Weekend (Culinary) Projects

I have been in transition for the past two months (three?). My husband and I sold our house and are currently living with his parents while we look for a new house. Packing up my kitchen was pretty bittersweet -- over the next few months I'll be missing my bowls, my glasses, my familiar utensils... All those things that don't truly matter in the big picture but are noticeably missing when you love to cook as much as I do.

But enough whining. Between the move and my friend Tara moving and my anniversary and birthdays and living in a new neighborhood with more restaurants to check out, there has been way too many opportunities/excuses to eat out. It's been a slow start but now I am getting back to tinkering in the kitchen again (and hopefully updating this blog more regularly!).

My current neighbor has been a good friend for the past few years. She is a lovely Hungarian-born woman who moved here from London. I used to babysit her children and one very wonderful benefit of doing that was being able to taste her delicious Hungarian cooking. Now that we're neighbors, we are starting a cooking swap. Last week she came over and I taught her how to make a few variations on summer rolls. Today I went over to her house nice and early to start learning how to prepare her Hungarian beef stew. She told me that in Hungary, she would still eat a variation of this stew but it would be cooking in a nice big pot over a fire pit outside, accompanied with some crusty bread. That is such a lovely image and I can't wait to taste the results tonight! If I manage to recreate this magic I will definitely share.

I am also starting to get excited about my weekend breakfasts again and I decided to prep a loaf of cranberry + orange zest + pecan bread for tomorrow morning using my favorite easy recipe (click through for the recipe).

I also made some treats to include in another dear friend's birthday present. Frannie is a wonderful, super creative, fun chef (and friend) and I am very lucky to be the recipient of her treats from time to time. For Christmas, she gave me a Sazerac in a mason jar, local honey, sparklers, and cookies which included chocolate chips, pretzels and potato chips. For my birthday, she gave me homemade smoked salt and homemade bourbon vanilla extract. She's amazing. For her birthday, I wanted to flex my creative culinary muscle and push myself to explore gourmet homemade gifts. It's been really fun!

Frannie loves chocolate. This spread, although pretty thick, is delicious on toast! You can of course add more coconut oil and more honey to taste, but these are good starting measurements. Heating up the almond butter will also help with spreadability.

Chocolate Almond Pecan Butter
(makes 1 small tasty mason jar)

1 cup almonds
1/4 cup pecans
1 1/2 tbspn. honey (I used some Gorman Heritage Farm honey for any Cincinnatians reading this)
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 tbspns. chocolate chips
1/2 tbspn. good quality cocoa powder
Sea salt

Finely grind the almonds and pecans in a food processor. Add the coconut oil, sea salt and 1 tbspn. honey and process until the mixture becomes nice and smooth (this may take a while, be patient). Add more coconut oil depending on your desired consistency, but be careful not to make the spread too liquidy.

Once you reach your desired consistency, add the cocoa powder, chocolate chips and 1/2 tbspn. of honey. Process further until all the ingredients are well blended.

For Frannie's present, I am also including a jar of infused vodka which I think will be perfect for making bloody marys. There are plenty of resources and ideas on the web -- I was inspired by the Fine Cooking website: http://www.finecooking.com/item/27069/spicy-infusions-make-better-bloody-marys

Spicy Bloody Mary Vodka

1 bottle vodka (good, but not too good)
1 tbpn. chili flakes
2 stalks of celery, quartered with leaves

Let this mixture steep for at least 24 hours, then after that to taste. Once the vodka has reached your preferred level of spiciness/celeryness, strain all the solids out and keep the vodka in the freezer until you use it.

Hope everyone else is having as tasty a weekend as I'm having!