Too much!

When you have a full house in the coop,

And you find a handful of these,

With these springing from the garden,

You should most definitely sauté them together in butter.

And fill an omelet with them. 

My overachieving garden jewels

It's Rhubarb season!  I've been waiting for these to pop in order to try this:

Rhubarb Mousse from Saveur

Tantre farm 2014!

Eight satisfied years of a Tantre farm CSA membership leaves me coming back for more. Today was the first pickup of the season; always a good excuse to visit the farmer's market at Kerrytown. 

I always feel like I've won the lottery when I walk away with this box chock full of the goodness of the earth. This definitely feeds my family on many levels, yes, physically, but definitely spiritually and emotionally.

Thank you, Tantre!

Ann Arbor finds: #349

The relationship with your town is a relationship like any other. You've got to nurture it. You can't ignore it or small dissatisfactions turn into larger faults. That's why I'm always exploring the alleys, finding little gems to add to my Treetown repertoire.

Case in point: The Lunch Room (http://thelunchrooma2.tumblr.com/) (blogger app won't let me embed a link). I had heard that the food cart, The Lunch Room, had opened a brick and mortar, but not being particularly passionate about vegan ways it's never been on the top of my list of places I had to visit.

On Friday before a class period of practical exams, I knew I'd need something unique to carry me through. I would need an inspirational muse. I was walking through Kerrytown and The Lunch Room seemed to call out to me, so I went inside.

The ambiance is really cool, fits the vibe of the food. You can take your meal into the sweet Kerrytown courtyard that often gets overlooked. 

This sandwich was amazing, a riff on the classic Bahn Mi. A house-made baguette with a perfect consistency for this sandwich, full of flavor but not tearing the roof of your mouth apart on the first bite. Marinated tofu layered with a carrot sesame slaw spicy mayo and a few hidden jalapeño slices.  

It was just so flavorful that I found myself looking at the menu to see if this was indeed the same vegan place that I thought it was.  No meat or dairy products on the menu.  At home we often eat vegetarian, but in my mind making the cross over to vegan feels too sacrificial.  But if I could fill the docket with items like this, I would never miss animal products again. 

They are open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a seemingly new rotation of evening specials, like tapas or taco night.  Not to mention that the dessert counter was full of beautiful desserts. I didn't try any, but I can imagine that they'd leave you wanting another.  I'll leave that for the next stop, which will come very very soon.

As I was driving away, so satisfied with myself I stumbled on this: 

Street music? I'd pay to listen to this. 

What's on the menu?

I stumbled upon an amazing resource:  New York Public Library's collection of historical restaurant menus. Explore this gem at What's on the menu? with images as well as text.

And a parallel find: a researching blogger 
@ Restaurant-ing through history

Pearls of wisdom from culinary school Day 6

Use chicken feet to make a stock with body--one of the characteristics of good stocks. The other four are color, clarity, flavor and aroma.

Not just in the kitchen my friends. My life motto.

The road to Chefdom

I meant to post this on Monday. Let the Culinary Arts Degree adventure begin!  

Happy Mother's day to me

             Morels in my backyard! 

And lunch at Central Provisions 

(a bar at Braun court pop-up exclusive)

smoked salmon tartine with golden beets

Mother's Day means kids stabbing at your greens

Korean chicken

Not being able to leave well enough alone, she sees this recipe 

Korean Fried Chicken  | SAVEUR.

And says "Yes. Yes. But how? What? For whom?"

Weighing her options, she brainstorms and creates: 

A ramen noodle nest topped with Korean chicken bites, carrot radish slaw, baby spinach, buttered corn, a poached egg and dashi broth.  Topped with garlic chives, the first 2014 garden harvest (if you don't count the asparagus she's eaten raw standing barefoot in the garden).

Just because it's work, doesn't mean its not fun

Deviled eggs at the Raven's club. 

Just one stop on the tour of Ann Arbor's trendy food circuit 

for the fine folks of Ventura Foods and Sysco.

• Secrets and tastings of Zingerman's Deli
• The wonders of Kerrytown: Monahan's Seafood, Sparrow Meats and Market, Fustini oils, Spice merchants
• Specialty cocktails and snacks while debriefing at Raven's Club 
• Dinner and inspiring introduction by Chef Duc of Pacific Rim by Kana

I'm wearing my birthday suit

Although she was a little slow this year, Mother Nature normally gives me tender green leaves for my birthday. 

This year the leaves are still embryonic, but they're visible. And so are these puppies:

A quick lunch break between job número uno (motherhood) and an exciting culinary consulting project: 

Shrimp buns at Tomokun- hit the spot!

finds!

Sometimes I like to share my finds local and global, heart warming and thought provoking. 

join the revolution. sell it. buy it.
http://www.jackeez.com/

if you dig straight down from Ann Arbor, you'd hit Australia not China. http://www.gourmettraveller.com.au/

preaching to the choir:
Michael-pollan-thinks-wall-street-has-way-too-much-influence

keep up on what's often kept quiet:
http://blog.usfoodsafety.com/

kind of funny, kind of silly, kind of scary (how much is real?)
http://farmedanddangerous.com/

beautiful:
pink lady food photography finalists

oops:
100 get diarrhea at a food safety meeting

Juicy kitchen!

My favorite lunch hide out!

 Props to juicy kitchen for the grilled Caesar

Cream of watercress

Cream of Watercress Soup

Take the time to make the lemon cream.  So sumptuously delicious.

Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun...

It looks like this outside. Ugh. 

 

Needing some sunshine, I turn to the meyer lemon, 

a cross between a seville orange and a standard lemon.

Meyer lemons, salted with kosher, squished into the jar so that they're covered in their own juices. Stashed in the fridge.

 

These will be preserved in 3-4 weeks, just about the same time the sun actually starts to make a regular appearance. Typically I've quartered lemons for the preservation, but I wanted to try them sliced this time.  Updates in a month!

Toad in the hole!!!

Thanks to Jamie Oliver for this recipe for "Toad in the hole". 

For you yankees: 

Sausages nestled in popover batter with onion gravy

served with baby kale mashers

Local food summit 2014

A thinking day turns into 

a wonderfully exciting eating day!!

And this was only one course from the afternoon snack! 

Mind food. Heart & soul food. Belly food.

http://localfoodsummit2014.blogspot.com/?m=1

My last bite

An omelet

Filled with roasted asparagus and la Tur cheese dressed with produce station's unctuous peppered smoked salmon

Sometimes I don't have time for a blog post of recipes and method photos. But I still want to share a bite with you.  

One bite.

How to: roast garlic (by request)

Choose a large firm head of garlic.

Cut in half across the bulb 

So that it looks like this:

Drizzle with olive oil generously.

Sprinkle with kosher salt.

Wrap in foil bundle.

Preheat oven to 400 deg.

Roast for 20-30 minutes.

Spread on bread to your heart's content.

It really is a miracle!

I know that I can make some breads at home. I've been successful before, at least to some degree. But it's never wowed me before. Soft breads, quick breads, pita, parker house rolls, even a sourdough loaf. These are attainable, but they don't feel like the real deal.

This "miracle boule" satisfies the persnickety perfectionist in me, with absolutely zero effort.  It almost doesn't seem fair. The crunch was unbelievable; the flavor- deep, because of the 24 hour rise.  It would be silly of you NOT to try it.

Banana almonds and dates

Let's talk Smoothies. 

They're not supposed to need recipes, really.  At least in our house smoothies, particularly for breakfast, tend to be a result of what types of frozen fruit and yogurt are in abundance, and what flavors you're in the mood for.

But I stumbled on this flavor combination online in a different capacity and decided to try it out in the blender.  

One banana frozen (or fresh)

Two date almond rolls (or plain dates. We just happened to have these for snacking)

Two cups almond milk (or plain milk if you're out or want less almond flavor)

One cup ice

Blend for 30-45 seconds. 

The key with all of these is to start with an idea, but then use what you have. No stress. You'll just end up creating your own recipe!

a few of my favorite things

 one can never listen to Julie Andrews on the mountain too many times

just for goodness sake NO carrie underwood

 

Thanks to a sick day for Kimmy and a few wanders of mine, online and into a used book store, I have these gems to share. 

websites:

What should I eat for Breakfast today

First, we feast

White on Rice Couple

the Piglet: tournament of cookbooks on Food52

cookbooks:

Jerusalem

The Sweet Life in Paris  

Nancy Silverton's Sandwich Book 
 
Smitten Kitchen & stuck pot rice with lentils (from the blog)




And I almost forgot!? There was a trip to NYC last weekend with visits to

Momofuku noodle bar, finally!

Gentleman Farmer

Eataly, again!  

Piora

I love Ann Arbor's restaurants; really I do. But then I visit THE city and realize that there's sooo much more out there. The caveat is that I would have to trade my gentlelady's garden for the chaos. And I don't think this gentlelady could do it.

daydreaming

In a ServSafe class at Schoolcraft College this afternoon, I was daydreaming. Do you ever do that? Do you take a mental inventory of your fridge and pantry and try to match potential combinations with your mood? Just say yes so that I don't feel weird.

 

Avocado toasts with cherry tomato confit

click on the photo to see it larger.  blogger isn't cooperating with me.

• Broil semolina bread brushed with olive oil until lightly toasted. I like to only do one side so that the bottom side of the toast is still soft and doesn't cut into my gums.
• Mash avocado with the juice and zest of one lemon and one half teaspoon of large crystal sea salt.  Set aside.
• Saute 1 teaspoon red chili flakes in 1 cup olive oil for 30 seconds. Don't let it burn.  Carefully drop in 2 cups cherry tomatoes.  It will flame and spit at you, but don't be intimidated by your produce.  Cook for 8-10 minutes or until tomatoes begin to pop. 
• Spread avocados on toast and top with tomatoes.  

Butternut & apple

You know how simple it is to make butternut squash soup? 

 It is this simple.  

Roast one butternut squash (no need to peel, just scoop it out of after it's roasted), two apples, one jalapeno (if you like a little kick), one onion, four sprigs of thyme and two of rosemary at 400deg for 40 minutes, or until it's all soft. 

 Puree it all together with 4 cups of your favorite stock, homemade or not. Add 2 cups additional stock if you prefer a thinner bisque. Start seasoning with one tablespoon salt and two teaspoons black pepper.  Add more to taste.  Sometimes I also add 4 oz of goat cheese to the mix. 

A lovely, no fuss dinner - 

especially good with an oozing 

gruyere and caramelized onion grilled cheese.

Snickerdoodle heaven

A recipe scribbled from a friends copy- THE best. Yes, they are as good as they look. Cinnamon pillows of love.