Please change my address to www.inpraiseofleftovers.com!

I woke up this morning and it felt like Christmas, except way better.  My friend Priya has been working really hard to create me a beautiful website/blog, and today is the launch day!  I can't wait for you to see it and to continue this kitchen journey with you.  Since I sort of accidentally started this blog just a month ago, something has happened to me.  I think it's a good thing, but my husband Yancey says he's never seen me like this.  Barring an emergency or freak illness, you can expect to find me cooking and talking about food for a long time to come.

So please, please follow me to my new blog.  If you've subscribed to this one, you won't be getting anything anymore. But you can subscribe to the new one!  And everything that's here will appear there.  

Leave comments there for me if you run into any glitches, and Priya, my Incredible Web Genius, will fix them.  Priya is available for other such endeavors, by the way.  Let me know if you'd like me to put you in touch with her.  She is smart, quick, responsive, and very patient with opinionated technophobes like me.  THANK YOU, PRIYA!

See you at www.inpraiseofleftovers.com!

Scones for Candace

After Wyatt went to bed last night, I found this sticker he had made.  He put it right next to the computer.  He told Loretta, "Mom's taking pictures for her new business."

Started thinking about scones this morning for two reasons.  1) I have some créme fraiche in the fridge, as you know by now.  2) The wonders of Facebook have put me back in touch with my old high school friend, Heidi.  Her status the other morning was about baking muffins, and that got me thinking about her mom Candace.  More specifically, about Candace's apricot ginger scones.  Candace was a great cook (and much more precise than me).  I hope she's still cooking.

This is a basic scone recipe from Barefoot Contessa, and I’ve substituted créme fraiche for cream and added lemon zest, dried apricots and candied ginger.  All you need for this is a bowl and your fingertips.  I always bake my scones in a round and cut them into wedges afterward. Easier and more tender results.  You don’t end up with those dried-out edges that  you see in so many bakeries.

By the way, Jordan’s mom Barb, a Californian, sent up a beautiful bag of lemons.  Beware.  It is now officially lemon month. Stock up.

Apricot Ginger Scones
2 c. flour
1 Tb. baking powder
1 Tb. sugar
1 ts. salt
3 Tb. diced candied ginger
1/4 c. diced dried apricots
2 Tb. finely grated lemon zest
7 Tb. cold butter
2 eggs, whisked
1/2 c. cold créme fraiche or heavy cream
bakers’ sugar crystals or sugar for the top

Preheat oven to 400.  Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.  Work in butter with your fingertips until mixture is pebbly. Add ginger, apricots, and lemon zest.  Add eggs and créme fraiche and mix until just holding together.  Pat into a round about 3/4″ high and 6″ diameter.  Cut into 8 wedges and scatter sugar crystals or sugar over the top.  Bake until slightly golden, about 20 minutes.  Let cool a bit before pulling out wedges.  These were delicious with my leftover lemon curd…maybe you have some sitting around!

Créme Fraiche

You will want this little recipe in a minute when I post photos of the créme fraiche scones I made this morning.  Créme fraiche is like the French version of sour cream, and I often substitute sour cream when it's called for because there's no way I'm going to pay $6.00 for the tiny tubs they sell at QFC or PCC.

I had some heavy cream that I didn't want to go bad, so made it into créme fraiche.  Seriously, all you do is let it sit on the counter, and you can tell your kids it's a science experiment.  After it's refrigerated, it turns all lovely and thick and tangy.  I always have buttermilk around because I am a pancake freak, but I've seen créme fraiche made with yogurt or sour cream.  This recipe is the one that's turned out like I want it to, though.

I just had an avacado and chicken quesadilla, and plopped a bit of this next to it. Please forget what I said the other day about calories.  

Chopped Salad 2.0

This time, no cucumber, lemon, dill, or pita.  Shredded rotisserie chicken (thank you, sweet Mary), cilantro, lime, spinach, and red pepper flakes.  The kids had Top Ramen.  Notice I didn't take a photo of that.

P.S.  I was getting a little sheepish about my frequent postings, so I asked Priya and my Mom if it was overkill.  They're the worst people to ask because they love and like me a lot. That's probably why I asked them.  My Mom, in touch with her inner marketing guru, said, "Right now, you're trying to build your fan base, so keep it coming."  Priya reads everything the second it's posted, so she's not saturated.  Maybe she'll change her mind after today.

Quick Mango Treat

At the Lynnwood Trader Joe's yesterday (Yancey's new stomping grounds) and spotted this "nonfat plain pleasantly tart" frozen yogurt.  For $2.99, I had to try it.  It's GOOD!  A pleasing substitute for that (really expensive) frozen yogurt that's popping up everywhere at Red Mango or Pink Sillyhead or whatever all those places are called.  I try not to have actual ice cream around too often because it is my undoing.  This frozen yogurt gives me a little "the-kids-are-in-bed-I-feel-like-celebrating-and-watching-American-Idol" treat without breaking the calorie bank.  Oh yes.  I do think about calories.  There's a post on that coming up which might be right up your alley or you might decide I'm not your kind of gal.  Either way, stay tuned.

I also got a bag of frozen mango chunks at TJ's.  I like to have them around for smoothies.  This time, seeing the mangos and frozen yogurt so cozy together in my cart, I thought of a recipe from Nigella Lawson's Nigella Express, which I have borrowed from the library twice.  This book provoked several "I can do that!" responses, which is what inspires me where cooking is concerned.  Didn't I just say in a recent posting that I'm not into celebrity chefs?  I guess you'd better take much of what I say with a large grain of salt.

Since the book is back in Seattle Public Library's stacks, I can't give her recipe, but it was a kind of "mangos foster" with rum, butter, and brown sugar.  I sauteed frozen mango cubes (Nigella admits to using bagged cubed mangos--we're in good company), in butter and brown sugar and added a squeeze of lime juice at the end.

I poured the warm mangos over "pleasantly tart" frozen yogurt and topped mine with some lime zest.  You could also put toasted coconut or chopped macadamias or bits of crystallized ginger or...agh!  I need to go make another bowl of this.

Do I need to include a recipe for this?  Would that insult you or comfort you?  I'll include one just in case.  Oh--thanks, Nigella.  I guess you're not just another pretty face.  (And Loretta approves, in case you need more endorsements.)

Quick Mango Treat

(serves 4)

2 cups cubed frozen or fresh mangoes

2 Tb. butter

1/4  c. brown sugar

juice of one lime and 2 ts. lime zest

Melt butter in a skillet.  Add mangoes and brown sugar and cook on medium heat until sugar dissolves and mangoes warm and thaw (about 4 minutes).  Finish with lime juice and serve over ice cream or frozen yogurt.  Feel slightly guilty that you've resented Nigella Lawson for being both beautiful and smart.

Love-Where-You-Are Chopped Salad

I am so spoiled.  Privileged.  Lucky.  Whatever you call it, I am not in an office today, not standing in line to buy an overpriced sandwich from Starbucks, not sitting through dull meetings wishing I was in my kitchen.  I am in my kitchen/dining room/home office (our house is 750 sq. ft.), and the glorious prospect of lunch hovers.  

If you're in cubicleland, I've been there, and there are some good things about it.  For one, you can pretend to be working and read my blog instead.  For another, you can have camaraderie that's harder to come by when you're working alone or home with kids.  Look how lonely my life has become, for instance--taking photos of food,  finding 101 uses for feta cheese when I could be stopping global warming or raising money for hunger relief.  But this little salad makes up for the loss of my cubicle and it might even save the world.  I'm sorry if you're reading this over remnants of a Starbucks sandwich and you hate me right now.  You have water cooler talk and I don't.

One of my favorite cookbooks is Jamie's Dinners, and I started making chopped salad regularly after reading it.  I'm not big on the whole celebrity chef thing normally, but come on. It's Jamie Oliver.  He's so cute with that lisp and the way he bounces around the kitchen pretending like being Mr. Mom is a regular thing for him.  (I'm sure he and his wife have 20 nannies.)  Even Yancey has a crush on him.  Jamie says that chopped salad is a gift to your guests (or family or yourself) because you've done oodles of chopping and each forkful packs such varied veggie goodness.  Today, I happened to have some washed, chopped romaine in the fridge, so the work was a little less. (It's prepped only because I was trying to save it from the brink.  Don't think too highly of me.)

I'm too lazy to look up Jamie's recipe right now, but he includes radicchio and a recipe for vinaigrette.  I love radicchio, but it's difficult to find good fresh stuff without going down to Pike Place, another farmers market (Columbia City opens April 30!) or a posh grocery store. And even if said posh grocery store has it, there goes your food budget for the week.  In the summer, I also use tomatoes and we eat it for dinner with a loaf of bread.

So here's the In Praise of Leftovers version.  Today's version, at least.  Still got that pita sitting around, that Bulgarian feta, and some veggies that need rescuing.  I told you--I am serious about this leftovers thing.  I hope I've given you something to talk about at the water cooler tomorrow and that we're still friends even though you're stuck with your shrink-wrapped sandwich.  

Love-Where-You-Are Chopped Salad

(serves 4)

1 large head romaine, washed and coarsely chopped

1 yellow pepper

1 red pepper

1/4 red onion

1/2 English cucumber 

two big handfuls fresh herbs (dill, basil, mint, chives.  I used just dill today)

1/4 c. crumbled feta cheese

handful Kalamata olives

2 or 3 Tb. olive oil

juice from one lemon

salt and pepper to taste

2 griddled pita breads, torn into pieces (brush with olive oil, throw in a hot skillet OR brush with olive oil and quickly broil, getting just one side crusty)

Cut everything into large diced pieces and mix in a bowl (except feta, olive oil, salt, pepper, and pita).  In two batches, dump the salad onto a cutting board and chop into bite-size pieces.  Not teeny-tiny, but enough that things start to mush together just a little bit.  Put back into the bowl, throw the feta in, and juice the lemon and pour the olive oil over.  Season with salt and pepper, break the pita in, and toss gently with your hands.  Wherever you are, cubicle or small sunlit kitchen, don't answer the phone or check your email for a few minutes.

Welcome-Home Pasta

The good news is this pasta was delicious.  The bad news is the whole pan of oven-dried tomatoes has been demolished already.  There go all my meal plans for the week.  And my serving had more tomatoes on it than Yancey's-- I've been watching the kids all week, so I think that's a fair trade.

When Yancey comes home after four days at fire school (we're in week 10 of 12 weeks), we usually eat a late welcome-home dinner.  He's been eating chicken-fried cubed steak and iceberg lettuce shreds all week and is particularly appreciative of me on Thursday nights.  For a family with young children, a late dinner is anytime after 6:00, by the way.   I console myself with the fact that eating earlier is supposed to be better for your health.  

After I got home from my meeting and once the kids started watching Ruff Ruffman, I took stock of anything that might be worthy of a welcome-home dinner.  This is the reason pasta was invented.  In addition to the much-touted tomatoes, I had spaghetti, MORE chevre! (if you buy something at Costco, you'd better be reading my blog for ideas), half a loaf of stale Macrina onion rye and some fresh herbs from my "garden" (read:  struggling plants that prove the existence of a higher power.)  

I quite delight in stale bread, actually.  The better to fry with.  Slice it up, throw it in a hot skillet with olive oil.  There's nothing better.  You can eat the slices alone, as bruschetta, or cube them as I did here to top the pasta with.  I often begin a fritatta this way as well--frying stale cubes of bread in a skillet, pouring the eggs over the top, dotting the whole thing with cheese and herbs, and watching it puff up.  A kind of stovetop savory bread pudding.  Remind me to tell you more about that later.

Anyway, we had a wonderful reunion dinner, exchanging details about the fires Yancey put out during the week and how many people posted comments on my blog.  Sadly, the numbers are still quite low, but I put a brave face on.  

Lest you think the dinner was executed without chaos, take comfort from this photo of my cutting board. Now that Yancey's home, he can clean up.

Welcome-Home Pasta

1 lb. spaghetti

1 log chevre, crumbled (about 6 ounces, I think?)

two big handfuls chopped fresh herbs (I used chives, dill, and oregano)

5 or 6 large slices of fried artisan bread--fry in a couple glugs of olive oil on medium high, then cube it

1 c. oven-dried tomatoes 

olive oil (even better, use the olive oil that the tomatoes roasted in if you can.  I forgot to tell you to reserve it)

salt and pepper to taste

Finely grated parmesan

Cook spaghetti in a large pot of boiling salted water.  Drain it when it's done.  Toss hot pasta with chevre, most of the herbs, tomatoes, salt, pepper, enough olive oil to moisten it to your liking.   Serve in pasta bowls and top with fried bread, parmesan, and another sprinkle of herbs and a drizzle of olive oil.  Whether you're alone or have Ruff Ruffman blaring in your ear, be thankful you made it through another week.

P.S.  Again, this is a recipe in the barest sense of the word.  If you haven't left your oven on for hours for the tomatoes like I have, you could roast some eggplant cubes in olive oil and garlic instead (about 45 minutes) or saute some greens (kale, chard, spinach) or use some good olive-oil packed sundried tomatoes.