A couple of years ago, my mom and I took a trip up north to Maine and discovered that we totally LOVE Maine. Now - if I thought that I could survive the winters in Maine, I would quite possibly quit my job and just move up there. Unfotrunately I am a bit of a winter wuss. So I just have to settle on visiting there during the summer.
In terms of momentos from my trips, what I've realized is that I really like getting local specialty food items. On this trip I bought 5 items specifically for myself, so I thought I would share them with you.
1) Maple Pepper Seasoning - My mom had gotten my sister a bottle of maple pepper on her trip last year, and during a few Sister Sunday Suppers we used it and it was unbelievable. So I made it my goal on this trip to find it. Well I did manage to find some, but not the same brand (my sister has the one made by Highland Foods where mine is by Maison Madelon (I got it on our little side jaunt to Montreal Canada). If I had to compare it toanything - I would say that it is similar to a steak seasoning, but sweeter since it contains crystalized bits of maple syrup. yum!
2) Also from Montreal - Maple Vinegar from Vinaigre PicBois (Another prodcut from Canada). Maple vinegar sweet and sour - like if someone mated a bottle of apple cider vinegar with a bottle of rice wine vinegar. I was surprised by how much I liked its flavor, and am bummed that I only bought a small bottle. The brand of vinegar I got is really only available in Canada, but I googled maple vinegar and apparently Dean & Delucca sell one online for $7.
3) Herbed Maine Sea Salt from Maine Sea Salt Co. I think one of the latest food trends I have noticed is the availability of buying sea salt from different geographical areas. At my local whole foods, they have 5 or 6 options that you can choose from and buy by mass at the cheese counter (the Hawaiin salt is pinky). Anyways this Maine sea salt is brown and is flavored with Thyme, Majoram, Sage, Fennel, & Lavendar. It leaves quite a kick. I think this will be a good salt to use on fall/winter foods.
4) & 5) Stonewall Kitchen Maine Blueberry Honey and Wild Maine Blueberry Syrup. I fell in love with blueberries after my last trip to Maine, so I thought these would be fun to have. I will confess that I haven't tried either one, but can't wait to make something that is worthy of opening them.
So last week I decided to celebrate my travel treasures by making something that would feature their flavors. I chose to make a wilted Spinach salad with bacon and mushrooms. To do this, I made a couple slices of bacon. Once done, I removed them and saved about 2 Tablespoons of the warm grease in a prep bowl so I could use it for a vineagrette. Then I drained the excess Greece so they pan only had a thin coat. Next I sauteed red onions and then sauteed mushrooms. At the end of their sautee, I seasoned them with the maple pepper and the Maine Sea Salt. While I had been doing that, I hard-boiled an egg so that I could peel it and slice it for my salad. Next I added poured the reserved bacon grease back into the pan along with 2 teaspoons of sugar, and 2 Tablespoons of the Maple Vinegar, and a sprinkling of the Maine Sea Salt, and Maple Pepper. Anyways, whisk this mixture in the pan so that you scrape up all the yummy bits on the bottom of the pan. After a minute or so, you can take it off the heat. Then in a bowl combine spinach, mushrooms, onions, crumbled pieces of bacon, egg slices, and the salad dressing. Toss and enjoy.
I am not exaggerating when I say that this could be the best spinach salad I have ever had and I think that is because of the Maple Vinegar. This meal just naturally went with these travel treats I bought.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Snapper to it
Ok, that has got to be one of the cheesiest blog entry titles I have ever used, but hey - this entry is about fish.
This weekend I had a "slumber party" with some friends (all of us left around 2 am so we could sleep in our own beds, hence the quotation marks). In addition to some junk food staples, I decided to bring along stuff to make virgin pina coladas. I haven't made pina coladas (with or without rum) in a long time so I had to spend some time debating in the latin food section of my store if I should get coconut milk or cream de coconut (Julia Roberts in Steel Magnolia's would be saying "The one is much thicker than the other.) So I checked to see if either one had a recipe on the can and sure enough the coconut cream had a recipe for pina colada smoothies (uses ice cream - yum!), but what really caught my eye was the recipe on the can for coconut milk. It was for red snapper in a coconut milk sauce (I've since learned it's a basic Puerto Rican recipe). So I grabbed a can of both and figured that I would use the cream first and the milk if necessary, but that if I still had the milk at the end of the night then I would make the snapper recipe for my Sunday Sister Supper (sans sister).
I will say that if I was actually having supper with my sister, this probably would not be a dish we would make together. My sister doesn't really enjoy Latin food as much as I do.
If you want the recipe you can go here, but here is the gist. You sautee onions, celery, and garlic together and then add the coconut milk, a bay leaf, tomato and tomato paste to create the sauce. As the sauce cooks down, you add the fish and you let it cook until the fish is done (flakes easily). Remove the fish and then you let the sauce cook down to your desired consistency. Then you serve over rice (I used brown rice this time).
While the recipe calls for red snapper, I ended up using mahi mahi because there wasn't any fresh snapper at my grocery store. If you look at the wikipedia links I've provided, you will see that they are two very different looking fish. I think snapper tends to be a kind of flaky white fish where mahi mahi has a meatier texture, similar to tuna (although it doesn't taste at all like tuna). However like tuna, mahi mahi may have a higher mercury target so you don't want to be eating mahi mahi all the time. But mahi mahi goes well in exotic-inspired like fish dishes (most often Asian inspired) because the fishy taste isn't overwhelming.
The dish was DELISH! It definitely reminds me of something I would order at a seafood restuarant like Bonefish Grill, but really super easy to make. On the side I had a few slices of avacado in lime juice(which I wanted to eat before it went bad), but the dish is really super filling so you don't really need a side dish. The recipe is good for 4-6 servings, but since its just me I halved it and got 3 medium size mahi mahi fillets. I did not freeze my leftovers because I don't think this is a dish that will freeze well, which means that I will have to finish my leftovers this week. This won't really be a problem because it was super yum. I could definitely see myself serving this at a dinner party (given the guests liked fish) because it is so tasty and looks really nice. So definitely try it out.
This weekend I had a "slumber party" with some friends (all of us left around 2 am so we could sleep in our own beds, hence the quotation marks). In addition to some junk food staples, I decided to bring along stuff to make virgin pina coladas. I haven't made pina coladas (with or without rum) in a long time so I had to spend some time debating in the latin food section of my store if I should get coconut milk or cream de coconut (Julia Roberts in Steel Magnolia's would be saying "The one is much thicker than the other.) So I checked to see if either one had a recipe on the can and sure enough the coconut cream had a recipe for pina colada smoothies (uses ice cream - yum!), but what really caught my eye was the recipe on the can for coconut milk. It was for red snapper in a coconut milk sauce (I've since learned it's a basic Puerto Rican recipe). So I grabbed a can of both and figured that I would use the cream first and the milk if necessary, but that if I still had the milk at the end of the night then I would make the snapper recipe for my Sunday Sister Supper (sans sister).
I will say that if I was actually having supper with my sister, this probably would not be a dish we would make together. My sister doesn't really enjoy Latin food as much as I do.
If you want the recipe you can go here, but here is the gist. You sautee onions, celery, and garlic together and then add the coconut milk, a bay leaf, tomato and tomato paste to create the sauce. As the sauce cooks down, you add the fish and you let it cook until the fish is done (flakes easily). Remove the fish and then you let the sauce cook down to your desired consistency. Then you serve over rice (I used brown rice this time).
While the recipe calls for red snapper, I ended up using mahi mahi because there wasn't any fresh snapper at my grocery store. If you look at the wikipedia links I've provided, you will see that they are two very different looking fish. I think snapper tends to be a kind of flaky white fish where mahi mahi has a meatier texture, similar to tuna (although it doesn't taste at all like tuna). However like tuna, mahi mahi may have a higher mercury target so you don't want to be eating mahi mahi all the time. But mahi mahi goes well in exotic-inspired like fish dishes (most often Asian inspired) because the fishy taste isn't overwhelming.
The dish was DELISH! It definitely reminds me of something I would order at a seafood restuarant like Bonefish Grill, but really super easy to make. On the side I had a few slices of avacado in lime juice(which I wanted to eat before it went bad), but the dish is really super filling so you don't really need a side dish. The recipe is good for 4-6 servings, but since its just me I halved it and got 3 medium size mahi mahi fillets. I did not freeze my leftovers because I don't think this is a dish that will freeze well, which means that I will have to finish my leftovers this week. This won't really be a problem because it was super yum. I could definitely see myself serving this at a dinner party (given the guests liked fish) because it is so tasty and looks really nice. So definitely try it out.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Changes
There is one thing I can say about this blog. It is constantly evolving.
A lot of things that have happened since the holidays last year. The biggest change has been that my dear sweet sister Molly has moved back to NC. She got an awesome job opportunity there and would have been insane not to take it. So now instead of cooking with me (Emily) she gets to cook with Mom. She has a new CSA, which is structured a little different than the one she had here, but she is still cooking. I don't know if she will continue to post stuff. I hope she does because she was making some crazy good things, and I know I will definitely miss her cooking.
Anyways- I've been finding myself cooking less and less. I had lost my sense of taste and when I did cook, things just weren't coming out how I wanted too. This was not a good thing. But after a while even take out tastes bad. Sometime definitely needs to change.
So recently I decided that I need get myself slowly back into the cooking cycle. So in that effort I have decided that on Sundays I will cook or bake at least 1 thing that I will eat on that day. I know that doesn't sound like much - but its a start. While technically I am not cooking with my sister, I feel like I am doing this in the spirit of her - so I'm going to continue calling it Sister Sunday Supper. And these things may not necessarily even be for Supper.
Since I started this, there have been two Sundays.
On Sunday 1 - I had gone to this farm stand with my mom on our way back from vacation and I had gotten a bunch of beaches and blueberries. My intention was to make a peach gelato with a blueberry swirl. Of course once I read my gelato recipe I realized that I didn't have enough peaches. So the fruit hung out in the fridge for a week. Knowing that it would go bad, I decided instead that I would make a peach pie and blueberry gelato instead. Two very simple things. Yes, gelato is really easy to make if you have a ice cream mixer attachment for your Kitchen Aide stand mixer. In fact, I've found that I've been mostly making gelato on the mixer lately. Anyways - the gelato actually had to be made over two days (gelato batter must chill in the fridge before you mix it - and the longer you chill it the better it is). But the pie was delicious. It was nice having such a simple dessert throughout the week.
On Sunday 2 - At the same farmstand where I got the peaches and blueberries I also got a zuchinni and tomato. Remarkably even two weeks later they hadn't gone bad - but I didn't want to push it. So I used the zuchinni, tomato, an onion, and some chopped rotisserie chicken to make a fritata. I had a bunch of egg whites leftover from when I made the gelato batter so I just used those and a few more eggs and some half and half for the egg base. To add a little flavor, I picked some basil and parsley from my herb garden. BTW, my herb garden has gone insane with cilantro this year thanks to the relatively mild weather we have had this summer.
So those are my first two entries for my sisterless Sister Sunday Supper.
A lot of things that have happened since the holidays last year. The biggest change has been that my dear sweet sister Molly has moved back to NC. She got an awesome job opportunity there and would have been insane not to take it. So now instead of cooking with me (Emily) she gets to cook with Mom. She has a new CSA, which is structured a little different than the one she had here, but she is still cooking. I don't know if she will continue to post stuff. I hope she does because she was making some crazy good things, and I know I will definitely miss her cooking.
Anyways- I've been finding myself cooking less and less. I had lost my sense of taste and when I did cook, things just weren't coming out how I wanted too. This was not a good thing. But after a while even take out tastes bad. Sometime definitely needs to change.
So recently I decided that I need get myself slowly back into the cooking cycle. So in that effort I have decided that on Sundays I will cook or bake at least 1 thing that I will eat on that day. I know that doesn't sound like much - but its a start. While technically I am not cooking with my sister, I feel like I am doing this in the spirit of her - so I'm going to continue calling it Sister Sunday Supper. And these things may not necessarily even be for Supper.
Since I started this, there have been two Sundays.
On Sunday 1 - I had gone to this farm stand with my mom on our way back from vacation and I had gotten a bunch of beaches and blueberries. My intention was to make a peach gelato with a blueberry swirl. Of course once I read my gelato recipe I realized that I didn't have enough peaches. So the fruit hung out in the fridge for a week. Knowing that it would go bad, I decided instead that I would make a peach pie and blueberry gelato instead. Two very simple things. Yes, gelato is really easy to make if you have a ice cream mixer attachment for your Kitchen Aide stand mixer. In fact, I've found that I've been mostly making gelato on the mixer lately. Anyways - the gelato actually had to be made over two days (gelato batter must chill in the fridge before you mix it - and the longer you chill it the better it is). But the pie was delicious. It was nice having such a simple dessert throughout the week.
On Sunday 2 - At the same farmstand where I got the peaches and blueberries I also got a zuchinni and tomato. Remarkably even two weeks later they hadn't gone bad - but I didn't want to push it. So I used the zuchinni, tomato, an onion, and some chopped rotisserie chicken to make a fritata. I had a bunch of egg whites leftover from when I made the gelato batter so I just used those and a few more eggs and some half and half for the egg base. To add a little flavor, I picked some basil and parsley from my herb garden. BTW, my herb garden has gone insane with cilantro this year thanks to the relatively mild weather we have had this summer.
So those are my first two entries for my sisterless Sister Sunday Supper.
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