Little Update

So my computer bit the dust this week. That's why there has been a significant lack of posting. Shannon is being very lovely and generous in letting me use her computer. And I'll still be posting all my Barefoot Blogger and Daring Baker assignments but for now other posts might be few and far between. 
PS- is anyone watching the Top Chef marathon on Bravo? I love Harold so much! They don't show the first season nearly enough.

Barefoot Blogger: Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

• 1/2 pound fusilli (spirals) pasta
• Kosher salt
• Olive oil
• 1 pound ripe tomatoes, medium-diced
• 3/4 cup good black olives, such as kalamata, pitted and diced
• 1 pound fresh mozzarella, medium-diced
• 6 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped

For the dressing:

• 5 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 6 tablespoons good olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, diced
• 1 teaspoon capers, drained
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
• 1 cup packed basil leaves, julienned

Directions

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water with a splash of oil to keep it from sticking together. Boil for 12 minutes, or according to the directions on the package. Drain well and allow to cool. Place the pasta in a bowl and add the tomatoes, olives, mozzarella, and chopped sun-dried tomatoes.

For the dressing, combine the sun-dried tomatoes, vinegar, olive oil, garlic, capers, salt, and pepper in a food processor until almost smooth.

Pour the dressing over the pasta, sprinkle with the Parmesan and basil, and toss well.

~The basil and parmesean are omitted in the photo only because I made this to take for lunches when I go to work and I'd rather add those the day of~

I can't lie, I thought I wasn't going to like this. I'm not a huge fan of sun-dried tomato. I have this issue with tomatoes being sweet. But with the saltiness of the kalamata olives, that is an amazing combo. Plus any excuse I can get to buy the tiny little balls of mozzarella (a third of which were eaten before the dish's completion, good thing I got extras).

There is one technical issue I need to work out when I go to do these recipes though. I need to actually look at the dish for what it is and decide if it can be dinner all on it's own. Generally Ina serves a few dishes so it's a well rounded meal. Just like with the gazpacho I felt like this could really use a protein.I'm thinking it would be delicious as a side with a warm steak sandwich or something roast beefy.

FYI

Just a heads up, last night to celebrate my promotion at work and my win at our store-level barista competition Shannon made me a very lovely, very French dinner. She did all the work herself and planned it all in like 2 days. So in the next few days she'll be posting on here about it.

Some of the Barefoot Bloggers might be interested, it was very Ina-centric.

Avoiding my landlord AKA Why I can't be left alone at Crate and Barrel

The last thing I wanted to deal with yesterday after my first day as a shift lead (yay! me) was my landlord. I mean, he's a nice guy and everything but trying to explain to him how we can't mow the lawn with 2 weeks of straight rain wasn't really on my list of things I was jazzed to do. So instead I went shopping. Want to see the random but adorable things I bought? Of course you do!

This is my eensy little teapot. Sure it's summer time and I'll probably be drinking ice tea for the next few months, but did you see the little flowers?

This is one of two soup bowls I bought. I fell in love with the one at Sel de la Terre with the lion heads on the side. These have the same basic shape. Plus they'll be cute for serving side dishes.

I got four of these little guys. They are supposed to be condiment bowls, and they might get used for that too. Mostly I bought them for taking cute pictures of my mise en place. How cute will they be with spices in them?

This is the only thing I got that I actually needed. Shannon keeps telling me what great baklava she makes but we didn't have a pastry brush for the butter. I expect to see some immediately :D

I also stopped at BJs Wholesale because I was tired of getting the urge to cook something and realizng I was out of flour or sugar or whatever. I am now the proud owner of 20lbs of flour, 25lbs of white sugar, 4 lbs of brown sugar, 4lbs of confectioners sugar, and 1lb of dried yeast.

On to the food:

For dinner last night we made grilled pork chops with grilled sweet potato wedges and maple dipping sauce. (from this month's Real Simple)

The pork was fantastic. It was just salted and peppered. But it was cooked just perfectly. The sweet potatoes also would have been perfect if I had cut them remotely evenly. But oh my world was the dipping sauce yummy and so simple. It was just a table spoon of maple syrup, one of olive oil, some salt and pepper and we changed out the scallions for chives since we have a chive plant. So good!

We also made coconut sorbet and Ina's outrageous brownies. But it's time for lunch so I'll post about those later :D

Barefoot Blogger: Gazpacho

I decided to make the gazpacho yesterday since I had the day off and I could make it and let it cool for several hours. And I have to say I'm torn on the recipe. I loved the flavor (even though I brilliantly halved every ingridient except the garlic. Oops.) but it felt lacking. I think if I had thought to add some protein with it it would be perfect. Either grilled shrimp or chicken would be great. Instead I just served it with a garlic breadstick (yeah, vampires beware).

(What is too processed?)

Gazpacho

• 1 hothouse cucumber, halved and seeded, but not peeled
• 2 red bell peppers, cored and seeded
• 4 plum tomatoes
• 1 red onion
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 23 ounces tomato juice (3 cups)
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup good olive oil
• 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Roughly chop the cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, and red onions into 1-inch cubes. Put each vegetable separately into a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until it is coarsely chopped. Do not overprocess!

After each vegetable is processed, combine them in a large bowl and add the garlic, tomato juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix well and chill before serving. The longer gazpacho sits, the more the flavors develop.

My first Barefoot Blogger post!!!

Since I joined mid-month I decided to give the Bonus Recipe a go (I do love extra credit). And to add to it it totally goes with my ingredient of the week.

Cranberry Orange SconesI actually halved this recipe, mostly cause I went to the pantry and only had 2 cups of flour. But even halved the recipe turns out ten nice size scones, which is plenty for just me and Shannon. I also only glazed half of them since Shannon doesn't like her breakfast things to be very sweet. I personally prefer them with the glaze.

I really wish I had read other people's comments about the orange taste not being very strong before I had made them. I'm also used to my scones being a bit more dense. These sort of have the consistency of the bisquick biscuits my mom used to make with dinner.

That being said, we'll certainly be polishing off the rest of them.

Ingredient of the Week: Orange

Orange crusted chicken with blackberry sauce

We chose to keep it fairly simple to start. We paired it with some leftover potato salad from burger night last week.

For the blackberry sauce I took about a half cup of blackberries and threw them in a sauce pan with 3/4 cup marsala and about 2 tablespoons of honey.


Then Shannon made a very simple breading with flour and orange zest. She then pan-fried it.

It turned out really good. I'm kind of in love with the sauce. I wish I had saved some to put over our peach frozen yogurt later.