion, peeled and sliced
1 tbsp. black peppercorns
1/4 tsp. whole cloves
2 tbsp. grated peeled fresh horseradish
3 tbsp. peeled sliced fresh ginger
3 cups cider vinegar
4 tbsp. sugar
6 hard boiled eggs, peeled
Trim stalks off the beets. Wash beets and put into a medium pot, cover with water, and boil until soft, 45–60 minutes. Drain, slip off skins, slice beets, and put into a large glass jar.
Add onions, peppercorns, cloves, ginger and horseradish.
Bring cider vinegar, 3 cups water, and sugar to a boil in a small pot, then pour into jar. Set aside to cool, cover, and refrigerate until chilled. Store in refrigerator up to 1 month. Add eggs to jar at least 4 hours and up to 5 days before serving.
It was our turn this week to host dinner with Izzy.
It’s always fun to share some of our favorite recipes with the ones we love, so we smoked up the house with a fish fry.
There was breaded fish made with coarse cornmeal served with garlicky roasted potatoes and sauteed swiss chard and kale. In the middle of the table there were dishes of tartar and cocktail sauce and slices of lemon.
No one seemed to mind the smoky fog as we delighted in the fact that we are now eating dinner without having to turn on a single light!
Chris’s Fish Fry
4 fillets of atalantic cod, talapia or sea bass
2 eggs beaten
1/2 cup unbleached flour
1 1/2 cup coarse cornmeal
Olive oil or coconut oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Rinse fillets.
In a large cast iron pan heat 1/2 inch of olive or coconut oil at medium to high heat.
Coat fillet in flour on both sides.
Dip floured fillet in egg wash, coat entirely.
Coat fillet heavily in cornmeal.
Fry in oil on both sides until cornmeal turns golden brown. About 3 minutes on each side.
Drain on a paper towel.
The girls have each taken on a night to make dinner. Hannah cooks on Wednesdays and Norah on Thursdays.
This week Hannah made chicken, veggie stir fry.
As she chopped and prepared, I made ginger snaps for Craft Circle that evening.
I love working together with my family in the kitchen, especially when the back door can be wide open.
Hello Spring!
Norah has been inspired these days by this show and was wanting to branch out and bake something a little more fancy this week.
Her heart was set on a cake and she wanted to include berries with pink frosting.
She chose a recipe for a simple yellow cake from Joy of Cooking but added mixed berries that she had cooked down with some sugar.
She strained the berries to make a simple syrup which she then added to a cream cheese icing to get the pink hue she was going for.
Once the cake was cool she adorned it with fresh strawberries and icing where she got to use her new piping set she got for Christmas. She tested out each tip size and used the finest one for a face on each strawberry.
It was so much fun watching her come up with her very own creation. I helped a little but really just followed behind wiping and cleaning up.
Next week she wants me to have a list of ingredients laid out when she comes down in the morning to challenge her to make something with them.
I see a future cooking show star on our hands!
We made these last night for dinner and they were to die for.
True comfort food I tell ya.
Early morning I started a whole chicken in the crock pot and when I arrived home in the afternoon I made the dough and filling. I saved the fun part of constructing the pies for Norah and Chris. They got straight to work rolling out and crimping the dough when they got home.
We make a good team.
I doubled the recipe so there would be plenty of pies to pack in everyone’s lunch the next day with still a few left over to freeze.
Everyone declared that pretty much anything wrapped in that cream cheese dough would be delectable.
So we came up with a list of different fillings we want to try.
Stay tuned…..
Last Monday Norah was away on a trip with friends so we didn’t get to making bagels. We are excited for the opportunity to visit our favorite bagel shop in town next week to help make a batch so we decided before we brave our way through making our own we would wait to get some tips from the professionals.
Today Norah wanted to bake brownies.
Because she really enjoys watching cooking tutorials (as do I) we skimmed the Martha Stewart site and became intrigued with a recipe made with black beans.
It was a simple recipe with a short list of ingredients all of which we had on hand.
These brownies are decadent, chewy, rich, moist and fudgey.
And taste great with a cold glass of milk.
Last night was dinner with Izzy and it was my turn this week.
I have written before how we love salad bar night around here and it’s even more fun when we can share it with guests.
Last night I put on the works and served an array of toppings including bacon, avocado, shredded carrots, cucumber, pickled beets, hard boiled eggs, slivered almonds, dried cranberries, tuna, garbanzo beans, edamame and quinoa.
I roasted an entire cast iron skillet of sweet potatoes doused in coconut oil and made a batch of pita chips.
It’s so much fun setting the bar up but it’s just as much fun seeing everybody’s creations.
And there is always a trip back for seconds.
Hannah has taken on an internship this year so on Mondays it’s just Norah and I. Norah is a dynamic young lady full of creativity and a passion for cooking, baking, eating and food! She loves to work in the kitchen. She loves to host friends and family for meals and is always concocting up a new recipe. She excels in breaking me out of my “comfort zone” in the kitchen. The other day we were having a friend over for dinner and I was pressed for time and decided to make a vegetable fritatta. Norah insisted (she is a very persistent child) on making a quiche instead. I argued we didn’t have time to play around with a crust nor did I have much experience with quiche but I gave in and we ended up with one of the most delicious meals we have made in a while!
In the new year we thought it might be fun to make Mondays our baking day and to strive to make new things we have never made before. Yesterday we made a new york style cheesecake from this recipe. I have always thought cheesecake was an overly involved and tricky cake with a long list of ingredients but we found it was quite easy and simple really. We didn’t have enough graham crackers on hand so we substituted some homemade gingerbread men left over from the holidays for the crust. We also added a bit more lemon than called for. Santa brought Norah a citrus press for Christmas! It was rich, creamy and delicious with the perfect lemon zing. Norah and I were both beaming as we undid the spring form pan.
Next week…… bagels!!!
We ventured out yesterday and took the train downtown to Reading Terminal. We grabbed some lunch and bought the ingredients for some dinner with friends that night.