Herbed Mayonaise

I love sandwiches. My desert island, only-thing-you’ve-got food is almost always a sandwich, the fillings of which are interchangeable, but the form is almost always the same. Good bread on either side of good filling and you’re guaranteed to take me on a direct route to pleasuretown.

I can be a bit picky about my lunches. Davis has lovingly chided me in the past for the odd looks when I pack his lunch; he gets to the kitchen at work and takes out individually wrapped tomato slices or onion and has to assemble his sandwich in the particular order I had instructed him to do the night before. One of my sandwich oh-no-no’s is putting a tomato on the sandwich at any point other than right before you’re going to eat. Veg goes separately. Picky, sure, but I’m not putting up with any soggy bread.

Anyway, I digress. To me, sandwiches are serious business. That being said, condiments are important to taking your sandwich to the next level. This easy combo raises a roll, roast chicken, and spinach into something really, emphatically delicious. Not to mention the recipe is short and sweet (and savory, too!)

Blueberry Crumb Cake

Every year, Davis and I try to take a trip on our anniversary. I’m not talking a big European vacation or anything, but we try to do something special and spend a few days out of the city. A few years ago, Davis and I took our anniversary trip on a road trip to Burlington, Vermont and Montreal.

We found an amazing bed and breakfast outside of Burlington that had beautiful grounds, with what felt like acres of beautifully designed and cared-for gardens. It was a place of what felt like eternal growth and abundance. Not only were the location and grounds absolutely perfect, we were greeted by our incredibly gracious hosts and their silly sweet dogs. Time stood still for a little bit and you felt like summer wouldn’t end.

Our second day there, we were served the worlds most amazing crumb cake. I would not exaggerate on crumb cake, but my oh my. As I couldn’t stop raving about it, our host actually pulled down the cookbook she got the recipe from and gave me a photocopy. I’ve carried that copy around in my recipe box ever since. I’ve changed it just a bit to make it my own, and although I think it’s second to none in its simplicity and flavor – it doesn’t quite live up to my memory of the first bite.

Shirred Eggs with Cream

I have a bit of a history of mispronunciation of words I’ve read but haven’t heard spoken. Usually I take the approach of just trying to sound it out and hoping for the best. This approach works most of the time in English, but not necessarily in other languages. Within my circle of friends I have an incredibly embarrassing, and frequently recounted story about the first time I served about crudités. Yes… I went on for far too long saying “crude-ites.” Oh the shame!!

That said, the first time I made this dish I called my gramma Ginger to talk about holiday plans, and she asked what I was doing. To which I said, “making shirred eggs” – as in “Shirley,” and she repeated back to me “shire-ed eggs?” pronounced like “Shire.” Y’know, like where Frodo comes from.

My gramma has a pretty non-regional accent, so I’m hesitant to write this off as a southern accent misunderstood through years of listening with northern Yankee ears. However, when I ran this by my friends, they were not able to conclusively give feedback one way or the other. Now, this might be due to the fact that it’s a kind of an unknown dish in my group, or it might be because nobody knows. I’m open to any definitive answers, if anyone happens to know?

Regardless of how it sounds coming out of my mouth, these taste pretty amazing going in, and because they’re so easy they might replace poe-actch-ed eggs on Sunday mornings.

Roasted Parsnips & Carrots with Dill

As we roll into mid-December, with its cooler temps and spatters of rain, I feel I missed New York’s most perfect season, fall. Luckily for me, some steaming root vegetables are right at home in the cold and wet.

This recipe actually makes a lot and is perfect on a colder day. Pair it with anything you want, or just eat it on its own. Due to the brevity of the ingredient list, it’s important you use really good olive oil and fresh dill. Otherwise, it’ll come out a bit meh-tastic. Nobody needs that; the weather’s “meh” enough on its own.

Back in Brooklyn

As you may have noticed, I’ve been really scattered for the past 6 weeks. On top of moving back to the US, we did not have reliable Internet at our apartment in Barcelona for the last month. I felt like I spent a lot of time cooking, but no time actually being able to write or read about it. I am working hard to change that situation now that we’re settling into our new apartment in Brooklyn. 

I successfully made my way back over the pond just in time to have Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of friends. Since our apartment here wasn’t quite ready yet, we held a potluck at a good friend of ours and I made the turkey. Most people that I talk with get anxiety about preparing a turkey but, while it’s not that I don’t get that same level of anxiety, at a certain point I turn my “to hell with it” on and just get going on it. I wanted to make the turkey and I’ll do it.