sweet and savory breakfast mini-tartines

Note: This post was previously published here as a part of my freelance work, and was written by my darling boyfriend, Adam. 

This week’s CSA provides the makings—gloriously fresh and local as always—for a truly awesome breakfast. With this recipe we departed from the conventional in an attempt to class-up the most important meal of the day, and made breakfast tartines. These dainty little morsels are a supremely elegant way to enjoy your Philly Muffins.

For the first tartine, we riffed on the classic lox breakfast, using smoked salmon, cream cheese and capers.  We pureed beets into the cream cheese to create a spread with vibrant visual appeal and sweet earthy flavor.  We added orange juice (squeezed from oranges we picked up at the farm stand) to drastically enhance that beety flavor we all love.  The addition of citrus also helps to brighten the salty profile of the lox.

Next we used our CSA onions to make a caramelized onion marmalade, and paired it with Greensgrow-sourced Cameo apples and Milkhouse Creamery’s Witchcraft cheese.  This marmalade packs a potent punch of flavor, and would be great company with your CSA bacon.  We garnished with orange-zest and rosemary to really tart up these tartines.  

Beet Cream Cheese

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

3 baby beets

8 ounces cream cheese

1 1/2 oranges, juiced

Salt to taste 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 F.  Toss beets in olive oil and salt and roast for 30 minutes or until tender.  Allow them to cool, then peel off the skins using a paring knife.

Squeeze the oranges into a blender (we use a Magic Bullet) and puree the beets.  Add a splash of water if the beets are reluctant to puree.

After the puree is smooth, add the cream cheese spoonful by spoonful to slowly incorporate it into the puree.

Transfer from the blender and season with salt to taste.

Onion Marmalade

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

3 medium onions

1 orange, zested and juiced

1/4 cup honey

1 Tbl white wine vinegar

3 cubes candied ginger 

2 cloves black garlic

Directions:

Slice onions and sauté in olive oil over medium-high heat.  Cook hard, stirring frequently until they begin they brown and caramelize.  Add splashes of water occasionally to deglaze and loosen the fond (the brown stuff that collects on the bottom of the pan).  Scrape the fond using a wooden spoon and stir back into the onions.

After 15 or 20 minutes the onions should be fully caramelized.  Add the orange juice, vinegar, black garlic, ginger and honey and cook for another few minutes until it the liquid becomes syrupy.

Transfer to a food processor and buzz with the orange zest until it has a jam-like consistency. 

weekly scenes

Life has taken a turn for the busier. You'll have to forgive me for the silence that has ensued because of it. I know I've barely shared a peep, but I must admit, I don't feel entirely horrible about it. It's important to get out and experience life that is not set behind a computer screen. With the recent shift in weather, I've been making it a point to do so. I've been chasing dreams, laying in the grass, cooking up a storm, biking EVERYWHERE just because I can, and trying to make it to as many yoga classes as possible.

I do want to call out a few special moments that have happened recently though....

1. Adam's band had their first show! It was such a fun night of free beer, free souls, and free rock n' roll.

2. We finally bought a vine! Now I just want more. :)

3. This little one is back in my life and we've been having a ball. This shot was taken while enjoying the weather at Penn Treaty park on a Saturday afternoon.

4. My new favorite thing is to pick up fresh fish from Ipolito's Seafood. They got what's good.

5. Check out this post I did on cream vs. oil moisturizer! I'm a total convert.

6. Yes, succulent vines do exist. And yes, I will own one someday.

7. God I love this girl. She is one of the best, kindest, funniest, good-to-be-around people you'll ever come across. Anyone who gets to meet her in their life is damn lucky. I'm so happy to have been one of those people!

8. I almost started a chicken farm in our way-too-small of a backyard when I met these babes (or should I say chicks) at Greensgrow. 

9. Adam & I started a food blog! Go check it out!

Oh, and I'm heading to San Diego next month! Anyone with suggestions of where I should go, visit, stay, eat, etc. please drop me a line in the comments! I hope everyone's spring is off to as glorious a start as my own. Much love. xx

salmon wild rice

Easter Sunday rolled around. I am not a Christian, but I wanted to make something nice. After all, it was a holiday, it was Sunday, and I had the time and ambition to cook something good. To get started, I picked up salmon, peas, and chives at the grocery store. I paired it all with wild rice whose dark color would allow for the pinks and greens to pop. I treated it like a risotto, although not Arborio, and cooked the rice slowly with a stock. To make it creamy like risotto, but in a healthy way, just add in some almond milk and coconut oil at the end. Finally, everything gets a nice drizzle of lemon juice to brighten up the flavors. It's a healthy, tasty, and let's face it, beautiful!, spring-time dish.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Wild Rice

2 Cups Water

12 oz Salmon

1 Cup Frozen Peas

1 Vegetable Bouillon Cube

2.5 Tbsp Chives, chopped

2 Garlic Cloves, minced

3/4 Cup Almond Milk

1 Tbsp Coconut Oil

Juice from 1 Lemon

Directions:

1. Add your wild rice, water, and vegetable bouillon cube to a pot and bring to a boil.

2. Reduce heat and let the rice cook down. 

3. Once almost all of the water has evaporated, add a spoonful more. Do this three times or so. On the last time, add almond milk and peas, then let everything finish cooking down.

4. Stir in chopped chives, minced garlic, and coconut oil, then set rice aside. 

5. Heat up oil in a skillet, and quick cook your salmon.

6. Tearing the salmon apart with a fork, stir it into your rice mixture. Squeeze lemon over it all and finish stirring.

weekly scenes: happy thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

It's hard to believe that it's been a whole year since I was last home for my favorite holiday. So much and so little has happened all at once. 

It's been the year of growth - learning to stand on my own, gaining financial control, and finding perspective. I'm thankful for the downs just as much as I'm thankful for the ups. I'm glad that life isn't always as easy peasy as you think it should be. That the road isn't always straight, and that sometimes you have to struggle to find answers. I don't regret the slumps in friendship that forced me to confront my faults, or the mistakes that taught me what better to do the second time around. I've been able to take these happenings and turn them into understanding.Without it all, I wouldn't learn, I wouldn't grow.  

After all, the downs create the ups. If they never happened, I might not realize how lucky I am to be completely in love. How lucky I am to have friends and family that I adore, a roof over my head, and fresh food on my plate. I can truly look back and say that up until now, my life has been nothing but full.

There is no better schooling than life, and for that I am thankful. Here's to another year.

house-cured salmon

Lox is my favorite food, hands down. I was raised on it, it's in my blood and I crave it like water. When I heard that it was actually pretty simple to make at home yourself, I had to try. It took two tries to get it down perfectly, but for a food that is so luxurious in feeling, it is amazingly stupid easy to do. You can bet I'll be doing this a couple times a month....for the rest of my life.

It came in handy when the hurricane rolled around that I had just produced my second round of homemade lox. Adam and I were shut up inside, and so what better to do than cook up a storm. We've been on a bit of a benedict kick, and we decided to make a salmon version using the lox and Adam's homemade lemon hollandaise sauce. Even we were impressed at how delicious it all turned out - the perfect hurricane dish. :)

Ingredients:

1 fresh cut of salmon, choose your size (I like to get my salmon for lox at Wholefoods. It is the best high quality, wild caught, and fresh fish that I've been able to find in Philadelphia.)

chopped dill

1 part salt: 2 parts sugar (ex.1 cup salt, 2 cups sugar)

Directions:

1. Lay out a sheet of plastic wrap and set your salmon ontop, skin and all.

2. Sprinkle the cut with chopped dill, and cover evenly with about 1/2 inch of your sugar/salt mixture.

3. Wrap everything up tightly, and set it in something to catch any juices that may leek out. I used a flat casserole dish.

4. Place everything in your refrigerator for 36 hours.

5. After letting the salmon sit for 36 hours, pull it out and unwrap. Rinse the fish off to remove all salt/sugar.

6. Using a sharp knife, cut the skin off of your fish. Then, do make pieces of lox, cut in thin, long, angular slices.

weekly scenes

Ladies and gentleman, it's fall! I'm addicted to the way that the light shines through the red of leaves, and I stand strong that there is no more beautiful time of year. All I yearn to do is walk around city streets from farmers market to flea. I've been getting my healthy dose of both - bringing home decor items and recipe ingredients in bounds. As a result, rearranging and concocting have filled up my indoor hours. It's a time of adventure, both at home and on the road. A little weekend trip up to NYC/Brooklyn put me in a great way, and I couldn't be sadder the for the weekend to end. Fall, never go away, ok? 

1. I couldn't not

2. Enjoying the beautiful weather on our lunch break

3. Desk space

4. Fresh picked flowers at the farmer's market

5. The beautiful Ariane

6. I fell in love

7. Salmon Benedict at Cafe Lafayette - eat it.

salmon & chive stuffed breakfast pastries

It was Adam's birthday this past Sunday. We were out till dawn, warranting a late morning sleep in. I let him rest and finally dragged myself out of bed to whip him up something special. I had been plotting these stuffed breakfast pastries and so everything was already in my fridge. It took about thirty minutes to throw everything together, and I have to say, they were pretty tasty. 

Ingredients (serves 2)
4 large eggs

4 puff pastry shells

4 oz smoked salmon

3/4 cup smoked gouda, grated

1/3 cup creme fraiche

10 small chive stalks, chopped

1/2 tsp salt

juice from 1/2 lemon

Directions

1. Let your pastry shells defrost for about 30 minutes, and preheat your oven to 450F.

2. Lay the pastry shells out on a greased baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

3. Mix together salmon, gouda, creme fraiche, chives, salt, and lemon juice in a small bowl.

4. Cut out the center top of your pastries and fill with the salmon mixture . Close the top back up so that everything will melt inside from the heat of the freshly baked pastry.

5. Fry eggs in olive oil and place on top.