Panzanella

A Tuscan bread salad, Panzanella puts to use your overly crusty bread. Substantial, delicious and with a pleasingly diverse terrain, Panzanella can be thrown together quickly and never disappoints. You can get creative with ingredients and just use whatever you have. Here is the general recipe.

Chunks of bread, a bit stale is best  

Tuscan Kale, chopped well

Tomatoes, chopped

Fresh Mozzarella hunks

Fresh Basil, chopped well

Balsamic vinegar

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt

Fresh cracked pepper

Toss it all together, baby and you've got yourself a meal. Paired with a glass of wine it's even better. 

local eats

so...we are unexpeectedly spending new year's eve alone as a family...baby has been sick for a couple of days and we don't want to push him. it's sad, in a way, because we have dear friends with children that we looked forward spending the holiday with...but alas, better to be safe and keep everyone healthy.

to lift my spirits a little i am cooking a glorious feast of local yumminess for the children, jay and i this evening at home. i'll be shucking some local oysters and serving them with a mignonette as a starter. the recipe is a few entries below. you can find it here.  so. damn. sexy. and so good. and yep, my kids do eat oysters, at least the older two boys.

winter vegetables are delicious...some of the hardiest greens come in the fall and winter and are still available at good super markets in maine...i'm making some kale salad and some broccolini tonight...both of which are still available locally. my kale salad is to die for. it's amazing to think it is so good for you and so yummy. i am making a big batch tonight which will stretch through the week. jay and i like to eat it everyday. again, the recipe is available here...

for the broccolini, i am just going to sear it in a cast iron skillet with some bragg's, extra virgin olive oil and a touch of white balsamic vinegar. i won't cook it too long...just couple of minutes until it turns a deeper green. i like it to still be crunchy and it retains most of its vitamins that way, too.

of course, maine is the land of potatoes...so we've got some maine potatoes that i will peel, boil and then mash with toffuti cream cheese and kate's butter and perhaps a sprinkle of sea salt. i discovered the tofutti in mashed potatoes secret while working a catering gig this past fall...it has been a family favorite ever since and will probably be forever more.

for the main course tonight we are having good ol' maine lobster. they are crawling all over each other in a big paper bag in my fridge as i type. i will boil them later and serve them up with slices of lemon and some melted butter...Kate's butter which is made locally with sea salt (it is out of this world and will be the only thing in this lifetime that makes me fat. i swear. i look for excuses to eat it.).

i bought a yummy light prossecco to celebrate with. it isn't local, but it sure will be good. and for dessert i am preparing a flourless chocolate orange torte. again...it isn't local, but it's made from scratch and we all love it.

so...from my family to your, we wish you the happiest of years yet...<3

heatwave...

it has been so hot in maine this week. i have been trying to find a pocket of cool air somewhere, anywhere...the air has been hot. heavy. like pudding. who the hell wants to eat, let alone COOK in weather like this??

working at the Cape Arundel Inn throughout this heat wave gave me some great ideas for food to prepare for such hot weather. chilled food. and of course, delicious food.

some of the featured items this week:
gazpacho. a to die for garden vegetable tomato based soup slightly spiced with shaved aged cheese and croutons and balsamic honey drizzle. i like mine really spicy...and spice makes your body cool down. perfect.

fried green tomatoes with this AMAZING creamy basil dressing. a recipe i vow to get for us all.

chilled beef that has been cooked medium rare with heirloom tomato salsa, paired with a chilled red potato lobster salad.

chilled food. it's smart and you can cook it in the early hours of a day you know is going to be hot and leave it in the fridge until late in the day when you wouldn't want the oven or grill on. it's a great idea if you work all day, too...and don't feel like expending energy when you retun home all tired and shriveled and sweaty.

<3 i work with some brilliant foodies, for sure. <3

oh. my. god. oysters.

nothing screams sexy like raw oysters.

i can slurp up dozens of them. and i do. living in maine i have access to some of the freshest, most amazing seafood available any where. when i hit the Lobster Company of Arundel, Maine, i usually add a dozen or so oysters to the bill. my favorite oysters are Kumamoto...they have a subtle cucumber flavor to them that i haven't found in any other yet. but i'm not picky. it's hard to come by Kumamotos. i'll settle for a good 'ol Damariscotta any day!

i learned to shuck oysters working at Street & Co...an absolutely amazing Mediterranean seafood restaurant in Portland, Maine. it is a skill. it isn't easy. and i am not about to take responsibility for teaching anyone who reads this...but know that it is well worth the effort you exert, especially when you pair the oysters with a Mignonette Sauce. a fine tutorial is here.

mignonette is a traditional french oyster sauce. it allows for the flavor of the oyster to come through, unlike a cocktail sauce. the one i make is a bastardized version of the one they serve at the raw bar at Street & Co. when you make it you will set it out in a small bowl or ramekin to spoon into the oyster shell and slurp right up. mmmm...can't be beat.

you will need:
red wine vinegar
sparkling pellegrino water
prepared horseradish
freshly ground pepper
the water found within the oysters as you shuck them

preparation:
1. pour about 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar into a small mixing bowl.
2. add about 3 tablespoons of pellegrino to the vinegar.
3. i like my mignonette a little spicy...so i add about a tablespoon of horseradish to this vinegar/pellegrino blend...you should add what you like depending on your taste.
4. grind some pepper into the sauce to taste.
5. as you crack each oyster open pour off the water you find inside into the mignonette...and then put the oysters on a dish lined with ice...
6. spoon a little sauce into the oyster shell as you are about to eat it and enjoy!!!

broadening horizons...

i love having new experiences...and trying new foods...and thankfully over the weekend i had the amazing opportunity to do just that while visiting relatives in New Jersey. there is much more variety to life south of Maine. i love it here for so many reasons, but it definitely lacks diversity in culture, people and food! (we have amazing fare here...just not all that culturally diverse!)

for the first time ever, i went to a Korean BBQ. it was a loud, large smoky room that was packed full of diners. when we sat down, my father in law ordered a bunch of food for the whole table, so i honestly don't know exactly what it was that we ate.

food began parading to the table right away...in a matter of moments the table was covered with 3 sets of about a dozen little appetizers...kim chi, cured black beans, marinated bean sprouts, a waldorf-esque salad of apple and potato (that was thankfully much tastier than a waldorf salad), an egg souffle, several salads with different types of spicy dressing, marinated straw-like mushrooms, among other things. each was fabulous and different from the next.

we also were presented with a big plate full of chilled, finely diced raw meat. the server tossed it all in raw egg and a dressing that was a tad sweet right at the table. it was meant to be eaten raw and it was amazing. i have had raw meat before, carpaccio is one of my favorite delicacies, but this was sooo much different than that and very delicious. it looked much like a pile of shredded roasted red peppers and was called yuki, i think.

as we began to nibble on all of these goodies, a man brought out a small cage full of flaming charcoals and nestled it into the center of our table. next, a big plate of raw meat was brought over and we cooked it ourselves right there in the center of our tables! there were large crunchy piece of lettuce on the table and we put this amazing tangy peanut sauce on the leaf, with the meat and some bean sprouts and/or mushrooms and rolled it up eating it altogether like a sushi handroll!

it was fun...the children had a blast and there was plenty for them to love. we left smelling a bit like the BBQ itself, but it was so well worth it.

IT WAS ALL SOOOOOO FLIPPING GOOD!