Back to cooking; piperade of vegetables with tomato sauce

Whole tomatoes, vanilla, olive oil, garlic, basil.
Leeks, peppers, zucchini, fennel, cherry tomatoes.


Success.

Apple custard tart ( I can bake? )

This crust. Oh, boy. I'm not even going to tell you what happened to my first attempt at a pie crust. Yes, this one is the second attempt. I'm very proud of it not because of how it looks, but how it tastes. Sure, I could've made it prettier with some kind of design but I was way too focused on just getting it to mold to the pie pan correctly.

There's something about baking that is altogether different from cooking. I have to say that I feel slightly more satisfied after having accomplished this today. On the other hand, I find that baking makes me delirious. At one point I thought I was coming down with the flu, but then figured out it was because I'd been standing around a 400 degree oven all day.

This pie is roughly based on Julia Child's Tarte Normand Aux Pommes.

Stuffed Dates

This is the only picture I managed to take, so there's no "after" shot. Sorry. I think my camera was running out of batteries, but most likely I got caught up in eating these - dates stuffed with blue cheese and wrapped in bacon - that I...forgot. These were actually for my co-workers, all eight of them. The dates were a hit, and over a game of flip-cup I mistakenly promised to cook more often for the office. I might have even promised to cook once a week...

Anyway, these are extremely easy to make. Cut dates in half. Remove the seed. Stuff liberally with cheese so that the cheese is peeking out of the fruit. Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper. Perhaps do what I did and dip in sage oil for extra flavor. Wrap half a slice of bacon around the date. Pierce with a toothpick. Gather all assembled dates and place in baking pan or sheet with sides that will keep the grease from overflowing. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 375. After 20 minutes, turn over for even cooking.

Peas and lemon cream

After a nice at-home yoga session with Angie (we listened to Donovan and sipped tea, too), I didn't feel like leftover potato soup. I still had some mushrooms left from the party, and peas, and cream. A while ago, a friend passed Nigela's recipe for lemon linguine on to me. It's a simple, yet sophisticated dish. Not too creamy, not too lemony. Well, without looking at the recipe, I just whipped up my own version, tossed in some peas, mushrooms, and sliced some leftover baby tomatoes. You can't really see the lemon cream sauce in this picture, but it's there. And it's mighty tasty.

New Year, New Recipes

After hosting a fairly large dinner party last night, I didn't think I'd have the energy or desire to cook today or... anytime soon. Well, as you can see, I was wrong. After a lazy day cleaning up the last bits of the party, I had the urge to make yet another soup. I hadn't been outside, and still haven't, so a warm, hearty soup sounded like a good excuse to remain inside. I had about five peeled potatoes leftover, and a pound of unused mushrooms. Kind of a no-brainer and certainly not a difficult soup to make, but if you want something simple and filling, perhaps try my very own recipe (!!!). Oh and rosemary-asiago crostinis!

Potato-mushroom soup:
5-6 peeled and chopped potatoes
1/2 pound pound halved mushrooms
4 cups chicken broth (but you'll have to estimate a little depending on how thick you want it)
1 chopped yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
2 tb butter
1/4 cup olive oil
1 bay leaf
thyme
s + p

Simmer onions and garlic in oil until translucent. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add broth, simmer. Add potatoes, thyme, more s + p, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, or until potatoes are cooked through and soft. Meanwhile, saute mushrooms in butter until soft, but not fully cooked through. Add mushrooms to soup, add s + p to taste. Let the soup simmer for a while ( I went off and did something for about 20 minutes). Turn off heat, let sit for a while (I made the crostinis while the soup cooled a bit). While the crostinis are toasting in the oven, blend the soup. I use an electric hand mixer. Serve!

Rosemary-asiago crostinis
I used a day-old baguette. Cut into slices. Drizzle with your choice of oil (olive, grape seed, herb-infused), pepper, few sprigs of rosemary, and freshly shaved asiago. Toast for 5 minutes or until brown and toastyyy.