Christmas 2015 recap

Posted in Food, Holidays, Homemade by mszerwo

Somehow the holiday season is already wrapping up and I’ve been getting ready to go back to work (!!!). Baby vacation is officially over on Monday. What a crazy wonderful past four months I’ve had! I digress. Let’s focus on the past week or so. Here is our Christmas 2015 recap:

Michael visited his first (and second) Santa and did a stellar job! He’s such an adorable kid. (‘Course I’m biased, since I’m his mom…)

Michael’s first Santa photo

Michael was skeptical with his visit to the Santa at Theo Chocolate

New Christmas Eve tradition

Michael, Brandon and I started a new tradition: reading the Polar Express before heading to bed on Christmas Eve! Michael didn’t quite understand the story yet, but he will in a few years.

Christmas morning brunch

My parents came over bright and early on Christmas morning and we made the fontina and spinach baked eggs with garlic brown butter breadcrumbs from the latest cookbook we’re cooking from, Seriously Delish, along with hashbrowns; a fruit salad of pineapple, blueberries and raspberries; and chicken sausage. We paired it with mango mimosas. Truly seriously delish.

Christmas morning brunch

Christmas tamales

As I mentioned last week, we have a tradition of making tamales for Christmas. This year we made them on Christmas day.

Christmas evening tamales

We followed our recipe, but this year paired the tamales with some black beans, queso fresco, toasted pumpkin seeds, a kale salad with a spicy lime vinaigrette, and red and green tortilla chips with homemade guacamole. I think this will be our new usual. The whole meal was delicious!

Our Christmas night feast

Christmas treats

I also made a recipe that I’ve been lusting over for a few weeks: the clementine-cocoa nib meringues from Eating Well. (We picked up the nibs while Michael visited with the Santa at Theo!) These were super easy to make and delicious.

Clementine-Cocoa nib meringues: SO GOOD.

I did run into one snag however. It’s very important that you break up the chocolate nib/powdered sugar combination before you fold it in to the meringue. I wasn’t as diligent about it and chunks of chocolate got stuck in the tip of the piping bag and made things trickier.

Our family feast

We concluded the Christmas weekend with a prime rib feast at my parent’s house, with asparagus, potatoes, and a delicious salad, paired with a pinot noir. The place card snowmen I made last week completed the table scape!

Our Christmas 2015 feast

Our place settings

Here are a few more of my favorites from this year’s Christmas celebrations:

Santa’s little helper

Three generations on Christmas!

Santa Baby!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and 2015! Cheers to an even better 2016!!

24Dec2015

Christmas tamales

Posted in Food, Holidays, Homemade by mszerwo

For the past several years Brandon and I have created our own tradition of making tamales on (or around) Christmas. Making tamales requires just a little bit of pre-planning (supply buying and day-of timing) and are fairly easy.

We use this recipe from Pepper Fool, of course with our own tweaks:

For the tamales:

1/2 eight-ounce package dried corn husks
4 ounces (1/2 cup) vegetable shortening
1 pound (2 cups) fresh masa
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
16 oz purchased salsa verde (We use the LaVictoria Thick’n Chunky Salsa Verde)
Shredded chicken from a rotisserie chicken (about 2-3 cups)

Toppings:

Cilantro
Cheese
Sour cream
Onions
Whatever else you want!

Prepare corn husks:

Soak the husks in water till pliable. Make sure they are fully submerged. If using room temperature water, they made need to soak for a few hours. To speed this up, you can put them in simmering water for 10 minutes and then let them continue soaking while the water cools.

To make the dough:

Beat the vegetable shortening in a mixer until very light, for about a minute. Add 1/2 pound (1 cup) fresh masa to shortening. Beat until well blended. Continue beating, adding alternately the remaining 1/2 pound masa and the broth, adding only enough broth to give consistency of medium thick cake batter. Then sprinkle in the baking powder and salt. Beat 1 minute more.

To form the tamales:

Remove husks from water when they have softened. Pat husks dry. Tear extra husks into 1/4 inch wide, 7 inch long strips one for each tamale. Take one that is at least 6 inches across on wider end and 6-7 inches long. Lay out this corn husk with tapering end toward you.

Tamale making begins

Spread a couple of tablespoons of dough mixture into a square, leaving at least a 1.5 inch border on side toward you and 3/4 inch border along other sides. Add chicken, cheese and salsa. (Along with whatever else you decide to add!)

Filling the tamales

Pick up two long sides of corn husk and bring them together, overlapping one over the other.

Fold up the bottom section of husk tightly right up to the filling line. Leave top open. Secure it in place by loosely tying one of strips of husk (or some baking twine) around tamale base.

Wrap up the tamales

Repeat with remaining husks and dough mixture.

Stand tamales on the folded bottom in prepared steamer, being sure they are not packed too closely in steamer they need to expand.

Cover with layer of leftover husks. Check carefully that all the water doesn’t boil away, adding boiling water when necessary. Cover with lid and steam for 1 hour.

Unwrap the tamales, discard the husks and serve with additional salsa on the side.

Our tamale feast

Yield: 4-6 servings

8Dec2015

Thanksgiving {2015}

Posted in Baby Michael, DIY, Food, Holidays by mszerwo

With the excitement of the holidays and a newborn who isn’t fond of napping, my posts are a little delayed these days. But, without further ado, some photos from this year’s Thanksgiving extravaganza.

First, we’ll start with our little turkey. Michael sported a Babies ‘R Us onesie and was a champ. He met my extended family, in town from California, and even decided to nap a wee fit, obviously exhausted from the festivities.

Our little Thanksgiving turkey

Not knowing how much time we’d have to prep a dish for the celebrations, we brought appetizers. I was able to find the time (no more than an hour required!) to prep not one but two platters.

I took inspiration from my platters from 2013 and 2014 and created an antipasti tray and vegetable platter.

Thanksgiving antipasti tray

Thanksgiving vegetable tray

The “turkey heads” are easy to make. Start with a smallish lemon with a bit of a stem nub. Then, whittle a carrot beak and glue it, a “hat” and some candy eyes onto the turkey with super glue. Hats can be anything from a radish top, broccoli, cauliflower, or something inedible too! Once you have your hat, make sure both of the surfaces are dried off, to the best of your ability. This will help the glue stick.

Thanksgiving platter turkey “heads”

The trays are easy to create as well. A quick trip to the store a couple of days before the holiday will suffice, with about an hour of “construction” time the morning of the holiday:

The antipasti platter:

Cured meat three-pack from Costco
~1 lb Beecher’s Flagship cheddar cheese (Costco)
A wheel of brie (Costco)
Trader Joe’s new four-olive medley
Marinated mushrooms (Trader Joe’s)
~1 lb of reduced fat smoked gouda (Trader Joe’s)

The vegetable tray:

1 head of broccoli
1 head of cauliflower
1 bag of baby carrots
1 orange pepper
2 cans of whole baby corn
1 can of asparagus
1 heart of celery
A couple of tomatoes
Not pictured: Fat-free sour cream with the Hidden Valley Ranch powder packet mixed in. (My favorite veggie dip!)

Here is a photo of the table, with my Aunt capturing the spread from a different angle. It was fun having such a large group (19 people!) to celebrate the holiday!

Our Thanksgiving set up

I also put my new modern calligraphy skills to use (did I tell you that I recently took a class with some girlfriends and discovered a new talent!?) and made place cards for the dinner. Don’t they look nice? I’m so impressed with myself– and clearly very humble!

Place cards by me!

I hope these inspire you to make a meat and cheese or veggie platter next Thanksgiving. Now I’m off to help Christmas explode all over our house! Photos to follow!

30Oct2015

Halloween preparations on Megan’s Island {2015}

Posted in Baby Michael, Drinky drinky, Food, Holidays, Homemade by mszerwo

Man, this baby vacation is flying by and I’m not doing nearly the amount of fun festive crafting and blogging that I had hoped I would be! I had grand plans of decking the house (and the kid) out for Halloween, but I’m nowhere close. Alas, he’s worth it — and I followed through on decking him out!

Michael & Beary Goldberg: best friends!

BOO! It’s Michael!

First things first, I found a bottle of wine for Halloween: the 2013 Dearly Beloved Forever Red. There are many bottles out there and this one matches Michael’s skeleton costume the best, so I had to have it. Plus the price was right at under $10.

Skeleton baby & skeleton head wine!

I’ve seen lots of Halloween-y wines at QFC and Trader Joe’s, and here are some wine-specific candy pairing ideas I found this year. If wine isn’t your thing, VinePair had some great Halloween Candy/alcohol pairings last year. Read my post here.

For a festive dinner, I’ve been scouring Pinterest during middle-of-the-night feedings and have settled on a “scary” lasagna. I opted for this “Cheesy Brussels sprout lasagna” with a scary face topping. I’m hoping it looks like this, but without the red sauce:

Scary lasagna!

Last year we made a zombie meatloaf (this is awesome, delicious, gluten-free, and quick and easy, if you need an idea!).

In 2013, we made squid ink pasta with “brain” sauce.

For more Halloween ideas, check out my Pinterest “Halloween Inspirations” board. So many great ideas that you could even do on short notice for this year!

14Oct2015

{Wine Wednesday} Game day wine pairings

Posted in Drinky drinky, Food, Wine Wednesdays by mszerwo

VinePair always has the best wine pairing ideas and infographics! (See Halloween candy, Thanksgiving, and Christmas cookies.)

They scored once again with these football foods and wine pairings. I’m sure these would all be great with beer, but that’s not my thing, so this is especially poignant for me. Especially since I’ll be spending the bulk of my sportsball-watching at home, in front of the TV with my little guy. Don’t nachos and malbec sound delightful right now?!

2015-9-16 football-gameday-wine-pairings-infographic

Happy drinking and go Huskies, Broncos and Seahawks!

8Oct2015

La Spiga’s “Chef’s Table with Gnocchetti 101” class

Posted in Adventures, Exploring Seattle, Food by mszerwo

Have you heard of Dyne? According to them, Dyne is a better way to book and enjoy the dining experience, to discover secret menus, pop-ups, and special offerings at select partners in Seattle. Based on this experience and the offerings I’ve seen, I would have to agree!

Brandon and I had the pleasure of using Dyne to attend a very select class this past June, in the private dining mezzanine (upstairs) at La Spiga Osteria, one of our favorite Seattle spots.

“Chef’s Table with Gnocchetti 101” was limited to 20 people and led by La Spiga owner and chef Sabrina Tinsley. Sabrina walked us through a demonstration-style cooking class on the techniques to master gnocchetti (the soft, delicate pasta cousin of gnocchi) followed by a three-course dinner with optional wine flight. Brandon opted for the wine flight, I opted against it.

For $48 per person (plus $25 extra for the wine flight), this was a deal — and an experience — that we couldn’t pass up!

Our group of Dyners

THE MENU

First Course: Insalata Primavera con Carciofi Croccanti
Spring salad with crispy fried artichokes, spring peas, asparagus, fava, bibb lettuce and pecorino fresco

First Course: Insalata Primavera con Carciofi Croccanti

Second Course: Gnocchetti al Norcina
Gnocchetti pasta with pork sausage, truffle and cream sauce

Second Course: Gnocchetti al Norcina

Third Course: Panna Cotta
Strawberry panna cotta with 30th Anniversary balsamic vinegar

Third Course: Panna Cotta

Dinner was delicious (as we’ve come to expect from La Spiga) and the best part of the evening was that we got to take recipes for each of the courses home with us! And now I will share the Gnocchetti alla Norcina (ricotta gnocchi with sausage, truffle and cream sauce) recipe with you!

Gnocchetti 101 class at La Spiga

Gnocchetti alla Norcina from La Spiga Osteria
(Ricotta gnocchi with sausage, truffle and cream sauce)
Serves 6

Ingredients

2 lbs ricotta, drained overnight
1 egg
~1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
Fresh ground pepper
2 T truffle flour (optional)
2 c all purpose unbleached flour + extra for dusting
6 pork sausage links
Olive oil
3 T truffle butter (optional — available for purchase at La Spiga)
3 c heavy cream
Parmigiano Reggiano

Make the gnocchetti

Mix together the ricotta, egg, salt, a little fresh ground pepper and the truffle flour, if you’re using it.
Add the all purpose flour and blend until smooth. The dough should be a workable consistency and may be sightly sticky. (About 2 minutes)
If the dough is too sticky, you may add up to a 1/4 c extra flour, but resist the urge to add any more.
Dust your work surface with plenty of flour and roll out the dough in small batches into 1/2″ cylinders with your palm.
Cut the cylinders into 1/2″ pieces like the below photo.
Dust the pieces with flour and transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment, you may freeze at this point, if you’re enjoying them later.

Little gnocchettis

Make the sauce

Remove sausage from the casing (Sabrina recommends using sausage WITHOUT fennel– it’s her preference) and saute in a sauce pan with 2 T olive oil. (Sabrina only uses Bono Extra Virgin Olive Oil, which I have only been able to find at La Spiga, not at PFI), lightly salt the sausage to prevent the loss of flavor to the cream.
When the sausage has just cooked through, add the optional truffle butter and allow to melt.
Add the cream once the butter has melted.
Bring the sauce to a boil and remove from heat. Don’t worry about boiling the sauce down or reheating it. It will do this on its own.

The best sauce EVER: sausage, truffle and cream

Cook the Gnocchetti

Bring salted water to a boil. The water should “taste like the sea”
Cook the gnocchetti in small batches. Do not stir.
When the gnocchetti rises to the surface, allow it to cook for about one more minute. Skim the finished gnocchetti off of the surface with a slotted spoon and transfer to the sauce pan.
Continue to cook all of the gnocchetti in this method.
Dress the cooked gnocchetti by folding it into the sauce. Take care not to break up the gnocchetti and serve immediately. (This should only include ~one minute in the pan)
Add garnish (microgreens pictured here) and/or Parmigiano Reggiano

Second Course: Gnocchetti al Norcina

AND ENJOY!!! Now I’m hungry and want to go make a batch of this Gnocchetti alla Norcina! Thanks for the recipe, Dyne and La Spiga!

11Sep2015

Seattle’s Sweet Week: Sept. 14-20

Posted in Exploring Seattle, Food by mszerwo

Seattle’s Sweet Week, Sept. 14-20

Guess what next week is? SWEET WEEK! Seattle Magazine has the full scoop, and here are the highlights:

Now in its second year, Sweet Week, which runs Sept. 14 to 20, features 20 of the city’s best sweet shops offering special $5 desserts or samplers, some of which are not usually on their menus:

Hot Cakes: Ballard: Apple Cardamom Ginger Crisp with salty molasses caramel and vanilla ice cream; Capitol Hill: Cherry Fig Fennel Crisp with salted caramel and vanilla soft serve

Hello Robin: Ice Cream Sandwich with Chocolate Chai Brownie Chunk Cookies, Molly Moon’s Stumptown coffee ice cream, and pop rocks

Sweet Mickey’s: Fudge Sampler Box

Theo Chocolate: Flight of fall flavors: Pear Balsamic Ganache, Apple Cider Caramel, and Fig Fennel Ganache

Full Tilt Ice Cream: Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream Bars

Dahlia Bakery: S’mores Chocolate Tart

Dahlia Workshop: ‘City of Seattle’ Italian plum and ginger Basque cake

Le Panier: ‘La Vie en Rose’ sweet rose mousse and raspberry cream in choux pastry

Fresh Flours: Tea-infused macaron sampler: Chai, Rooibos, Hojicha, and Matcha

Violet Sweet Shop: ‘The Opera Bundt Cake’ all-vegan vanilla bundt cake brushed with espresso syrup, covered in dark chocolate ganache, and filled with espresso creme

A La Mode Pie: ‘Cookies & Cream Tuxedo Pie’ crumbly chocolate-graham cracker crust, with layers of rich ribbons of chocolate, crushed Oreos, delicate homemade custard, more crushed Oreos, and whipped cream topping

Macrina: Mini Banana Chocolate Cake, layers of banana and chocolate cake with sweetened whipped cream and rum roasted bananas, glazed with ganache

Chocolopolis: Flight of Brown Butter and Salted Caramel drinking chocolates with a salted caramel covered in dark chocolate.

Canal Market: Apple Rosette with pistachio ice cream

Pie: Trio Of Mini Mini Pies, pick three: Beechers Apple Pie with local Flagship cheddar, apples, and brown sugar cheddar crumble; Boozy Blackberry with local berries and Schilling Cider’s Mischief Maker, Crème Fraiche Pecan, Pumpkin Cream, and Raspberry Chiffon

Gelatiamo: ‘Gelato d’Autunno’ trio of gelatos using pears, figs and hazelnuts, served with a caramel cookie

Cupcake Royale: Buttered Popcorn and Caramel Crunch Babycake with buttered popcorn and peanut crunch ice cream, and KukuRuZa Hawaiian sea salted caramel corn

Flying Apron: Vegan & Gluten-Free Yeasted Cinnamon Roll with cream cheese frosting

Parfait: Chewy Chocolate Hazelnut Cookie Sandwich with butter toffee ice cream, rolled in hazelnut toffee

Bluebird Ice Cream: Smoked Chocolate Porter Ice Cream with Hot Cakes’ smoked chocolate

$5 desserts!? YES, please! I don’t even know where to start!!

28Aug2015

Big John’s PFI (Pacific Food Importers)

Posted in Around the house, Exploring Seattle, Food by mszerwo

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while now, but Big John’s recent obituary made me want to tell you all about one of my favorite stores in Seattle: Big John’s PFI (1001 6th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98134, 206-682-2022).

PFI’s non-descript entrance

PFI is a unique store, one that you don’t have to visit weekly, but one that any respectable Seattle-area foodie should visit monthly. We have our favorites and occasionally we’ll expand beyond our standard list: spices, pasta, special flour for the pizza oven, crushed tomatoes, candy, and sometimes meats, cheeses and wines.

Allow me to walk your through the store, and highlight our favorites:

Spices for days!

About 1 million varieties of bulk salts, including truffle salt, my favorite!

More spices and grains

So. Many. Flours. We’ve tried most of them!

Pizza flours. (Brandon's go-to combination is 60% Caputo, 40% Nero)

Pizza flours. (Brandon’s go-to combination is 60% Caputo, 40% Nera)

Bulk sweets: chocolate-covered everything (I’d highly recommend the milk chocolate-covered pecans!)

From woodland creatures to chocolate-covered berries, they’ll have something you’ll love!

Need large quantities of chocolate? You’re in the right place

Even more sweets at PFI!

Dried pasta section, part one

The other side of the dried pasta section

There are a lot of canned goods, vinegars, olive oils, wines, meats and cheeses available that I didn’t include here. Check out the Big John’s website (they have unexpected hours) to make sure they’re open before you head down.

If I’m not busy giving birth, maybe I’ll see you there this weekend? (Saturday… they’re closed on Sundays)

10Aug2015

{2015} S’more Day

Posted in Food, Holidays, Homemade by mszerwo

Guess what today is? NATIONAL S’MORE DAY!

Mallow Bits

This kid has given me an incredible sweet tooth and that sweet tooth has a sweet spot for s’mores. I’ve always been interested in the combination of marshmallow, chocolate and graham cracker but it’s been kicked up a notch the past few months.

If the weather cooperates, I’ll be making {another} batch of s’more chocolate chip cookies. Perhaps you’ll join me?

It’s quite easy: take your favorite chocolate chip cookie –or any cookie really — recipe (some suggestions here), add some of mini marshmallows or these “Mallow Bits” I found at Target, some crumbled graham crackers, and voila! S’MORE COOKIES.

The s’more cookies I made for a potluck last week.

Here are some other ways you can celebrate:

Want to celebrate with others?

Celebrate S’Mores Day at Theo Chocolate, taking place on August 10 and 11 from noon to 5 p.m. at their factory in Fremont. Delicious homemade marshmallows and graham crackers combined with tasty Theo Chocolate makes for a very special treat.

Best part? $1 of every s’more goes to Food Lifeline and stopping hunger in Western Washington.

S’mores for TWO days at Theo!

Want to celebrate with yourself? I have some ideas for you:

S’more bark

A triple chocolate s’more bark, perhaps?

S’more pizza

I love pizza. S’more + pizza = Sounds amazing!

S’more lasagna

S’more lasagna? Yes, please.

And some recipes for the full year? Thanks, Country Living!

S’more recipes for the whole year…

I hope you have a very enjoyable s’more day! I know I will!

3Aug2015

2015 National Night Out (Tomorrow!)

Posted in 2015 Resolutions, Food, Holidays, Homemade by mszerwo

It’s already August (where did the past eight months go!?) and with that comes Election Day for those of us in Washington (make sure you vote!) and National Night Out. Both of which fall on the first Tuesday of August.

2015’s National Night Out: TOMORROW! What are you bringing?

What is National Night Out?

National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer, better places to live. Together, we are making that happen.

National Night Out enhances the relationship between neighbors and law enforcement while bringing back a true sense of community and provides a great opportunity to bring police and neighbors together under positive circumstances.

Neighborhoods across the nation host block parties, festivals, parades, cookouts and other various community events with safety demonstrations, seminars, youth events, visits from emergency personnel and exhibits.

Growing up I was the Block Watch Captain for our block, organizing the Night Out potluck celebration each year.

Our Megan’s Island neighborhood usually has a get together and this year is only a little different. Our neighbor Dave professionally smokes meats (ribs, brisket, etc. — it smells SO good on our street come football season!) and will be cooking up BBQ chicken and brats for our Night Out celebration.

(Interesting side note: We toyed with the idea of having Dave bring is smoker up to our house and having fresh pizzas and smoked meats, but we didn’t get out stuff together fast enough this year or last. We’re planning a separate neighborhood pizza party instead. Besides, two parties is better than one, right?)

The assignment for those attending our neighborhood potluck this year is to bring a side dish to share. I usually go with brownies, but since it’s been so hot and brownies are kind of boring, I’ve been scouring the internet for a new recipe and I think I’ve found the perfect dish to bring: a watermelon goat cheese salad. (Of course, any and all of these hot weather eats would be perfect for your Night Out celebration!)

I found this recipe in my new (library-issued) Food52 Cookbook, which happens to be our cookbook of the week this week. It’s perfect for the season and should be perfect for a large group of our neighbors. I plan on making a few (mostly lazy) changes, so I’ll include them here. If you want to see the official recipe, visit Food52.

Watermelon and Goat Cheese Salad with a Mint-Basil Infused Vinaigrette
Serves 4

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 handful fresh mint basil
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 seedless watermelon
1/2 pound fresh goat cheese
1/2 cup unsalted pistachios
2 tablespoons red vine vinegar
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 dash fresh pepper

Roughly chop the mint basil and add the olive oil and the coarse salt. Grind for about 10 minutes and let it sit for about 1 hour at room temperature. (The original calls for using a mortar and pestle, but we don’t have one of those. I’ll improvise.)
Cut the watermelon into cubes and place in a salad bowl in the refrigerator.
Place the pistachios in a pan and on low heat toast them for 5 minutes.
Remove the pistachios from the pan and chop them roughly. Set aside in a small bowl.
Crumble the goat cheese.
Take the olive oil and mint-basil mix and put it through a small mixer. When completely mixed add the vinegar. Mix again.
Take the watermelon out of the fridge, add the goat cheese, drizzle the vinaigrette, sprinkle the pistachios and finish with sea salt and pepper. Mix and serve!

This is what it’s supposed to look like. Check my Instagram feed tonight to see how my version turns out!

Food52’s watermelon goat cheese salad

I hope you’re able to enjoy Neighborhood Night Out tomorrow and get to know your neighbors!

Megan's Island

Welcome to my island!

Category Archives: Food

Christmas 2015 recap

Christmas tamales

Thanksgiving {2015}

Halloween preparations on Megan’s Island {2015}

{Wine Wednesday} Game day wine pairings

La Spiga’s “Chef’s Table with Gnocchetti 101” class

Seattle’s Sweet Week: Sept. 14-20

Big John’s PFI (Pacific Food Importers)

{2015} S’more Day

2015 National Night Out (Tomorrow!)