Cracking the Egg

Momofuku Corn Cookies

These are buttery, corn-y, sweet, salty, and have the best crunchy outside/soft bite inside combination. I didn’t feel that comfortable copying and posting the recipe, but this blogger did… 

Carrot cake recipe

Nate’s favorite cake is carrot cake, so I’ve made quite a few. We all agreed that the Triple-Layer Carrot Cake from Epicurious was one of the best recipes I’ve used. I didn’t exactly follow the frosting recipe especially because it calls for way too much sugar. 

Triple-Layer Carrot Cake Recipe

Pineapple Upside Down Cakes

We celebrated Auntie Mary’s 60th birthday with a 60s theme party with pineapple upside down cake and chocolate fondue for dessert. I used Toblerone mixed with unsweetened and semi-sweet chocolate for the fondue. The cakes were pretty and appropriate to the theme, but I must admit that the recipe was not worth sharing. The picture’s, kinda nice though…

Here’s the perfect setting for grilled flatbread:

1. One of your favorite people in the world is in town for a visit and the idea of drinking wine and grazing over food for hours is appealing.

2. It’s really fucking hot and you can’t imagine turning on the stove.

3. Your back patio hasn’t had enough use this summer.

4. There’s not much time between work and dinner for prep, but there is time for a trip to Trader Joe’s.

5. You can’t exactly come up with a menu, rather a list of items that you want to eat comes to mind.

Thick crust with pesto

Thin crust with olive oil

I used the pizza dough from Trader Joe’s, sprinkled with cornmeal and rolled out to make the flatbread. If you want to try it from scratch, here’s a recipe I thought about trying. 

Crusty carbs always inspire lots of different toppings and additions for me, but here’s what I came up with that night:

-grilled zucchini, portabello mushrooms, haricot vert, and red onions marinated in balsamic and olive oil

-chickpea salad (with lemon juice, olive oil, and herbs)

-Lebni (If you haven’t tried it, get some! It’s a cross between yogurt, cheese, and sour cream) 

-spicy mozzarella

-pickles, olives, and a chile spread

-wine

Josie’s second birthday was celebrated in style with a fantastic skewer party. Ellen prepared a host of skewered treats including: rainbow fruit salad skewers, caprese skewers with reduced balsamic, salmon and pearl onion skewers, sausage and sweet potato with yogurt dip, and grilled veggie skewers. I didn’t capture all of them on camera, but these are just too lovely not to share…

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Yum! Thanks, Ellen!

Crispy almond crusted

tilapia meets

creamy, spicy curry sauce

Yum.

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I enjoyed a lovely day of pickling radishes, green beans, cauliflower, pearl onions, and asparagus with Marti this past Sunday. Here’s some photographic evidence.

Do you need a party theme idea? I have an abundance of them. Right now, I’m thinking baked potato party.

Twice Baked (Kerrygold butter, broccoli, bacon, gruyere, salt and pepper)

Hasselback (Little pads of butter and slices of garlic were placed between the slices before baking. So good. Click here for the recipe.)

Baked Egg Potato (Bake the potato, then scoop out a hole, sprinkle bacon, crack an egg in and bake for another 7-8 minutes)

Mmmmm

Messy Potato (sour cream, green onions, butter, gruyere, broccoli, bacon, fleur de sel, red pepper flakes, truffle oil)

It was a brunchy weekend filled with morning cocktails, lazy table chat, eggs, fresh fruit, and general relaxation. On Saturday, I had two awesome girlfriends over and we brunched for 4 hours! Sunday was a Mother’s Day family extravaganza at Ellen and Josh’s new home. 

Saturday’s menu:

Grilled baguette slices topped with melted leeks, sauteed mushrooms, and fried eggs, Fruit salad, cubed hash browns, and mimosas

Have you heard of “melted leeks”? I think it’s a pretty silly name, but cooking leeks down until they are soft and spreadable is a fantastic and delicious idea. To make them, I placed the thinly sliced stems of 4 leeks in a saute pan with 3/4 cup of water, 1 tablespoon of butter, salt and pepper. I sauteed them on medium low heat for about 20 mins, until they were very soft and the liquid had evaporated. They were really good on the crusty, grilled bread, but I think they would also be delicious in pasta or with fish. 

Sunday’s menu:

Irish brown bread with smoked salmon 

Bacon and egg casserole, potato, sausage and spinach casserole

Fruit salad

Mom’s gluten free pear cake 

Bloody Marys

Cooking breakfast for a crowd presents several challenges, most of which are solved via the breakfast casserole. There was some discussion at breakfast about using a classier title than “casserole” but I’m not ashamed of anything that combines several yummy ingredients into one, cheese topped meal. The sausage casserole (pictured above) was a bit more work than the other, but the crispy potato crust was worth it. I changed a few things in the recipe for the bacon and egg casserole (pictured below) and I think it’s pretty flexible. That one’s especially easy because you make it the night before and just put it in the oven the next day. Both casseroles were topped with gruyere. Mmmmmm.

Leona and Sam made the best Bloody Marys ever. Perhaps they would share the recipe in a comment below?

I hope you had a Happy Mother’s Day and got the chance to enjoy as much family fun and consumption as I did!

I love my KitchenAid mixer an unnatural amount. Nate and I recently purchased the pasta attachment and I’ve been itching to make past since.

Below is the pasta carbonara that I made with it. I’m not gonna lie, my recipe isn’t worth sharing. I do recommend using fresh peas with pasta. Mmm.

Josie was a fan.  

I made the pasta using the recipe that came with the attachments and it was better than any other homemade pasta recipe I’ve used.  I think following the instructions and allowing the pasta to sit for at least 20 mins before putting it through the compressor is a good idea.  The pasta gets a little firmer in that time and easier to handle. Click here to see the manual with all of the pasta recipes included with the attachment.