Festival de Cannes Dinner Party Menu

Alex did an amazing job with the delicious and authentic Provençal meal he prepared for my birthday dinner.

Sautéing the vegetables and garlic for the soupe au Pistou.

We did not have a cheesecloth to prevent the bouquet garni used to flavor the soup from mixing with the more edible parts, so we used a strainer and it actually worked out pretty well.

The Pistou was my absolute favorite. It's meant to garnish the soup but we also used it as a salad dressing; although I could (and did) eat it by the spoonful.

Rosemary lemon chicken getting ready to be baked in the oven. The best chicken I've ever tasted. Ever.

Also on the menu was a California take on the Niçoise salade with fresh, sushi-grade ahi tuna that looked something like this (minus the festive serving dish)...

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Bon appetit!

Champagne Cupcakes

A good friend sent me this recipe a few years ago and I've made them several times since. I whipped up a batch to bring to my birthday beach day with the fam. (I pretty much look for any opportunity to make cupcakes.) But sadly I forgot to bring them with us to the beach so we've been eating lots of cupcakes around here.

Breaking Bread on St. Patrick's Day

I tried this Irish soda bread recipe for the bread machine late last night/early this morning to celebrate being part Irish on this very important holiday.

The local grocery store had just sold their last half gallon of buttermilk by the time I made it over there so I just mixed a tablespoon of lemon juice per cup of milk. (Thank you for that tip, About.com; I'll never have to buy buttermilk again as long as I live.)

The soda bread was enjoyed by a large group of fine foodie ladies alongside some delicious corned beef and cabbage after an incredible day of wine tasting in Napa.

More weekend updates to follow...

Alex and I bought this baby a couple years ago and I'm always looking for great new bread machine recipes, so please share if you have one you love.

Just after adding the dried currants to the bread machine bowl.

What's For Dinner? Taco Tuesday!

I know, it's only Monday, but "Taco Monday" doesn't really have the same ring to it, does it?

So I made a restaurant-style Mexican fiesta for dinner tonight.

Avocado is probably my absolute favorite food. It's great with Mexican food, sandwiches, seafood, or by itself. Actually, if I had to pick only one food to live on for the rest of my life, it would be avocado. But that would be a cruel mandate. I would not vote for the person who restricts the population to only one food. I digress...

Homemade guacamole: 3 avocados; 1/2 diced tomato; 1/2 cup chopped yellow onion; 2 cloves minced garlic; 1/4 cup cilantro; 1 tbsp. lime juice; salt and pepper to taste. Serves 2 with hearty appetites for both dipping and taco filling.

Homemade Mexican rice: In the rice cooker: Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil on quick-cook setting; add 3 cloves minced garlic and 1/3 cup chopped yellow onion and sautée for a few more minutes; add 1 cup of Uncle Ben's rice and cook until golden (about 10 minutes); add 1/2 cup diced tomatoes (I used canned with the juice), 2 tsp. chili powder, and 1 3/4 cup water; cook on regular setting for the duration. Serves 4.

Shredded chicken.

Corn tortillas.



Alex was pleased. Ava was pleased. It was a happy home.

Spring Brunch Playdate

Since Ava was born and so many of our close friends gave birth soon after, nearly all of our social engagements revolve around the babies. Our favorite thing to do is now have friends over for good food and drink while watching the little ones discover each other. (I'm always worried Ava isn't socializing enough since she's home with Grandma all week. She lights up whenever she has the chance to interact with other kids and it really is the best thing for them.)

We had some great friends over for brunch today. We served mimosas, lattes, strawberries, creamy Greek yogurt, mini crab cakes from TJs (just pop these in the oven for about 9 minutes -- so easy and they're super fancy), and a dozen of these orange marmalade muffins.

They turned out to be more like biscuits, which is fine by me.

Here's my adaptation:

Sift together the following ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar

Cut in 1/2 cup shortening. Set aside.

Beat 1 egg with an electric mixer. Add 1 cup milk. (Both should be room temperature.)
Pour the dry mixture into the egg mixture. Add a tablespoon or two of orange zest. Let sit for about 45 minutes.

Spoon about a tablespoon of the mix into each paper-lined muffin cup. Then make an indentation into the middle of each one with the back of a teaspoon, and fill with a dollop of marmalade. Add another tablespoon or so of the muffin mix. Bake at 400° for 22-25 minutes.

Then, for the main course, I whipped up some garden omelettes with spinach, asparagus, shitake mushrooms, yellow and green onion, red, yellow, and orange bell peppers, and some fresh feta cheese straight from the farmer's market earlier this morning. I had chopped and sautéed everything earlier so all I had to do was pour the beaten egg (two per omelette seemed to work best) into the pan over medium heat (after adding a little olive oil) and add the fillings.

It was the perfect light but filling (and pretty healthy) brunch combination.

Of course Ava loved showing her buddy Luke all the fantastic new toys she received for her birthday. She also learned how to share (sometimes painfully so).

Toddlers in the Kitchen

I haven't been working as many solids into Ava's menu as I think she's capable of, and have been looking for some more alternatives to the purees and cereals that primarily make up her diet. So I was very excited a local parents group hosted a baby/toddler cooking playdate. Yogurt parfaits and Puffs trail mix were on the menu.

I wasn't sure how Ava would handle it since she mainly causes mini catastrophes with food (she is a toddler, after all). But it was such a great way to venture out and let your little one try new foods without ending up with a pantry full of every flavor of Puffs and Melts under the sun.

This was such a fun experience for us, I thought I'd share some of the other ingredients available to us in the event you would like to get your mom friends and their toddlers together for a similar event.

Yogurt Parfait
Just layer any or all of the following into a plastic cup.

• Vanilla and/or strawberry yogurt
• Granola (Hawaiian granola is more fine than the Quaker variety and easier for smaller mouths with fewer teeth to chew)
• Cheerios (multi-grain)
• Raisins
• Banana slices
• Blueberries
• Grapes (pre-sliced in half)

Trail Mix
Pour a bit of any or each ingredient into a large mixing bowl and let your little one have loads of fun stirring it up with a wooden spoon. (Ava opted to just eat the snack directly from the mixing bowl, however, so another option is to just pour the ingredients directly into a plastic bag and shake.)

• Puffs in a variety of flavors (Happy Baby offers greens, apple, banana, sweet potato, and strawberry)
• Melts in  a variety of flavors (Happy Baby offers banana mango, mixed berry, and strawberry)
• Granola
• Cheerios
• Raisins

This snack, in particular, travels nicely when you're on the go.

What's For Dinner?

You may remember when I mentioned (here) the cooking schedule my husband and I came up with that has made planning meals so much more predictable. I have found that when I put thought and effort into planning a nice meal I really love to cook!

Well, here's just one more example of how this system has been working so amazingly for us:

Seared ahi tuna over a bed of green tea jasmine rice and chopped asparagus.

Green Tea Jasmine Rice with Asparagus

We have this amazing rice cooker, which makes rice recipes really easy, so basically you just cook the rice as usual, but replace the water with green tea that has brewed for a couple minutes. This gives the rice a nice, subtle tea flavor. (You may want to start your tuna marinade at this point.) You can garnish with toasted almond slivers and green onion, as the recipe I set out to follow called for, but I just added some asparagus spears chopped into one-inch pieces to the rice after it finished cooking and left it in the rice cooker for another 15 minutes or so to let them steam.

Seared Ahi Tuna Steaks

I looked up a recipe online for some tuna steaks I just picked up but ended up combining some ideas from a few different ones so I thought I'd share the recipe I ended up with.

Mix a couple tablespoons soy sauce with a couple tablespoons sesame oil, a teaspoon of lime juice, a few cloves minced garlic, and a teaspoon of paprika. Marinade tuna steaks for about 30 minutes. (Take this time to dance around the kitchen with your little one, who has probably emptied the contents of any and every drawer he or she may have access to in your kitchen by now.) Then melt a couple tablespoons of butter in a pan. Add a teaspoon crushed peppercorns (I used a couple tablespoons of hole peppercorns but Alex agreed it was overwhelming and they should have been crushed) and saute on medium heat for about five minutes. Then add the marinated tuna steaks. Sear for just a minute or two on each side, until just the outside is nice and browned. Serve over a bed of the green tea rice and asparagus (or coconut rice would also be delicious). Top with the peppercorns from the pan (I used way too many!) and flash a winning smile as your family compliments your culinary genius.

Being Neighborly

We're on our way to deliver these invitations to some of our neighbors for a little neighborhood BBQ and pool party in a few weeks. 


I'm excited to try this new peach sangria recipe (sorry, I don't remember where I found it): 

• 1 750-ml bottle dry white wine
• 1 1/2 cups Essensia (orange Muscat, a sweet dessert wine)
• 1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
• 1 cup peach liqueur
• 3 peaches, each cut into 12 slices
• 1 large orange, cut crosswise into 6 slices
• 1 large lemon, cut crosswise into 6 slices
• 1/4 cup strawberry syrup (optional)
• 3 to 4 cups ice cubes

Mix white wine, Essensia, strawberries, peach liqueur, peaches, orange slices, lemon slices, and strawberry syrup in large pitcher, smashing citrus slices slightly. Let stand at room temperature at least 2 hours or chill up to 4 hours. Serve sangria over ice in sugar/orange rimmed champagne glasses.


(Plus, this is great motivation to clean up the yard!)

Happy Birthday My Love!

For his birthday, my husband didn't want a big party with all his friends, he didn't want to go out to an expensive restaurant, he just wanted to have a nice dinner at home with his immediate family.

Since he is the birthday boy, I made him the dish he requested using a recipe from the Bride & Groom First and Forever Cookbook (which I highly recommend) -- Linguini with Scallops, Spinach, and Bacon in Champagne-Cream Sauce (similar recipe here).

For dessert, he asked for the island treat we had during our honeymoon in Hawaii -- hula pie. It's easy to make; I just filled an Oreo cookie pie crust (just mash up a package of the cookies with half a stick of butter) with macadamia nut ice cream. You can top with hot fudge and whipped cream if you like, but it was already plenty rich without it.

Thank you, Alex, for being the best husband and father your girls could ever ask for.

Red, White, and Blue

We just finished cleaning up our yard a bit (the pool is finally blue again for the first time this season!) so we wanted to have our friends over to help us enjoy it. But I was feeling a little overwhelmed at the idea of prepping for another party. So when any of my friends offered to bring something, I decided to take them up on it. And I'm so glad I did because I wouldn't have been able to pull off anything as even remotely close to Martha Stewart worthy as this:

Kristen's festive and delicious yogurt-covered strawberries could have been on the cover of MSL.

Jenne topped these confetti cupcakes with strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and chocolate mint leaves... all from her own garden!

Happy 4th!

Two Years Ago Today

We celebrated our anniversary in Napa on Saturday, so today (on our actual anniversary) we spent a low-key evening at home cooking a special dinner together. We cook nearly every meal at home, but it's usually something fairly simple (salad and/or sandwiches for lunch and rice or pasta with chicken or meatballs, or steak or salmon if we've done grocery shopping recently). We love cooking more elaborate meals together, but we don't normally take the time and effort unless it's a special occasion. So we loved having an excuse to spend time together in the kitchen tonight, and we agreed it was the best meal we've made together. We made the most amazing Lamb Chops with Mint-Mustard Sauce, Sweet Peas with Red Onion and Mint, and couscous, all from the Bride & Groom First and Forever Cookbook my mom gave us as a wedding gift.

We ate so well we didn't even have room for dessert, so we'll have to save the strawberry shortcake bears for my birthday, which, incidentally, is tomorrow.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Holiday cookie party time!

For the last several years, one of my best friends Jenne (who hosted my adorable little birdie baby shower) throws a fantastic holiday cookie party. We each bake about three dozen cookies that we bring to share so that we end up with a sample of everyone's goods.

But the best part, everyone agrees, are the many, many sugar cookies Jenne provides that we decorate together. There are some very talented artists in the group, and my humble works pale in comparison, but here are some of my own sparkly-sprinkled favorites:

Jenne has the best cookie cutters and frosting colors! How about an ugly cookie sweater contest?