Bluegrass at Boordy

Joe and I took advantage of the gorgeous weather on Sunday and trekked up to Boordy Vineyards for Red, Whites and Bluegrass. Each weekend in April, Boordy hosted a different bluegrass band, and a $12 admission gets you in to the vineyard with unlimited tastings.

Our mission was more or less just to lay on a blanket in the sunshine and soak up good music, but we're not ones to pass up wine. Boordy has a large array of wines, including the basic reds and whites and then the "Just For Fun" wines, which tend to be infused with other fruits like apples and melons.

Boordy is one of the most popular vineyards in Maryland, but I'm sure that's based on the setting of the vineyard and the special events they feature each year. The wine is Maryland wine. Enough said. We asked for two glasses of the 2007 Landmark Reserve Chardonnay and found out it was only $1.75 more for the whole bottle. Twist our arms.

We took our bottle back to our blanket on the hillside and talked and talked for the rest of the afternoon. The band was Jackass Flats from Richmond, VA. The four-man band had a good sound and moved lots of people to dance on the stone terrace. Very festive atmosphere. It did get crowded around 2:30 when a tour bus of people showed up and lined up at the tasting bar. That's when we hightailed it with the bottle!

Joe and I have spent the past several weekends apart for various family reasons and crazy schedules, so it was wonderful to resume our Sunday night dinner together. We made homemade carrot pasta dough and rolled it out into ravioli stuffed with baked eggplant and parmesan cheese. I made a mushroom and red wine sauce to serve over the top, and a fresh salad of chopped beets, red peppers, tomatoes, mozzarella chunks and cilantro as a side.

It was good to be back!

Mom's (chickenless) chicken casserole and biscotti

Erika came up for the day for some cooking and girlie movies. Since she's such a coffee-lover, I thought we could try our hand at homemade of biscotti along with mom's famous chicken casserole.

The biscotti dough requires an hour of chilling in the fridge, so after we made the dough, E and I walked a couple miles down around the Inner Harbor and along the Ritz Carlton boardwalk. That was my first time strolling along that brick boardwalk, and it was just gorgeous. It's incredible to see so many of those gorgeous townhomes and condos uninhabited. Hello Ritz - I'll take one off your hands.

We popped the biscotti dough in the oven for 8 minutes, but they came out looking funny. And now, as I read over the directions for the first time, I see why. Erika, we were supposed to turn them over repeatedly so they lightly browned on each side and dried out. Whoops. At least we nailed the taste.

Mom's famous chicken casserole has been my brother's, sister's and my favorite dish since we were little kids. Now that we're in charge of our own cooking, I decided to omit the chicken from the chicken casserole. Per Erika, she didn't miss it at all, and neither did I. So I guess that makes it just mom's plain casserole.

Ingredients:

• 1 c fat-free mayo
• 1 1/2 T lemon juice
• 2 cans diced water chestnuts
• 1/4 small onion, diced small
• 1 t. salt
• 2 cups white rice, cooked
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup, undiluted
• 4 hard boiled eggs, diced, no yolks
• 2 c corn flakes
• 1 stick margarine
• 1/2 - 1 c sliced almonds

Mix all together in large bowl and put in greased long casserole dish. Top with melted margarine, corn flakes and almonds. Mix together and top casserole. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Freezes well uncooked. Leave off topping to freeze.

It was SO nice to make this dish on my own instead of begging mom to make it when I go home. Such a comfort food. Tons for leftovers, so Joe can nosh when he gets home from work tomorrow.

Erika brought "Nights in Rodanthe" for us to watch while we cooked. Holy sob session! Note to little sis - do not bring movies that will make Meghan cry UNLESS they are happy tears. Otherwise, thanks for spending your Sunday with me :)

Special dinner for Erika - Peking chicken amuse bouche

My sister came up on Wednesday to see "He's Just Not That Into You" - a great movie for anyone interested in love stories with real life challenges. (Not all's perfect). It's so great having her in NOVA because we can jet back and forth to see each other during the week.

Joe had offered to prepare a special dinner for us while we were at the movie. I must say, after watching some less than ideal story lines unfold in the movie, I felt incredibly blessed to be coming home to a sensitive, thoughtful man who doesn't waste time with false hopes. While life doesn't always go the way you planned, it certainly goes a lot smoother with honest communication.

But enough about that. Check out this menu. (My 21-year old sister almost fell off her bar stool when Joe broke out the amuse bouche).

Amuse bouche: Peking Chicken on Fried Eggplant and Fresh Basil, Topped with Peach Roux

• Pre-heat over to 425.
• To create the roux, start by melting 1/4 stick of butter in pan.
• Salt the butter.
• Add 1 small onion, sliced.
• Reduce onion to an Italion-style sauce.
• Add 1/2 a peach, sliced. Crush the peach into tiny pieces with spatula.
• Leave the fruit in the pot for about 45 minutes to allow the peach to break down.
• Flash boil 1/2 chicken breast for 2 minutes until chicken turns white
• Cool and soak in marinade of Tabasco, honey, soy sauce, and freshly squeezed lemon
• Wrap marinated chicken in aluminum foil "Dutch oven". Sprinkle with fresh lemon and remainder of marinade.
• Bake for 15 minutes.

Serve the chicken on top of one piece of fried eggplant with 2 fresh basil leaves, and drizzle peach roux over the top.

Now that was just the amuse bouche, but as usual, it was hard to move on after that and convince our palates that anything else could taste as good. But dinner came next - 1/3 of a baked sweet potato for each of us served with a small puddle of honey with cinnamon. Wilted spinach with garlic.

Poor Erika didn't know what hit her. She loved everything! It was a "tasty explosion," as I like to joke. Thank you, Chef Joe.

Food & Wine's Twenty+ Best Healthy Recipes Ever

The March issue of Food & Wine has a gorgeous photo on the cover of "layered root-vegetable gratin with a rich Chenin Blanc." It's one of the issue's Twenty+ Best Healthy Recipes Ever. I'm making it later today for our Sunday dinner.

But last night I borrowed another recipe from this issue for our Valentine's Day meal. We had tickets to the BSO to see world famous tap dancer Savion Glover perform to Marin Alsop's direction. We needed to be at the BSO around 6:30 to enjoy a pre-show jazz band and cocktails - a special bonus for this specific concert and an ambiance that we planned to take advantage of!

We didn't allow much time to prepare and enjoy dinner before rushing off, so here's where F&W came in: Linguine with Red Cabbage. I've become such a fan of this nutrient-rich vegetable (grandma Goetz would be proud!), and prep time was only 50 minutes.

Here's the step-by-step recipe, or improvise this way:

• Add 1/4 cup of vegetable oil to a hot skillet.
• Over medium-low heat, saute 1 medium red onion.
• Add 2 Tbsp diced garlic.
• Slice 1 head of red cabbage into thin strips. Add to softened onions.
• Saute vegetable medley for approximately 20 minutes or until cabbage is soft.
• In the meantime, prepare your linguine.
• Drain linguine.
• Plate linguine and dress with onion/cabbage medley.
• Sprinkle crumbled Greek feta over top.

Nutritional facts for one serving: 388 cal, 15 gm fat, 3.9 gm sat fat, 54 gm carb, 4.8 gm fiber.

It was so delicious and simple! According to F&W, red cabbage is "full of cell-protecting anthocyanins." This past October, a study was released in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that said red cabbage contains 36 cancer-fighting anthocyanins. It may also improve heart health and brain function. (And psst, it's yummy!).

We oohed and aahed over this for a few minutes before heading to the BSO for a sold out, fantastic performance. As we stood in the lobby sipping champagne and listening to the Brad Linde jazz band, we couldn't help but notice the average age of the attendees. Most guests were baby boomers, if not older. It makes me nervous for the future of arts establishments like the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Support the arts, people! Young 'ens, it's a wonderful concert venue. Don't be afraid of trying something new.

We had sweet seats just 5 rows back from the stage, and Savion knocked our socks off (and the media's!). It was also our first time seeing Marin Alsop in action, and we fell in love. She seems worth all the praise she's been earning. The orchestra was just eating up her enthusiasm and playful spirit. Her buzz has been priceless for the BSO. Now go see her!

Amuse bouche and spinach pasta

After a leisurely stroll around Locust Point yesterday (including an awesome pit stop at Thornton's Pub - a hole in the wall bar and home to sweet potato fries with honey cinnamon sauce), we spent the rest of the day cooking Sunday night dinner. True to Italian fashion, we prefer to drag the process out for most of the day, sipping on wine and enjoying tiny snacks along the way.

Joe lead the charge with an amuse bouche that I think was the most flavorful dish he's ever made. We never make meat, although sometimes we find ourselves missing the savory meals that only meat can truly provide. He had bought three small pieces of lamb - literally 2 oz. each - for a total of $2 as a teaser to our main course. Amuse bouche essentially means "to please the mouth."

Final product was kiwi-covered-sweet-wine-mushroom-cap-on-sea-salt-encrusted-lamb. The amuse bouche was literally only two bites, and small ones at that, but it was rich enough in flavor to make you feel guilty about eating anything else after it. We savored every bite until we couldn't wring any more flavor out of it. But isn't that how great food should really taste? You don't want to swallow it for fear of letting go of the flavor.

To make this, he'd cooked the lamb in a pan for 3o seconds on each side and then baked at 350 for three minutes. That's it! He'd sliced one whole kiwi and sauteed it down in a pot with a stick of butter, pinch of salt, and a final dusting of flour to thicken the texture.

We spent the post-amuse bouche hours preparing spinach pasta made from scratch with our new pasta machine. I boiled 1 cup of spinach in water, drained it, squeezed out the water with my hands, and patted it dry with paper towels. After all that, that fluffy cup of spinach was boiled down to half the size of my palm. I threw it in the food processor and gradually added 2 Tbsp of water to create a paste. I transferred the spinach puree to a bowl and whisked in 1 egg.

Meanwhile, Joe was making the pasta dough. When the dough was partially kneaded, he formed a "volcano" with the dough, and I poured the spinach puree into the center. Kind of like lava from a 7th grade science project. He kept kneading the spinach in, and after rolling, cutting, pressing and slicing the dough, we had perfectly colored light green spinach pasta! It's so fun cranking out the pretty noodles. I keep having this image of me sitting in front of a MOUNTAIN of green noodles. Ha!

I had lightly sauteed some sundried tomatoes, garlic, mushrooms and eggplant, which we tossed with the pasta. Topped that bad boy off with a beautiful 2004 Cuvee Margot.

Hot damn! Homerun at our house! I think next time I want to try sweet potato pasta. Who wants to join us for dinner?

New twist on sweet potatoes

I love eating sweet potatoes simply baked and sprinkled with a little cinnamon. But last night, Joe tried something new to fancy up this modest tuber.

It was getting late, so we wanted to make something quickly for dinner. I zapped a medium sweet potato for seven minutes in the microwave so that the skin just peeled right off the flesh.

In the meantime, Joe whisked a cup of cream with a half of a hand-squeezed lemon and a dash of pepper. I split the sweet potato in half and mashed each half separately in our bowls. He drizzled this lemon cream over top of the potato mound to bring it to life.

He was afraid it wasn't going to taste very good, but how can you go wrong with cream and lemon? The end result was DELICIOUS! The lemon flavor was very light and reminded me of summer. It was a welcome change of flavor from our recent winter recipes. It was all done in seven minutes!

Pizza and pasta at the Dexter's

Saturday night we went over to Dave and Lisa's and were joined by Ben and Adriana for homemade pizza and pasta night! It seems we're all trying to behave ourselves financially these days, so we each contributed pizza toppings and wine.

Dave and Lisa have every cooking tool known to man, including a pasta maker, er, cutter. He makes the pasta from scratch, and this machine slices it into linguine. The pizza dough was also made from scratch, and Dave had promised to teach me how to throw the dough up in the air like a real chef. I was told to knead the dough ball into a circle, curl my hands into fists, lay the dough over the tops of my knuckles, and shove my fists up into the air with a slight finish to the left so the pizza would launch, spinning, above my head. Uh huh. As my friends can tell you, my pizza went flying alright, but it did NOT stay in orbit directly above my head. Let's just say I'm very grateful that no wine glasses were toppled during this experiment. For the sake of the Dexter's kitchen, I had to step away from the dough.

He made a couple's pizza for Joe and I, so we each got two hearty slices of homemade pizza with our choice of toppings. Joe chose roasted eggplant, sundried tomato, homemade sausage, onions and fresh mozzarella for us. Well done!

I would not recommend homemade pizza-making for those who are short on time. The entire preparation, rising and baking time took about 7 hours, start to finish. Thank you Dex and Lisa!

We were happy to fill our waiting time with bottles of wine, baked brie, smoked salmon, and the lovely idea of playing Rock Band. Ha! I was all set to play the electric guitar and be the new Slash. Can I please tell you how mortified Joe was when I compared myself to the God that is Slash? His face was priceless. Alas, Rock Band was not cooperating with us, so everyone was spared my reenactment.

Of course, my performance could NEVER compare to Joe's star moments as Slash standing 10 feet in the air on our kitchen counter, headbanging to "November Rain." I'll have to video that for you.

Joe and I had to bail before they broke out the pasta and the great dessert Adrianna brought. She sent us home with her Mexican brownies so we could sample. I asked what makes them Mexican, and she said you include cinnamon and chipotle powder. They were delicious! The spice wasn't overpowering at all, and in fact gave it a much more interesting flavor. This wasn't her recipe, but here's one to try.

Swordfish dinner

Yes, it's a new year, and who isn't talking about being a little more health-conscious? We hit the gym after work last night, joined by a packed house of gym newbies. Isn't it fun to work out in January?

We made a very light, healthy dinner for us after our workout. Joe fried one small swordfish fillet in fake butter (gotta love it), chopped white onions and Thai Peanut sauce. He let the fish simmer for about 10 minutes before pulling it off the burner.

In the meantime, I pulled out a bag of brussel sprouts that I'd bought at the market over the summer and preserved for the off-season. I steamed about 10 sprouts for 15 minutes so they became bright green and tender.

We split the one fillet in half and added a handful of brussel sprouts to our plates. Great lean and green meal with lots of protein! And we didn't roll ourselves away from the table feeling stuffed. 

Dinner with the girls...and new additions!

Every Christmas, myself and my girlfriends of 15 years, Erin, Diana and Ashley, and their sig others take turns hosting a holiday dinner at each other's homes. This year it was Erin's turn, but we had two new additions - baby Chloe and baby Payton! Payton is 3.5 months, and Chloe is almost 2 months.

Having babies around certainly added a new dimension to our happy crew. Good friends can always go with the flow though, and Chloe and Payton were passed around, coddled, fed and changed by every single one of us at some point throughout the night. As the 7 of us (Joe couldn't come) took turns on baby duty, I couldn't help but notice the truth behind the saying, "It takes a village to raise a child." Holy handful. It would be a lot easier if Chloe and Payton had five "moms" instead of one and they all lived in one giant hut.

Erin and hubby, Grant, had anticipated the chaos, though, and as former servers at the esteemed Boar's Head Inn in Charlottesville, they broke out some old tricks to make dinner easier. The day before Erin had plated the tossed salad and wrapped each individual plate in saran wrap so it was ready to pull out and serve at meal time. She'd also pre-made a delicious Apple Balsamic Vinaigrette, which was the perfect winter dressing.

Grant prepared two types of creamy risotto - one with shrimp and one with sausage. He garnished each risotto with vegetables julienne to add simple color.

Dessert was peppermint sundaes served in Christmas mugs and topped with crushed candy canes and homemade glazed sugar cookies! Charming presentation, and a delicious, festive taste.

Kudos to the McElwains for pulling off a wonderful dinner and night of friendship while juggling baby Chloe. If I'm ever in their shoes, I can only hope to be as graceful!

Monkey Bread dreams

When I was in 6th grade, we rotated through various "exploratory" classes, such as home economics, agriculture, tech shop, drama, etc., for six weeks at a time to help us identify possible interests or future trades. All fall semester I had been looking forward to Home Ec because I saw all my friends making Monkey Bread during their six-week rotation. I remember smelling Monkey Bread wafting from Mrs. Lambert's Home Ec suite of rooms as I sat across the hall in computer class, and then my friends proudly guarding their final product so that the rest of us wouldn't ruin it before they got to take it home and show their moms.

Finally, December came, and I left my agriculture rotation and moved into Home Ec. Woo hoo! And wouldn't you know it, the week we were supposed to bake Monkey Bread, we got the biggest snow storm in five years and missed an entire week of school. We never got that time back in Home Ec, and my shot at a batch of Monkey Bread of my very own was lost.

Until this Christmas! My mom, never forgetting my disappointment and subsequent longing for Monkey Bread, bought me a Monkey Bread baking mold so I could make my own. I tackled it tonight.

Please note, the baking mold came with two recipes: one for the "Working Woman", which was meant to be quicker and simpler, and the "Gourmet Chef's" recipe. I had all the ingredients for the latter, so I thought I was up to the challenge.

Well. After four hours of mixing, rising, kneading, rising, rolling, rising, and finally baking, I finally got to taste my very own Monkey Bread. While my final product looks nothing like the delectable photo on the box, it does taste good. Simply put, Monkey Bread is sweetened bread dough rolled into 1/2 inch balls, stacked and caramelized with brown sugar, cinnamon and chopped pecans. You cook the stacked dough balls in a sort of bundt cake pan, so it should form a tower that you can invert onto a plate when it's done baking. Mine just fell apart when I tipped the mold upside down to dump out the dough.

Next time I'll use the "Working Woman's" recipe, which calls for refrigerated biscuits instead of made-from-scratch dough and should save me about three hours. But today, with nothing but a collection of Gregory Peck classics and the smell of 6th grade memories, I owed it to my 11-year old self to start at the beginning.

Working Woman's Recipe (from Tumbleweed Pottery):

• 4 cans of 8 buttermilk refrigerated biscuits
• 1.5 cups light brown sugar
• 1.5 sticks butter, melted
• 1.5 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 cup pecans, chopped

On low heat mix butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts together until sugar is dissolved. Spray Monkey Bread Pan (or 9-inch tube cake pan) with non-stick cooking spray. Quarter biscuits and dip in sugar mixture until well coated. Place biscuits in pan and pour remaining sugar mixture over biscuits. Place in cold oven and turn to 350 degrees. Bake 45 minutes. After removing from oven, carefully release edges and center with a knife. Invert onto a serving platter and serve warm.

My first potato leek soup

Did anyone else ever thinks leeks were some sort of legume?  I was shocked when a farmer recently handed me a bunch of leeks, and they looked like thick scallions. The word "leeks", to me, sounds like a bean. Apparently the rest of the world does not agree.

So I bought these beautiful leeks and Joe refused to let me use them for anything else besides potato leek soup. Soups aren't really my thing, but it's such a classic recipe that I decided to give it a shot. 

I realized, during my two hours of mindless slicing, dicing and peeling, how therapeutic this part of cooking really is. When you've got the time and you've got good music, I could dice and peel all day. Now, for some reason I felt like being an overachiever and decided to make a double batch on my first try, so everything below got doubled. (Totally useless when you're only cooking for 2 people. We now need a small army to come slurp the gallons of soup out of our fridge).

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 leeks, white and light green parts washed and sliced into 1/4 in. slices

2 c chopped yellow onion

1/2 tsp sea salt

3 cloves garlic, minced (I cheated and pulled from a giant tub of garlic in our fridge)

2 large Yukon gold potatoes (1 lb.), peeled and cubed into 1/2 in. cubes (Note: it is IMPORTANT to actually peel the potatoes. I was dealing with little Yukons and didn't peel them, and their skins kept getting caught in my blender).

2 c vegetable stock

2 c chicken stock

2-3 tsp fresh rosemary leaves

Directions: 

1. Heat soup pot over medium and add oil.

2. Add leeks, onion and sea salt. Saute for 5 minutes until onion turns translucent.

3. Add garlic and stir well. Cook for 1 more minute.

4. Add potatoes and stock, cover and boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Cook 20 minutes.

5. Remove from heat. Blend soup with rosemary leaves until smooth.

I recommend serving warm with a hard, crusty bread, like a day-old French baguette.

Butternut squash and spaghetti squash patties

This recipe was ridiculous, and unfortunately I can't take credit for it. I spent Sunday afternoon baking all kinds of vegetables from the market so they'd be recipe-ready later in the week. I literally used up all our Tupperware storing prepped vegetables. 

Joe took the flesh from the baked spaghetti squash and the baked butternut squash, mixed them with one egg and some oats, and formed six little patties. He fried each patty until they were lightly browned on each side. 

Then he made a red wine sauce with a touch of cloves and flour to thicken the consistency. He drizzled this sauce over each little patty, and added a fresh mint leaf from our mint plant for color. 

Voila! It was, hands down, one of the BEST things he's ever made. It was a great new way to prepare spaghetti and butternut squashes, which we usually serve as a pasta-substitute and soup, respectively. And the patties were the perfect snack size for later. 

Fall market menu

We were finally able to make it to the market yesterday for the first time in many weeks, and boy were we shocked at what we saw! The selection was incredible, and we agreed that we were more impressed by this mid-November selection than a mid-July harvest. Maybe because the fall market had so many novelty vegetables that we aren't used to seeing. We asked a million questions of the market vendors, and bless their hearts, despite the blustery wind and chilly temps, they kindly answered all our silly questions. I guess we had them captive at least for a few hours.

So we stocked up on produce and once again spent ALL our cash in 30 minutes. Even though we always spend way too much money, we leave feeling giddy with our recyclable bags and sore shoulders. We cooked from 12:30-7:30pm.

We invited our friends Dex and Lisa over for dinner in repayment for two lovely dinners they've served us. We used them as our official testers for our upcoming holiday party (date TBD) menu. Check it out:

• Cheese and pate plate with Sicilian olives
• Marilyn Monroe cocktails (champagne, sherry and grenadine)
• Sweet potato and apple bisque (inspired by a soup I recently had at the Wine Market)
• One slice of fried green tomato served in the hollow of a red cabbage leaf, drizzled with a chive, dill and yogurt sauce, with turnip fries on the side
• Portabello mushrooms sauteed in red wine
• Red grape salad with fresh citronelle, red onion and olive oil
• Single link of pork apple sausage served over sweet and sour red cabbage
• Mulled raspberry wine and Glarus chocolates for dessert

Servings were small so we could enjoy a little bit of everything. My two favorites were the sweet potato and apple bisque (which I ate chilled for dinner tonight as leftovers. Yum!), and the sweet and sour cabbage.

I'd never cooked red cabbage before, but I couldn't walk away from this beautiful head at the market. I found a super simple recipe that called for vinegar (I used cider vinegar), melted butter, and a few tablespoons of sugar simmered with 12 cups of shredded cabbage. So delicious. My German grandmother would be proud of this near-kraut concoction ;)

We'll see what makes the cut for the holiday party, though. Food needs to be easily served and passed without utensils and lots of mess. I think that means the cabbage is out.

The night ended with a challenge: the guys had to cook the girls dinner, and then girls cook the guys dinner. We huddles separately and chose themes for each other, and Lisa and I decided the boys had to make us a dinner that is entirely blue WITHOUT using food coloring. And the boys had decided we had to make them an entirely RED Christmas dinner. Seriously guys? At least try to make it challenging for us! Ha!

Game on. But more to come on that as we start plotting.

Beet salad for a farm day

I spent all day Sunday at my clients' farm, hosting a foodies event for TasteDC. My client is a local high-end beef producer, so to emphasize the benefits of eating locally sourced foods, I volunteered to prepare a beet salad and fresh garden salad for 20 people, using only produce from the farmers market.

Saturday morning I schlepped down to the Waverly market in baseball cap and pajamas and gathered as many beets as I could find to make a new recipe from The New York Times food blog. I also loaded up on 6 heads of GORGEOUS Boston lettuce, grown hydroponically on the Eastern Shore. The farmer's table was nothing but Boston lettuce, and each head looked like a rose. It sounds totally cheesy, but the lettuce looked almost floral - like a table of green flower petals. I was entranced.

I spent the next 3 hours at home peeling beets in a white apron, and by the time I was done, I looked like a serial killer. My hands were stained red, and I had bright red smears all over my apron. Plus I was yielding a knife with much less respect than it deserved.

We served the beet salad and the garden salad on Sunday, along with copious amounts of gourmet beef, and the guests really seemed to enjoy it! I was anxious for feedback since this recipe calls for raw beets, and I always cook my beets before serving. I'll make it again, but on a smaller scale!

Champagne and lima beans. And brussel sprouts?

Yes, we had them all last night. In an effort to consume existing groceries, we made lima beans with fake butter and Parmesan cheese, and brussel sprouts with peanut sauce. However, Joe couldn't resist a stop in Bin 604, so while I pulled the car around, he snuck in and grabbed a bottle of Cava and two bottles of red. Oh darn.

Apparently Bin 604 staff had never been asked for Champagnes that complement lima beans. No way! They seemed to find it shocking that someone would serve Champagne with JUST lima beans, so we shook it up a little and added brussel sprouts, just for kicks.

It was an odd dinner, candles and Cava with two of the most loathed vegetables out there, but we LOVE them, and I think Joe is considering being reincarnated as a lima bean. But only if he can swim around in fake butter and Parmesan cheese.

Pesto salmon

Whole Foods kidnapped us after the gym last night. When will we stop being such suckers and develop the willpower to just keep walking past it? The MAC is becoming an expensive lifestyle.

Whenever I'm in Whole Foods, I catch my mouth hanging open, like a kid gawking in a candy store. I'm pathetic, I admit. How come I never see anyone else with their mouths hanging open?

We filled up a basket and had more fun than two sane people should at the self-checkout counter. (If surgery doesn't work out for Joe, I think he has a promising career as a supermarket cashier, and I make a mean bagger).

I have a philosophical issue with eating big meals after burning major calories, so we kept portion sizes super small and made the following:

• Sauteed onions, snap peas and mushrooms, seasoned with minced garlic and soy sauce (very Asian)
• Olives stuffed with sundried tomatoes (not so Asian)
• Fresh salmon seared in butter and seasoned with pepper (Note - as Joe was walking out the door this morning at 5:30, he stuck his head back in to tell Sleeping Beauty that if I blogged about this recipe, I must clarify that it's important to mix the pepper into the butter first before pouring over the fish. Done, honey).
• Homemade pesto made with soynuts instead of pine nuts, served over the salmon, plus a dallop directly on the plate for color

Our friends recently pointed out to us that our veggie-heavy diet probably doesn't provide enough protein, and we've been paranoid protein scavengers ever since. The soynuts provided DOUBLE the protein at HALF the calories, and were a THIRD of the price of pine nuts. Great alternative.

We popped a bottle of Marques de Riscal Tempranillo, 2004, which had an initial buttery flavor, followed by a peppery finish. This was the first of two Tempranillos we got at the Wine Market for a taste test. I loved this one, so I hope the Tierra de Vientos can live up to it!

Brilliant radishes

Several weeks ago, Joe and I were tooling around in Middleburg, VA, the epitome of horse country/yuppie-ville just outside of NOVA. We stopped for lunch in a beautiful little restaurant behind Main St. called The French Hound. Sounded right up our alley!

It was. We had a champagne "snack" with our lunch. As charming as it was, sitting in the renovated sun room of that antebellum home, admiring the worn brick floors and original fireplaces, my favorite part was the small plate of Radis & Sel - or radishes and sea salt.

Radishes are another one of those root vegetables that I never know what to do with. But at The French Hound, they served up miniature, imperfect, clearly homegrown radishes in a tiny bowl filled with sea salt. The radishes were picked fresh and served uncooked so you just dip them in the salt. I must have said to Joe 5 times, they taste "of the earth". You know how mushrooms have a very earthen taste, almost like you can taste the soil? That's how these tasted. Pure vegetable.

I was ecstatic to see an elegant way to serve these colorful vegetables. I've conquered another root! Last Sunday I was so excited to pick up a bag of radishes at the store and actually have something to do with them! And they were my post-workout treat last night.

They'll be on our holiday entertaining menu this season.

Bucks County weekend

Joe and I were finally able to get out of Baltimore for some R&R in Bucks County, PA this weekend where his uncle was gracious enough to let us stay at his gorgeous home. We were in charge of dinner for his uncle and the two of us Friday night, so we decided to show off a little ;)

We took a bottle of one our favorite wines, Cat Amongst the Pigeons 2006 Shiraz, and we made homemade gnocchi with our own butternut squash sauce, served with steamed brussel sprouts and fresh apple chutney. It was a hit!

Saturday I went for a run on gorgeous back country roads while Joe had coffee and read on the porch. We headed into New Hope, a quaint little town on the PA/NJ border with a main street of boutique art galleries and commercial shops, and had lunch on a deck overlooking the Delaware river. The restaurant was Martine's, and it was nice for a simple lunch with great views. I had the pumpkin soup, and Joe got the crab cake with fries. The weather was perfect, so we took our time and honestly weren't too concerned with the actual food on our plates.

Saturday night we lit a fire, and Joe made champagne cocktails. Yummy! I'm no mixologist, but he made a to-die-for French 75, which is what Humphrey Bogart used to drink. (Yes, my Casablanca-loving boyfriend knew that). It's a mix of champagne, gin and lemon.

Dinner was homemade pesto tossed with noodles, and a fresh salad. Two of Don's friends joined us and brought a perfect fall dessert - fresh apple crisp with cranberries. To say we were stuffed is an understatement! I disappeared from the after dinner chatter to pass out from food coma!

A dinner to come home to

I came home from work yesterday to the most delicious smells! Joe was post-call and in his own little world cooking a feast since we hadn't seen each other in 4 days. If they would only let him leave the hospital more... :)

He greeted me at the door with Gerbera daisies and then made us:

• Steamed brussel sprouts with fresh apple chutney made with allspice, salt, pepper and cinnamon
• Baked eggplant drizzled with soy sauce, ginger and baked sesame seeds
• Baked swordfish with an onion, butter and dijon mustard sauce
• A bottle of Sangiovese (just because we like saying it)

The food was divine, and as usual, his presentation was flawless. The eggplant was skinned and cubed, so it didn't take as long to bake since it was in small pieces. Both the swordfish and the eggplant were neutral foundations that allowed their respective sauces to shine.

Seriously, how lucky am I? We had our huge window open, so there was fresh, crisp air, and we lit all our candles. Bliss.

Turnip fries

Now that fall is officially here, roots and tubers are turning up everywhere at markets. I HAD to find something to do with turnips. No one ever uses them, but they're a vegetable, so how bad can they be?

Try this for a quick, healthy finger food:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Line cookie sheet with aluminum foil
• Peel turnips and slice like French fries
• Toss in a large bowl with olive oil
• Put fries in a one-gallon freezer Ziploc and generously sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and dill (salt to your liking)
• Bake for 20-30 minutes until crispy

WARNING! These turnip fries are addicting, so they're best shared with friends.

Or maybe I'll make some tonight as I indulge in my just-purchased Sex and the City movie...