Yesterday my La-La Land looked a bit like this:

With a dozen friends coming over after work for a meal I marketed as “a casual happy hour,” the menu got a wee bit carried away, as it goes when I receive an issue of Bon Appetit mid-week. My friend David wanted to bring black eyed peas and make his famous cast iron skillet cornbread. Sarah wanted to make kale chips. Everyone else wanted a warm meal and a cold drink. And so, I added roasted Brussels sprouts, baked barbeque chicken, and lots of dessert. Lots and lots of dessert.

Baking apple pie reminds me of my Grandmother Maxine — known for her crust prowess. These beauties would make her smile. The coconut cake, made with coconut oil and milk and topped with toasted flakes over a buttercream cream cheese frosting, went over well too. (It was a take on a recipe in this month’s BA, and a nod to the southern theme.)

The sponsors of my pretend cooking show would be Kitchen-Aid, Tory Burch and Bare Minerals. The eggs would be fresh from the chicken coop. The sprouts would have come from my garden. The guest would sit together around a great kitchen table, rather than folding chairs with plates in their laps like last night. We would play cards after dinner and sip French press coffee, relaxed and happy.

That said, I’ve got the bones of this daydream right: an incredibly sweet group of friends, great food and lovely Mr. Davis on the radio. A delightful start to the weekend, indeed.

Watch your back Martha,

K

Dear friends came into town this weekend for a certain football game; I welcomed the chance to cook for their paleo palates by starting their visit off with brunch. (This egg casserole and this pancake recipe are entirely worth adding new ingredients to the grocery basket. The pancake was actually so good — hefty, filling, satisfying and healthy — I’d consider making it a new Saturday morning routine. No syrup or other nonsense required.)

I’ve come to believe brunch at home, where the coffee, music, temperature and timing are just as you like it, is the perfect way to catch up with those you love.

~K

His peanut butter dog treat recipe was super simple to bake.

He even stamped them with a tiny paw stamp — although it isn’t so easy to see.

I’m pretty sure his friends next door would have preferred tiny barrels of bourbon in this chilly weather. Next year.

When he isn’t chasing squirrels (who could just hibernate already. Please.), sniffing butts at the park, or being attacked by mean dogs with stupid owners, he’s watching me run around like a Christmas crafting maniac baking.

~K

Last week I mentioned I’d be preparing a fancy new recipe with my new 2 week food planning guide. (By the way, that guide is changing my life. I no longer do a dozen market runs for odd ingredients, or worry if I’m going to have the right items on hand for a meal. The mystery is gone, and I love it. It’s planned, working and yummy. Booyah.)

That fancy new recipe was this month’s cover for Bon Appetit: prosciutto-wrapped stuffed pork loin, over apples.

Pros:

Beautiful presentation

Kale. Any time I can use kale, for humor’s sake, I do. Adam hates kale and thinks I’m insane for regularly finding ways to include it in my diet. And so, as our friendship goes, I find ways to add kale to breakfast. And cocktails.

I learned a new cooking technique: butterflying a loin. Who knew it was so easy? (And here I thought butterflying a loin was pulling a muscle in the 200 meter.)

I got to use a meat thermometer I didn’t even know I owned. Score one for the gadget gods!

Did I already mention beautiful presentation, with cooking twine and all? Such fun to put together. 

The baked apples. Propping up the loins to cook over halved apples is genius. And the result is savory, sweet deliciousness. The meat with the cooked, tart, green apples is nothing short of delightful.

Cons:

A dozen expensive ingredients, including $10 worth of mushrooms that ended up being indistinguishable

Not a recipe for a single cook. If Alma hadn’t been visiting, there was no way I could have tied the pork together alone. It was not a hard job, but one that certainly required 4 hands.

DRY. The cook time is totally off. Comments on the recipe show that I’m not the only one to be disappointed with how dry the meat came out of the oven. Come to find out 100 minutes at 400 degrees is a MOTHER LOAD OF HEAT for one little 2.5 pound loin. Some 45 minutes would suffice. (Use yer trusty thermometer to judge.)

And perhaps most “con:” gross leftovers. I tried having this for lunch today and it just wasn’t good. Chances are I will not make this recipe again. The meal cost more than $50 to cook for the 3 of us, with ample leftovers. Sadly, I was counting on those for lunch and dinner today.

~K

There are nights I dream of Gallo Blanco’s tacos.

Just kidding about the sex. But since you’re here…

One of my goals for 2011 was to be better about tracking expenses. I spent September intentionally using only debit, and Mint to categorize where my expenses landed.

Needless to say the dining slice of the pie was ala mode.

hi! I’m unfashionable pie. Somebody give me a scoop already.

Nothing makes me feel more disgusted than throwing food away. It’s disgraceful. In an attempt to be better about both controlling silly food related spending and reducing food waste, I requested the advice of friends on Facebook/Twitter.

There were a variety of clever ideas, with one central theme: make soup. Save what you don’t use and throw it in a pot and clean up your fridge regularly with a hodgepodge soup. Also, plan. My friend Stacey provided an ideal solution. Her two-week food planning Google doc tracks groceries and meals. It makes you sit down, look at your calendar and appropriately schedule meals, and related shopping.

mmmm… soup. Likely to use this roasted squash recipe to clean up what’s left of the gourds in the garden.

I love it.

Earlier this week I set up 2.5 weeks worth of meals, leaving ample room for eating out (with friends in town, this is a certainty), and the chance to cook one fancy new recipe that requires speciality ingredients. These will both help me stick to the plan. Then I cut coupons. For less than $150, I purchased enough food to cook 8 large dinners (to feed 4+), breakfast and lunch. I also restocked my trifecta of bad habits: Diet Coke/coffee/chardonnay. There are leftovers scheduled too. (Those who say “I don’t eat leftovers” make me crabby. There are 7 million children starving in the horn of Africa. Shut up and take the to-go box.)

The next couple of weeks include: Mexican meatloaf, arroz con pollo, BBQ, chicken enchiladas, prosciutto wrapped roasted pork loin, crock pot green chile and chicken pot pie.

So, here I am. The coupon-cutting meal planner who revels in Type A organization and budgets to the penny. In other words, I’m a raspberry beret away from becoming this woman.

The kind you buy at a second-hand store,

~K

I try not to buy copies of magazines while I’m waiting at the grocery store. I canceled several subscriptions when I moved because I just couldn’t keep up.* But when I saw the October issue of Bon Appetit, I couldn’t resist. I so love finding a magazine recipe for something I’ve never even considered making, heading off to the grocery with a list of ingredients and watching it come to life. Rarely do I get out of my normal BBQ-meatloaf-casserole routine. Red wine braised short ribs, thankfully, shook up the schedule. Soon enough I was introducing myself to the local butcher and walking out with pounds of 2-inch ribs, vegetables and bottles of cabernet.

Worse case scenario, you open the bottle of wine and order a pizza. Best case scenario: the recipe worked. And oh, sweet heavens, it was one of the best meals I’ve ever made.

I paired the ribs with my friend Juliann’s mashed sweet potatoes and whipped up a peach cobbler for dessert, using up the last of my bushel from Palisade, CO.

I’m adding this recipe to mine for rack of lamb. So incredibly easy to prepare for such great results. The key is to find a good butcher who will trim the fat and cut the ribs for you. Otherwise, buy an extra bottle of wine to sip while these cook away.

Winner, winner spare rib dinner. (With left overs, if you are lucky!)

~K

*Come to find out after a month of careful budgeting, it’s these little expenses that kill me softly.

I know. The title sounds nuts. Bacon is the cliche ingredient in far too many recipes these days. But let me assure you, for those who love a bit of sweet and salt and are willing to try an unconventional dessert — the reviews are astounding. Folks love these cookies.

Ingredients:

Your traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe (I’m a fan of Nestle Toll House’s. Why mess with what works?)

1 pound of bacon, cooked until crispy, drained and broken into dime-sized pieces

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon maple extract

Combine, cook for 8-10 minutes, serve with milk or bourbon. As breakfast or a post-dinner surprise.

~K

I had dinner at Salt in Boulder on Saturday. The food was excellent — but again, truly the experience was made by the service. The bartenders in the downstairs cellar bar were hilariously sweet. The waitress at our patio dinner table was exceptional. The food was pretty good.

High: chilled yellow beet soup

Low: bone marrow. Two words: NEVER AGAIN. I would love to describe exactly what this mouthful of gelatinous goo tasted like, but I’ll let you imagine. I can’t believe for all the culinary hype this  – THIS — is what marrow tastes like.

The soup was actually so good, we tried to recreate it at home the next night, along with a fancy salt encrusted roasted rainbow trout. (A gift from my lovely neighbor/fisherman Clyde.)

Chilled Beet Soup:

5-6 golden beets

2 tablespoons olive oil

dash of tumeric

dash of garlic salt

dash of pepper

Cup of chicken stock

Cup of cream or full fat plain yogurt

sprig of dill for garnish

Dice beets (and peel! We did not do this and the soup was bitter.), drizzle with oil. Roast at 350 for 60 minutes. Place in blender with stock. Pulse until smooth. Mix in desired amount of cream and top with dill. Chill until ready to be served.

Salt Encrusted Rainbow Trout:

One trout, cleaned

3 cups kosher salt, mixed with 3 egg whites

Stuff cavity of fish with desired spices (we used thyme and dill). Lather fish with salt/egg mixture. (More on that method here.) Roast at 400 for 30 minutes. Salt layer will crack off leaving a delightfully moist fish.

A delightfully earthy and cool dinner to sip and enjoy on the patio on a warm, summer night.* (Nelson loved the fish most.)

~K

*to be noted, 5-6 beets makes a LOT of soup and this isn’t so good the next day. If cooking for 2, use 3 beets and cut the time back to 30 minutes of roasting.

** also to be noted, gardens love macerated fish heads and guts if you can bring yourself to run them through the blender with some warm water. This might attract other animals, however.

My friends in Phoenix are melting. And, surprise, surprise, nary a soul is happy to hear I’m blogging from my patio, in the shade, sipping a milkshake with the world’s cutest dog at my feet. I’m a wee bit smug pleased this is the first summer I can say I intentionally wanted to be out of the heat at made it happen. Although as far as the weather karma goes, I’m keenly aware this also means I’m going to be begging for Scottsdale guest rooms come winter. White stuff is rumored to fall from the sky, stick and make doing all the incredibly fun things I’ve been doing fairly difficult. I’m considering becoming a nomad.

I honestly am spending 90% of time my time outside this summer, without a sunburn, outside of a pool and even on occasion wearing jeans and scarves. Together. In the summer. JEANS AND SCARVES.

A bit of my leathery tanned Arizona heart leapt just reading that.

In other news, I’ve visited some great restaurants in the area lately with friends in town. Julia Blackbird’s is New Mexican cuisine in the Highlands neighborhood. The green chile is fantastic and the patio is delightful. Lots of shade, flowers and of course, the guacamole and tequila aren’t too bad either. It is reasonably priced, quality food with a relaxing and pretty environment.

Delite is a retro bar off Broadway and the perfect place to grab a pre-dinner drink. Next door to Beatrice + Woodsley, we people watched and enjoyed reading the creative list of cocktails. Be wary; the bartender is far too generous. By the time we took our seats at B+W, I needed food. Pronto.

Thankfully, I’d come to the right place. Beatrice + Woodsley is like walking into a fairytale. The wine is served with Alice and Wonderland inspired tags. There are giant aspen trees inside, with gauzy mosquito netting between tables glowing from hurricane lamps and candles. It is romantic and a bit dreamy.

The food was a wash. Some plates were excellent, others were simply not. It’s a little pricey for such inconsistency; next time I’ll likely have an appetizer and skip the rest.

Today I had lunch at Zoka’s in Pine, Colorado. If you are visiting me this summer — we are going here for lunch. The drive from Denver is about an hour into the mountains and couldn’t be lovelier. Zoka’s has a huge porch, with dog tie up stations at each table and the waiter gladly brought a bowl of water. The food was great, the scenery was unbelievably gorgeous and the outing was the perfect time away from the city.

Lucky, spoiled and happy to be living without an air conditioner,

~K

Rainah’s first birthday cake — a reminder that my ambition and ability rarely match. That said, if there was ever a time for a sloppy, obviously homemade birthday cake, better now than when she can remember it!

~K

I’ve been playing in a weekend co-ed kickball league. The game is sloshball, meaning each team gets a full keg to finish during five meager innings. There are two rules to sloshball:

1. You must always have a league cup in your hand including some liquid, and

2. You cannot be a jerk. Competitive, drunk, take your version thereof. No jerks.

As a non-beer drinker, I’m there for the fun. And fun, it is. This is such a rowdy crowd of 20 and 30 somethings. Our team captain decided last week each game will now have a costume element too. This week’s theme is “hawaiian,” code for the men want the women to play in bikinis. I’m no prude, but running bases in a bikini, holding a cup of beer, isn’t at the top of my bucket list.

In lieu of being leid, I’m attending another party. In my place, I sent treats: kahlua buttercream chocolate coconut cupcakes.

So much sweeter than my flesh on public display.

~K

My brother and his girlfriend came over for my first Heirloom Homestead dinner party this week. We celebrated Jess’ 23rd birthday. (Yeah. Not only is she pretty, but she’s young too.)

Her favorite meal, per Cody is “alfredo with white wine and snickerdoodles.” The cookies didn’t happen, but the rest did. And because I’m trying to do this paleo way of eating, I knew I’d need more than just sauce. So, I steamed some cauliflower and blended it into the sauce, along with sauteed garlic and onions, to both make the pasta sauce thicker and more substantive. With chicken and a big spinach salad, it wasn’t a bad meal.

(Yeah. I didn’t make the alfredo sauce. I don’t normally eat this way, but I was out of time and this was handy.)

I nearly got away with sneaking the vegetables into the sauce without Cody knowing; alas, they showed up 15 minutes early and the hungry bear paced in the kitchen watching my every move. Thankfully, they were both too hungry to complain and seemed to like the dinner. I know they liked the mint chocolate chip for dessert.

I’m still dreaming of a big picnic table under that giant tree in the backyard for some summer BBQs. Soon.

~K

Fast forward 14 years {sidenote: HOLY MOTHER OF GOD AND BURRITOS! 14 years? HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?}, and I’m just getting a chance to do that bakery gig. I’m training under a culinary school grad on the proper method of whipping up scones, muffins, cake, quick breads, cookies, cinnamon rolls and quiche. The very part-time weekend shift starts around 5 am, so that training part starts with me sticking my head in a bucket of espresso. Thankfully, they also serve such beverages and I get to drink as much as I fancy on the clock.

Brilliant productivity decision by management.

I’m considering this latest life experience great training and research for another book. It always comes back to the writing, which makes me realize this is yet another example of the grass always being greener. You know how you have this vision of what your life would be like professionally if you did something like, say, work at Disneyland, play a professional sport or run a bakery? Well. I am extra thankful my parents didn’t let me ditch traditional schooling. I’m a confident writer. I’m a meager pastry chef. (Plus, I’d be the Cinderella who’d run off with Snow White, Ariel and Jasmine to create our own fairy tale: the Empowered Super Heroine League — capable of saving our own asses!)

Professional baking: crossed off the bucket list.

~K

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So, this paleo thing means no grains. And the family I’m living with is already living gluten free. When I suggested we make the banana bread recipe on Karen’s site, my hosts agreed. Gluten-free bread? Bring it on.

Off to the market on my bike I went, where I found flax and almond meal. However, because my friends here are gluten-free, not grain-free*, we changed the recipe slightly.

‘

In lieu of only using almond meal, we used a bit of oat flour too. When I make this bread again, I’ll add another banana. I’ll also add a 1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce. The texture was great, but the flavor just wasn’t there. This likely has nothing to do with Karen’s recipe and everything to do with our changes. That said, it is a delicious treat after not having a slice of bread for quite some time. With a bit of butter, it is heavenly.

2 cups almond flour

1 cup oat flour

2 Tbsp. ground flaxseed

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup plain full-fat Greek yogurt

¼ cup unsweetened applesauce

2 Tbsp. honey

3 eggs

4 super ripe, gushy bananas, mashed

1) Preheat oven to 375°F. Whisk dry ingredients

2) Add wet ingredients in a separate bowl and blend. Add mashed bananas.

3) Add wet mixture to dry ingredients and stir. Pour mixture into a well-greased loaf pan. Bake for 45 minutes.

4) Let cool; top with butter, or pour a cup of milk over a slice for a dessert. Delish!

Makes 1 loaf.

I will make this recipe again, perhaps adding cranberries or dark chocolate chips. For the $12 bag of almond meal, it makes a hefty loaf and several days worth of breakfast. Not inexpensive, but worthy of the splurge!

~K

*Obnoxious, this way of describing food, isn’t it? Everyone these days seems to have their thing. I’m vegan. I’m ovolactarian. I’m vegetarian, unless the beef is really good. I am fundamentally opposed to how self-absorbed these ways of eating make us. Because for me it is a choice. For some, like my hosts, it is an allergy driven response to eating and not in the least about ego. They’d love pizza. Or a burrito. Or a bagel.

Salmon, poached with dill and lemon; roasted acorn squash; plantains with cinnamon

This paleo/primal way of eating is tricky. Whole milk in my morning coffee, grilling sausage for dinner, eating cheese or greek yogurt when I want an afternoon snack? All fantastic. I am satisfied eating much less, with much more fat in my diet. My skin is clearer. My cravings are changing. I’m enjoying eating foods I’d previously banned on some ridiculous fatty prohibited list.

If I never eat a no/low-fat cookie, yogurt, ice cream sandwich again — it will be too soon. Bring on the fat. Hold the sugar.

That said — this way of eating is not convenient. Just like any significant behavior change, it takes a commitment and preparation. Working from home, I spend a lot of time now in coffee shops with wifi. Empty carbs are cheap and prolific. I can’t just have a bagel for breakfast. If there aren’t eggs on the menu, I’m either going hungry, or I’d better hope I remembered to grab something before I left the house. A wrap for lunch won’t work. Pizza for dinner isn’t happening.

Yet the benefits are worthwhile. When I move into my own little homestead (with wifi and a coffee pot) that produces vegetables and eggs from the yard? Well. It will make this all that much more convenient.

Who knew eating like a knuckle dragger would be so satisfying?

~K