Sometimes, I think I’m almost predictable to a fault. I know what I like. I know my routine and I like to stick to it. Call me boring, but it’s what works for me.

So it should surprise no one that the first cold weekend I was ready to make soup. Soup with squashes. A perfect side to a good loaf of french bread!

Soup, football, friends…fall is here!

Please forgive the shortness of this post–I’m 100 pages from the end of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and I NEED to finish!! Don’t let the length of the post deter you from this soup though–it’s delicious! Even Noel liked it! In fact he liked it so much, he wants to make it again–next time with crab!

Winter Squash Soup
Adapted from Epicurious

1/4 cup ( 1/2 stick) butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
3 14 1/2-ounce cans low-salt chicken broth
4 cups 1-inch pieces peeled butternut squash (about 1 1/2 pounds)
4 cups 1-inch pieces peeled acorn squash (about 1 1/2 pounds)

Melt butter in large pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes. Add broth, all squash and herbs; bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until squash is very tender, about 20 minutes.

Working in batches, puree soup in blender or use an immersion blender to blend it in the pot. Return soup to same pot. Stir in cream; bring to simmer. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Chill. Rewarm over medium heat before serving.)

As I mentioned in my last post, last weekend was the weekend of CRABS!!

Our friends Kim and Randy invited us to their house out in my old stomping grounds (oh college on the hill, what fantastic memories I have of you!). This is an annual thing, so it was fun to be back in their backyard, picking crabs, drinking beer, and visiting with some of my favorite people anywhere.

Also in standard fashion, I planned on making a dessert for the event. I was thinking that I would go to my (new) old standby, the whole wheat brownie, because they’re simple and I ALWAYS have the ingredients. But then while I was chatting with Elizabeth during Crabs and Beer on Saturday, I discovered she had called brownies ages ago. So I had a momentary scramble. What would I make? And then it hit me. Peaches. Peaches are in season. I could figure out something with peaches!

Except…I’ll be honest, I once took the world’s runniest peach cobbler to this same event. So I wanted something foolproof. So I turned to Pam Anderson. If you’ve never heard of Pam, you need to head to her blog Three Many Cooks right now and check it out. Pam has authored many cookbooks, and she was one of the main people cooking for us at the BSP. Everything she made was amazing, and I knew she wouldn’t lead me astray with a peach recipe, whatever it may be. And she didn’t.

Peach Cobbler
by Pam Anderson, available at Three Many Cooks

Ingredients:

1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon almond extract, divided
2 pounds peaches, peeled and sliced (about 4 cups)

Directions:

Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Put butter in a 13- by 9-inch baking pan; set in oven to melt.

Meanwhile, whisk flour, 1 1/2 cups of sugar, baking powder, and salt in small bowl. Whisk in milk and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract until smooth. Toss peaches with remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract. When butter has melted, remove pan from oven. Pour batter into pan; arrange fruit over batter. Bake until batter turns golden brown, 45 to 50 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Deliciously served with a side of cinnamon gelato!

When we started planning our French adventure way back in the spring of 2010, we quickly decided on one thing with our longstanding European travel buddies Liz and Joe–instead of doing the traditional hotel room thing, we wanted an apartment. A home of our very own for a week in Paris.

After a lot of internet searching, we found what turned out to be the perfect 2 bedroom loft style apartment in the up and coming 10th Arrondissement. I will admit, that when we first turned up jet lagged and exhausted in front of a large wooden door sandwiched between a flower shop and a butcher’s shop on a busy side street, I had my doubts. But soon our landlord showed up to let us in, and as soon as he entered the code to swing open the door to reveal a stone paved courtyard, I knew we were home.

One of the reasons we decided to go with the apartment instead of a hotel (other than the fact that one 2 bedroom apartment was MUCH MORE economical than 2 hotel rooms) was that an apartment would give us the option of cooking if we wanted to. I know most people go on vacation to get away from cooking, but Noel and I, well, maybe we’re addicted. Because no sooner had we dropped off our bags, then we were headed back out to check out the little line of shops and food stands that lined our block.

And it turned out, we had unknowingly landed ourselves in a gourmet food jackpot. Not only did we have an outpost of the French grocery chain Monoprix literally right across the street, but on the next block we were happy to find a fine cheese and wine shop, a fish seller, several butchers, produce stands, and boulangieries. We resolved to visit all of them during the course of our week, and we did, with several picnics, breakfasts, and two big in house dinners.

[sadly, this is one of the last pictures from my D5000. It will go to Nikon for repair, and then we will part ways]

I have to say, our most succesful dinner was thanks to the fish seller, the cheese shop, a good bit of wine, and Noel’s skills at cooking fresh seafood. Together we had the most fantastic meal of mussels in white wine I’ve ever tasted. The mussels were so fresh that we had to soak them and scrub the beards off, but the end result was well worth the work. I hope to one day have mussels as fresh and flavorable as those ones we bought from that stand!

[this is one of the first pictures from my new D90, Marianna. Why Marianna? Well, we got a little lost in the Place de la Republique on the way to the camera shop, and there's a statue of Marianna there. Those folks in the camera shop were as nice as they could be to me!]

Mussels in White Wine

This is a basic mussel steaming technique. Feel free to play with it to make your own combinations. Use wine, beer, or other herbs. The most important thing is to serve them piping hot with some good crusty bread!

Ingredients:

1 pound of mussels per person (as a funny aside, it took us quite a long time to figure out the pound to kilogram conversion. Good thing we got 2 kilograms not 8!)
hunk of butter
fresh garlic
1/2 onion
1/3 bottle white wine
chopped tomatoes
parsley

Instructions:

If you have mussels that still have their beards, soak them in cold water for 20 minutes, then scrub them, removing the beards.

In a large stockpot, sautee garlic and onions until tender. Add white wine, stir, then add mussels. Cover and steam for 5-10 minutes, or until mussels are open and a bright orange color. Once mussels are done, add tomatoes and parsley. Serve hot, with crusty bread and a cold beverage.

Last week, I would have told you spring was right around the corner. It was beautiful here in Baltimore. One of the nicest birthdays I’ve had weather-wise in many years–hey, if it’s not snowing, I’ll take 65 and sunny! And Friday and Saturday were beautiful too, making for a gorgeous first half of our weekend at the beach.

And then the clouds rolled in and it feels like it’s been cold and rainy ever since. We’ve had two bouts of crazy severe thunderstorms, high winds, and now bone chilling cold. None of this is very exciting for me, since I’m supposed to run a leg of a relay race in DC on Saturday morning. When I signed up for this, I was expecting spring–I mean the Cherry Blossom Festival starts on Saturday–not January! Yes, there is the possibility of a bit of snow on Sunday morning, but even that is not enough to get me to give up my grudge against this weather reversal.

At least if it’s going to be cold outside, I can have a bit of spring in my kitchen. Spring in the form of pesto, a spring pesto made from arugula instead of basil. If you know anything about crops in a Maryland spring, arugula and other baby greens are one of the first things to show up, so it really is the first taste of spring!

You’re probably wondering how a person comes up with an idea like arugula pesto. Well my idea came from the delightful cookbook Dishing Up Maryland, which I received two copies of for Christmas, but didn’t crack open until this past weekend. What was I waiting for? Well, to be honest, I was waiting for spring, and the arrival of produce. The book is separated into seasonal produce chapters, and I just didn’t have the heart to open it and see all of the beautiful produce I wouldn’t be able to get my hands on for months. So I waited. But now I am rewarded. With a taste of spring in my kitchen! When served with some fresh ravioli from the Annapolis Whole Foods, my new absolute favorite store, this was the perfect easy weeknight dinner!

Arugula Pesto
Adapted from Dishing Up Maryland

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups arugula
1/3 up basil or parsley
1/3 cup fresh spinach
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 large garlic cloves, peeled
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese, and more for topping the pasta

Directions:

In the bowl of a food processor combine arugula, basil, spinach, pine nuts. garlic, and salt. Blend. Then add the olive oil and parmesan, and blend again. Use immediately, served over fresh pasta or toasted bread.

Sometimes, I think I forget that other places have different seasons than we do. I’ve lived in Maryland my whole life, so sometimes it’s hard to imagine life any other way!

But now that I have a lot of friends from the interwebs that live all over the place, I see that everyone is not exactly in the same place as we are season wise. Some are already sweltering, some had some early spring snow. And in some places, it’s basically tropical all the time, as I was reminded by this month’s Everyday Food, where the seasonal flavor of the month was pineapple. Really!

It’s so strange for me to think that pineapples are in season when I’m still shivering under my winter coat, or dealing with crazy March blowing in like a lion. But sure enough, when we went to the store there were pineapples EVERYWHERE! Coming from Hawaii, they’re not exactly local, but then not much of our produce is this time of the year. So we picked one up and set out to make this recipe, which is officially my new favorite way to eat the spiky fruit!

I’ll admit, this recipe makes me want to glaze just about everything with maple mixed with cayenne and served with a side of pineapple. But I know the citrus-like sweet tart of the pineapple really balances nicely with the richness of the salmon, so I’ll stick to this for now. Because if I start glazing everything in maple, i’m going to be in trouble!

Maple Glazed Salmon with Pineapple
Adapted from Everyday Food

Ingredients:

1 cup long grain rice
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 pound skinless salmon fillet, cut into 4 pieces
1/2 of a whole pineapple, peeled cored and cut into chunks
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
lime wedges

Directions:

Preheat broiler with rack in top position. Cook rice.

In a small bowl mix syrup and cayenne. Season salmon with salt and pepper. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with non stick cooking spray. Arrange salmon and pineapple on the tray in a single layer and brush with half of the maple glaze. Broil salmon until cooked through, 8-11 minutes, brushing salmon and pineapple with glaze half way through. Add cilantro to rice. Fluff rice and serve with salmon and pineapple, and a lime wedge.

My never ending quest to find a use for ripe bananas continues on…and I may have a new all time favorite!

Last sunday I had ripe bananas and a hankering for brunch, so I went scouring some of my woefully underused but wonderful cookbooks looking for a recipe. I found one in the King Arthur Whole Grains Cookbook that looked promising–bananas, oats, eggs– and shockingly, no flour in site!

As I mixed these together, I got worried. The batter was seriously thick, and I was serving these to suspects who were arriving for breakfast shortly. But I should have known, there is never anything to fear with a King Arthur recipe. These were delicious. Like a baked oatmeal pancake/cookie. Without the cookie guilt! Because all the sweet was from the bananas and the heartiness from the oatmeal. A perfect hearty breakfast for a sunday morning!

You better believe I have two bananas on my counter right now waiting this fate next weekend!

Banana Oat Pancakes
Adapted from King Arthur’s Whole Grain Baking

2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar
2 eggs
1 cup oat flour (which I made from grinding 1 1/2 cups of oatmeal in the food processor)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Stir together the wet ingredients and sugar. Mix in the eggs. Add the dry ingredients a mix until thoroughly moistened. If the batter is too thick, add a bit of milk. Let the batter sit for 10 minutes before using.

Drop 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto a hot skillet. When the cakes are beginning to set, flip them. Serve hot!

The time has come to share one of my great secrets.

I cook whole chickens in my crock pot. I’ve been doing this for quite sometime. And for some reason, it makes me feel guilty. Because it’s so easy, and it doesn’t seem like a fine culinary technique. But it’s delicious. So we keep doing it.

I’ve never talked about my method for crockpot chicken though, because, well, it was never really a method. We just always threw stuff in the pot and let it cook. And sometimes it turned out better than other times.

But I’ve discovered a method that seems fullproof, so I need to share. Yes, this is a little bit more work than just throwing the chicken in the pot, but it was worth it and it’s going to be the method from here on out! So here goes…

Chicken in a Pot
Adapted from Slow Cooker Revolution

Like I said, this is a little bit of work but it’s worth it. Our chicken was so juicy, and it literally fell off the bone. We used it for everything from salads to risotto. And it was fantastic!

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 chopped medium onions
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon thyme
2 bay leaves
1 whole chicken, rinsed

Directions:

Heat oil in a skillet. Add onions, garlic, and tomato paste and cook until onions are soft, 5-8 minutes. Stir in flour and cook for one minute. Whisk in wine.

Transfer mixture to your slow cooker insert. Add thyme and bay leaves. Season chicken with salt and pepper, then place breast side down in the crockpot. Cook for 4-6 hours, or until chicken is tender. My experience says cook less if you want an intact chicken to come out of the pot, cook more if you want falling off the bone pulled style chicken.

Okay, now back to my sunday night Oscar viewing! It’s a nice distraction from being sore after my first Body Pump class!

And now, for a breakfast so simple but so delicious, you should make it if you’re off work this holiday Monday!

When I saw this recipe online last week, I thought it looked too good to be true. A 100 percent whole wheat waffle recipe that didn’t call for anything special or fancy that would require a trip to the store, really? It can’t be true!

But I decided to give it a go, since our grocery supply was severely limited on Saturday morning. So I called in some suspects, and made some waffles…

And we were shocked with the results! These were so good, so light, so fluffy, no one believed they were actually whole wheat. They were lightly sweet and could be eaten with or without syrup, but of course we drowned them in maple syrup. With a side of bacon. A perfect way to kick off a holiday weekend.

Whole Wheat Waffles
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Why do I ever doubt King Arthur Flour recipes? When they say “light”, “crispy” and “whole wheat”, I should just go with it! The only thing I changed about the recipe as written was to double it so I got waffles for a crowd!

Ingredients:

3 cups White Whole Wheat Flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons sugar
2 large egg
3 cups lukewarm milk
2/3 cup melted butter

Directions:

Preheat your iron while you make the waffle batter.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, and butter. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix. The batter will be lumpy.

Cook the waffles as directed in the instructions that came with your waffle iron. Enjoy!

Half Marathon training may be kicking my butt.

(however, marathon training is also awesome at combating the effects of this.)

Ironically, it’s not the long runs that are getting me. I feel awesome when I get up, eat some breakfast, then go for a long run. Even if I paint for 6 hours after I get back. It’s the weeknight runs that are out to get me. After a 9+ hour day, driving home in rush hour traffic, running 4+ miles is tough. Especially when I decide to do 4 miles at my predicted 10k pace. Owwwweeee! Running outside seems to help some, but a lot of times by the time I get home, I just want to collapse.

But sometimes, the baking bug calls. Or I just plain forget that I volunteered to bring a baked good to the office party du jour. And then I’m happy that I stumbled upon this recipe, which came into my life thanks to an email blast from the folks at Everyday Food. Because this comes together faster than you can finish stretching after a run. If you’re together enough to melt butter in the microwave, you can make this, which is just what I need when I’m dead tired after a mid week workout. And the results are amazing for something this easy. So you can have your run and keep your baking reputation up at the office!

Quick Chocolate Chip Blondies
Adapted from Everyday Food

Martha’s folks did these up for Halloween, but I think they’re too good to come out only in October. So I swapped out the candy topping with chocolate chips, making these something you can make at the last minute with the simplest of pantry staples. And yes, there is a lot of butter in this recipe. But that’s what makes these bars so delicious!

The recipe bellow makes an 8×8 pan of blondies. Double for a 13×9 pan.

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
1/4-1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously spray an 8×8 pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together butter and sugars until smooth. Whisk in eggs and vanilla. Make sure your butter has cooled some before you add the eggs, or else your eggs will cook! Add flour and salt; stir just until moistened. Transfer batter to prepared pan and smooth top. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the surface of the pan.

Bake until top of cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into 1 inch squares (trust me you’ll need the portion control!)

Enjoy! Having one of these waiting at the end of a run is a perfect was to refuel!

After I came down from my 5K high last week, I needed a break. So I won’t lie, I took a nap. Yeah, I know you’re not supposed to need a nap after a 5K, but I’m a girl that likes to sleep!

And then I woke up. And I was STARVING. I knew we had a date with our good friends later that night after Noel’s inaugural Mount Vernon ghost tour (have I ever told you that Noel is a tour guide with Baltimore Ghost Tours? Well he is) and we would be going out to eat. So the question was, what to eat to tie me over until a late dinner?

I suddenly had a bug in my brain to make something pumpkin–and somehow I settled on pumpkin soup. Because soup can be the ultimate holdover snack. It’s not quite enough to be a meal, but it’s just substantial enough to hold you over until the next meal.

And this is a soup that’s so chock full of fruits and veggies, it feels like a healthy snack even though it’s creamy and thick. The secret ingredients? Apples and onions, which when pureed give the soup a nice thickness without too much richness. A perfect afternoon snack. Even Ariadne was impressed.

Curried Pumpkin Apple Soup
Adapted from Family Fun Magazine

This soup screams fall, with it’s pumpkin and apple, but it’s a nice change on the pumpkin theme. Instead of the traditional fall spices, the curry powder in this recipe gives the soup a little bit of heat, which balances the bit of sweetness in the apples and the honey. This would make a delicious main or a side, and I think it’s going to make an appearance on my Thanksgiving table as an appetizer. The best thing? Because you’re using canned pumpkin, it comes together in record time.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 large apple, cored, and chopped
2 teaspoons mild curry powder
3 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups solidly packed pumpkin mash or canned pumpkin
1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1/2 cup milk
2 to 3 tablespoons honey (to taste)
Sour cream and chives, for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Melt the butter in a soup pot. Stir in the onion and apple. Sauté the ingredients over medium-high heat until the onion is clear, about 5 minutes. Stir in the curry powder and sauté the mixture for another minute. Stir in 1 cup of chicken broth and cook it for 1 minute more.

Add the pumpkin and stir, then add the other 2 cups of chicken stock. Using a stick blender, puree the soup until it’s smooth.

Add the salt (to taste) then set the soup over medium-high heat and bring it to a simmer, stirring occasionally.

After 5 minutes, stir in the milk and 2 tablespoons of honey. Taste the soup, adding more salt or honey and pepper to get the desired balance of sweet and savory. Simmer it for 2 minutes more, remove the soup from the heat, and serve it hot. Garnish with sour cream or greek yogurt and enjoy!