The Cedarburg Store is Open!

The Store! Isn’t it cute?

The store is open! Actually, it has been open.  For a month. It’s hard to believe. I’m late to the game here but it’s been a busy few weeks. We’re finally feeling settled in our new home, our new town and getting used to the changes that come with owning a small business.  Paul is working 7 days a week which is a lot, but he loves it! I’m trying to keep the kids occupied all weekend long, which is a lot too - thank goodness I love them. A lot has changed in our lives but as kids do, mine are demonstrating flexibility and resilience and have not skipped a beat. They started playground camp a few days after we moved and have made so many friends.  They are already regulars at the local pool, have favorite restaurants and love the outdoor concerts that are held every Friday night here in Cedarburg. This community has been so warm and welcoming to our family. We’re finding that Cedarburg has all of the charms of a small midwestern town AND there is so much going on here all of the time. It’s pretty amazing. I feel so lucky to be here and to be able to raise our family in a place like this.  

Ozaukee County Fair.

Summer Sounds.

Finally, after months of our lives being in flux and the contents of my kitchen being mostly in boxes, I’ve started cooking “for real” again. Paul and I decided that moving is not good for your health. Between having nothing in our kitchen cabinets for months after refinishing them to get the house ready to sell, being kicked out of our house for showings and all the trips back and forth between Cedarburg and Chicago, we’ve never eaten out more, or eaten as much junk. It feels so good to have my little hydroponic deck garden going full force and a fully stocked kitchen. I’ve also set it all up to promote efficiency.  When we started packing, I noticed that I had about a million glasses jammed in my cupboards when we only ever used the same two. The kids were always scaling my counters to get to their bowls and plates, which drove me bananas. We also had the weird “desk in kitchen” area that always ends up full of random junk - ours had drawers full of tools and hardware intermingled with tiny plastic toys, pens and pencils and old small electronics, cords, etc.. Ugh. Once we bought the new house, I vowed to be mindful about how I set up the kitchen, what I allowed in and where I put things. Now I’ve got boxes upon boxes of glassware in the basement that I will probably unload on the kids when they grow up and get their first apartments. I’m just glad they aren’t crowding my cupboards.  

Notice all my kids plates, bowls, cups and silverware on the second to the bottom shelf? And FINALLY a home for my appliances (other than my counter). If you told me 20-years ago that THIS would be improving my quality of life immensely, I would have been shocked and horrified. #momlife

Despite my rekindled interest in cooking, summer is not the season for it in my mind. In summer we like to grill, eat all of the tomatoes and peaches we can get our hands on, and eat outside as much as possible. But I have made a few things in the new kitchen.  For the fourth of July, I endeavored to make these amazing looking blueberry hand pies, but quickly figured out it was way too hot to make individual pies. What was I thinking? I ended up making a berry filling and an apple filling and turning the pies into galettes. Funny how sometimes failing is lucky.  If I hadn’t attempted the hand pies, I probably would have used a different pie crust recipe and never would have discovered how delicious the sour cream crust was. Maybe I’ll try to make hand pies again in the winter.

Half and half galette and one lonely hand pie.

I also made garlic scape pesto with local scapes, arugula, salted almonds and lemon. It’s good on everything. I like to thin it with a little pasta water and use it as pasta sauce or add a little more lemon juice and olive oil and use it as a sauce for grilled meats, fish or veggies.  It keeps well and makes the most simple meal into something a little bit special. Here’s how you make it. 

My dad told me not to buy this. He’s an avid gardener and thinks this is just a total waste of money. I don’t exactly think he’s wrong, but I disregarded his advice and got it anyway. I LOVE it. It probably does cost just as much as say, always buying your produce at Whole Foods (so, too much), but I having all of my herbs and so much produce growing on my deck is such a luxury. It’s hydroponic so I don’t have to water or anything. Amazing!!!

Ingredients

• 1 bunch garlic scapes (~10 garlic scapes)

• 1 cup arugula

• ⅓ cup roasted salted almonds

• Juice and zest of 2 small lemons or 1 large

• ½  cup olive oil

• ⅓ cup parmesan cheese

• Salt to taste

• Red pepper flakes (optional)

Don’t worry if you process and process and the pesto still looks a little fibrous. You’ll notice when you chop them how tough garlic scapes can be, even after blanching. But I promise these little fibers are soft, you don’t notice when you are eating.

Directions

• Cut scapes into 3-inch pieces. 

• Blanch garlic scapes in salted boiling water for 1-2 minutes and immediately plunge into ice water. Drain scapes.

• Add scapes, almonds, Parmesan and lemon zest to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until roughly chopped. 

• Turn food processor on and slowly pour oil, followed by lemon juice and salt while continuing to process. 

• Taste and add salt as needed.

This photo makes me sad. I wish I had more!

Dead Simple: Parsley Sauce for Your Saint Patrick's Day Meal

Hi there. How are you? I'm having a hard time believing that March is around the corner. Where did the last few month go? I am totally looking forward to the days getting longer and longer and  it warming up around here.  Plus, we are all psyched that the next major Holiday (besides Emmett's birthday, as I am reminded EVERY.SINGLE.DAY) is Saint Patrick's Day!

Spring means mixing things up with evening trips to the park, more eating out (even though that has been scaled back by the arrival of this), and possible getting the grill out. But for the next few weeks it's business as usual around here.

My father-in-law, Paddy, and I take turns hosting Sunday dinner. It’s an informal affair, just Paul and I, the kids, Paddy and my brother-in-law, John.  Nothing fancy, more often than not, dinner is just what we would normally have.  But, it’s nice to sit down to a meal together, and it’s a part of the week that we all look forward to. Last week, Paddy and John did more than their fair share. They drove to our house so we wouldn’t have to get the kids bundled up AND they brought an Irish bacon. There really wasn’t much for me to do to make dinner happen.

We typically eat our Irish bacon (and corned beef for that matter) with Coleman’s mustard on the side.  But since I was only responsible for vegetables, I decided to make some parsley sauce to go with the bacon.  This sauce is a basic bechamel with chopped parsley and lemon juice mixed in. It goes great with bacon and would probably be nice with fish (fish Friday idea!) or to spruce up some simple steamed broccoli or spinach.

You can make this sauce in the time it takes to cook some carrots and cabbage on the stovetop. I will definitely be making it again with my corned beef on Saint Patrick’s Day. With some Coleman’s mustard on the side, of course.

Parsley Sauce

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 1 ½ cups whole milk
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• Salt to taste

Place butter and flour in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat.  I like to use a high quality salted Irish butter, such as Kerrygold, for this.  If you use salted butter, you won’t need to add much salt at the end.

Stir butter and flour together until if makes a homogenous paste and bubbles but does not brown, about 2 minutes.   

Pour milk in slowly and cook, whisking constantly, for 4 or 5 minutes, until sauce thickens.  I add milk a little at a time, keeping in mind that sauce will be slightly thicker when taken off the heat. You may or may not use all the milk.

Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and parsley.

Season to taste.  

To say I love Irish bacon would be an understatement.  If you are looking for something to do with leftover Irish bacon, look no further. 

I've used it in all of these: 

Bacon and Pea Risotto

In soup with white beans

In split pea soup

Dublin Coddle

and, it makes a regular appearance at our house in fried rice, sandwiches, scrambled eggs, even biscuits, cornbread and scones. Bacon is my weeknight, breakfast, anytime hero.

Soda Bread Crumbs

My brother and his girlfriend have been visiting this week from Saint Martin and it has been so nice to catch up with them.  The kids especially love it when they are here. Every moment ends up being an opportunity to try to steal their attention and impress Uncle Mark and Aunt Jenn.  This state of affairs is, of course, fine with me and Paul.  Increasing the ratio of adults to little kids is always a good thing, especially when those adults are Mark and Jenn.

Mark and Jenn are both great cooks and have taught me much of what I know about cooking and feeding people. Their first night here I wasn’t sure how hungry everyone was going to be or what they would be up for. I ended up sort of paralyzed with indecision and without a dinner plan.  Fortunately, just before it was time to head to the airport, I decided to make some garlic bread crumbs out of the soda bread hanging out on the counter.  I figured, if we didn’t go out for dinner, I could use them to whip up a quick pasta dish to serve with a salad and grocery store rotisserie chicken.

I toasted the bread, whizzed it in my food processor with a few cloves of fresh garlic and toasted the whole lot in butter and olive oil on the stovetop. You know how people say that if you want to sell your house you should bake chocolate cookies? Well, I think you should make these bread crumbs.  They smell toasty, nutty, garlicy - like something delicious is in your future. When the bread crumbs were reasonably cool, I tossed them with grated Parmesan, minced parsley and lemon zest. Then I seasoned them with a tiny bit of sea salt, nutmeg and black pepper and headed to the airport.

We ended up using them to make this simple pasta dish with some fresh pasta.  But honestly, these would be good on anything. I’m thinking of making some more to use instead of panko for this Ina Garten recipe. Or as a topping for baked fish. I usually add nuts to this sort of thing but I found that the nuttiness of the soda bread provided what I was looking for and the texture was light and perfect.

Oh, and by the way. Turns out a simple pasta dish, rotisserie chicken and a big salad can be company worthy. It made the perfect family dinner that everyone could enjoy.  

Soda Bread Crumbs

• 5-7 pieces of soda bread, about 3 cups crumbs
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• Pinch of salt
• 1-2 tablespoons butter
• 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
• ¼ cup minced parsley
• Zest of one lemon
• ¼-⅓ cup grated Parmesan
• Sea salt, nutmeg and back pepper to taste

 Toast soda bread and add to food processor along with peeled garlic cloves and a pinch of salt. Pulse until the bread turns into coarse crumbles.

Add oil and butter to large frying pan and heat over medium high heat until butter is melted.

Add garlic-bread mixture and toast, stirring constantly until bread crumbs are fragrant and brown. I turn the heat down at the end since the crumbs can go from toasted to burnt easily.

When the crumbs have cooled add the parsley, lemon zest and Parmesan and stir thoroughly.

Season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.