Katie Curtis

Chicken and Gnocchi Soup

7 September, 2016/in humbleonion/by Katie

Hi Friends – I am reposting this meal since I just made it again last night on Snapchat and I promised a few of you I would repost it. This is a great meal for when the nights start to have a chill in the air, and crusty bread is a must. I have some great new meals in store for you that I am still editing, so stay tuned. Happy Eating! – Katie

Are you loving this cold weather we are in as much as I am? Or are you one of the people who is still in mourning summer is over? (If so, my condolences). This time of year means ski season is right around the corner so I (and my whole family) get giddy at the thought of weekends of fun coming up soon. But even before said family existed I have always been a fall girl. I love the sweaters, the mugs of apple tea, breaking out my boots, reading by the fire and making soup (and stew) with crusty bread for dinner.
I am sharing this with you because this dinner is one of our favorites – it is a winner for everyone. I have even made it for company. (I am not really thinking that will impress you at all. Just over sharing as usual).
Trying to find meals that everyone likes is no easy feat, but everyone from Rob down to Andrew loves this dinner. And it is one of those one pot meals that you get to clean up as it cooks, great for pulling together before soccer or football and have ready when we get home. You soften the onions, celery and carrots (I buy shredded so much easier!) then bring the chicken broth to a boil, then drop your meatballs in (made with ground chicken, garlic, bread crumbs, and egg) and they cook in 10 minutes. The gnocchi and peas take another 5 minutes, and by then clean up is done. Fresh parsley on top makes it even better.
I got this years ago from a Rachel Ray magazine. I think she might have even technically called it a stoup. The gnocchi really act like dumplings, and the meatballs are melt in your mouth good. And I usually like to make up my own dishes here but this one is really that good. I know you’ll forgive me.
Go forth and enjoy, my friends. This one is a keeper.

Chicken and Dumpling Soup (originally published by Rachel Ray, for printer version click here):
Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
4 ribs celery from the heart, chopped
2 onions, chopped
4 carrots, shredded (1-1/2 cups)
1 fresh bay leaf
Salt and freshly ground pepper
6 cups chicken broth
1 pound ground chicken
1 egg
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs (a couple of generous handfuls)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (a couple of generous handfuls
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Dash freshly grated nutmeg
1 1 pound package gnocchi
1 cup frozen peas
Flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped (a couple of generous handfuls)
Crusty bread, for dunking
Directions
In a soup pot, heat the EVOO, 2 turns of the pan, over medium-high heat. add the celery, onions, carrots and bay leaf, season with salt and pepper and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the broth, cover the pot and bring to a boil.
Meanwhile, in a bowl, season the chicken with salt and pepper. Stir in the egg, bread crumbs, cheese, garlic and nutmeg. Roll the mixture into walnut-sized meatballs (you’ll have about 40) and add to the stoup. Simmer for about 10 minutes while you wash up. Add the gnocchi to the stoup and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the peas and parsley and cook for 2 minutes. Remove the stoup from the heat, discard the bay leaf and let cool for 5 minutes. Serve with the bread.

My Back to School Supplies

31 August, 2016/0 Comments/in Parenting, Writing/by Katie

This is hands down my favorite time of year.

We had an amazing summer, one of the best summers I can remember since EVERYONE is out of diapers and they let me sleep in (praise hands alleluia). Like any good New Englander, I relish the feeling of change each new season brings. But as the nerdy academic I once was, the fresh clean slate that fall brings – with a new school year, and all those sharpened pencils and blank pages waiting to be filled – is my favorite. Summer margaritas feel so good, but purposefulness feels so good come fall.

As my kids fill their backpacks with supplies and checklists, I thought I would share with you a few of the things I am packing in my mental back pack, my new school year supplies to help me and my crew have a successful year.

1. Better Than Before: I started reading this at night and in the morning as we were getting organized for school. I am a big believer that books come to you when you need them, and this is the perfect example. Even though I loved this summer, I felt like we were all in the summer slide. As lovely as it was to be there, I wanted all of us to move forward in many areas.

This book helps do just that – it is chock full of the real life quandaries and wisdom that I am looking for right now. And she universalizes them so you feel like you are not alone. Here is a sample:

“From my observation, habits in four areas do most to boost feelings of self-control, and in this way strengthen the Foundation of all our habits. We do well to begin by tackling the habits that help us to:

1. sleep 2. move 3. eat and drink right 4. unclutter

Foundation habits tend to reinforce each other – for instance, exercise helps people sleep, and sleeps helps people do everything better – so they’re a good place to start for any kind of habit change. Furthermore, somewhat mysteriously, Foundation habits sometimes make profound change possible. A friend once told me ‘I cleaned out my fridge, and now I feel like I can switch careers.’ I knew exactly what she meant.”

See what I mean? This book cuts to the core of so much. It is helping me build a strong foundation. And I don’t know about you, but I find helping my kids form good habits is brutal. The force of resistance is just. so. strong. If I am doing good with my own habits I set a better example and have that much more resiliency when they push back on healthy food and earlier bedtimes.

2. Trading mindless screen time for reading. I am a big reader, but this summer I was often so tired from our active day or trying to wind down after lots of celebrations and libations, I would choose mindless TV or iPhone zoning instead of a good tome. I frequently looked up after ‘just checking my phone for a minute’ or ‘watching just one more show’ (Walking Dead, I am looking at you) and see that the window I was going to read in had passed. The big stack of books that I was dying to read didn’t seem to budge. My kids are at ages where it is hard to read while there awake (unless they’re in front of a screen, which I am not encouraging). So, bedtime is my only time to chip away at it. Enter my no-phone zone after 9 pm rule.

3. Weight Watchers. There are a million diets out there, and what I have learned with kids is I can’t stick to any of them while I am on the go. Plus I love bread. I love the support of WW and as Rubin points out, Monitoring and Accountability are keys to sticking to any habit change. I lost 10 lbs. in the spring doing it, and I think I have maintained this summer doing Paleo-style eating 80% of the time. I just want to be as strong as I can, and this will help me get there. (Update: I group of friends introduced me to Isagenix, and I am doing that now instead of WW. I can’t speak highly enough of it, the nutrition, the energy I have, and the ease of doing it, and have since stopped doing WW.)

4. Keeping Some Fun in the Schedule. One of the things that made me so happy this summer was that I was constantly surrounded by people I loved, doing fun things in nature. It is so essential to me to make sure I schedule face time with people instead of getting lost in the world of books and social media. I think a lot of people feel this way too. Life seems to hum a little sweeter when we have things to look forward to, so I’m on it. Lunch dates, coffee dates, and get togethers are my jam. It takes a little work but I am always filled up when I do it.

The flip side of this for me is it is so easy to say yes to too many fun things and then have me forgetting my other habits like self care and rest and order. I need to balance fun with slowing down and slow days. We just happen to have 4 kids, my husband has a very social job, and we live in a vibrant community. So when I say some fun, I mean saying no to some things.

5. Choosing Joy. I don’t know if it was turning 40 or just being settled in our life, but I have this clear sense of how much better I feel when I am choosing to see the good despite the shortcomings and mistakes and problems in the world. And in myself. And in other people. When I am around other people who also choose joy I feel happier.

Mean people suck. Don’t be one. And don’t let one take you off your game. Choose joy instead. Take the good and leave the bad.

6. Consistent Running/Writing Schedule: Aside from food blogging, which I love, because helping people make good memories with food is and will always be my favorite, I am at my happiest when I have a consistent running & writing schedule. They work in tandem for some reason: the running lets my mind wander about what I am writing about and gets all my energy out, and the writing has me sitting for long stretches, craving a run. I have had a number of sweet spots since my big kids have been in school when I am consistently doing these things together, and some not so sweet spots when I drop one or both of these and I am just not getting ‘out’ whatever it is that kicks around in me.

Breaking down my big goals into small goals usually involves scheduling the time. It is simple, and once I schedule it, it is very easy for me to be disciplined about it. (But read Rubin’s book because you may be a different temperament! No this not a paid endorsement.)

7. Ignation Detachment: St. Ignatius is the founder of the Jesuits, the religious order that runs my alma mater Boston College as well as many other institutes of higher learning. I was telling my best friend that I am at peace with my food memoir not being sold yet – my agents are marketing it (it is only half done and I am writing the other half now). It has gotten some rejections but lots of positive feed back at the same time. I know it will find a home, and that I just need to keep writing. Which makes me a real writer, according to Steven Pressfield.

When I told all this to my best friend, she said, ‘sounds like you have Ignation Detachment.‘

I had to agree with her. I have felt so much peace about everything in life lately, and I want to keep cultivating it. I am excited to read Shauna Niequist’s new book Present Over Perfect, and I suspect it has a lot to do with this whole concept of detachment. I feel like I am there, but I still can’t wait to read it to reinforce this peaceful perspective. (To learn more about Ignation Detachment visit here and here.)

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So, as we start another school year, I will leave you with a quote strait from my college campus. I loved BC’s old gothic buildings and thick tall trees, especially in the fall when all the leaves would become a symphony of fluorescent color in every shade of flame.

There was a prayer on the wall at the Bapst Library, the oldest and most gothic structure there, and where I often chose to study. It was right next to a medieval-style archway you had to use to leave the library, so you couldn’t miss it. No matter how worried I was about a test or relationship or outcome of a situation, I would glance at it and know how right it was.

I am not there all the time, but when I am, it is such a sweet spot between surrender and joy.

Happy Fall, friends! xoxo Katie

St. Ignatius Prayer

Lord, take all of my liberty,
my memory, my understanding
and my will.

Everything I am is yours; do with it what you will.
Only your love and your grace are sufficient for me.

-St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491 – July 31, 1556)

Buffalo: My Favorite Food Town

28 August, 2016/in humbleonion/by Katie

This summer has been chock full of great trips which feels novel after having kids in diapers the past 10 years. But visiting my best friend in Buffalo for her birthday along with our besties Laurie, Meg & Mike has to be up there at the top of the list. Not only is she adorable, she is a NICU doctor and saves babies lives for a living. She also just bought the cutest house.

Buffalonians just have good food in their veins/water supply. Or it could be the long cold winters with nothing to do but dream up good, smart food. I mean, they invented the BUFFALO WING. I could leave it at that. The buffalo wing plus the fact that my best friend lives there means it is officially my favorite food town.

But they also have this hipster food vibe that yields original, amazing food. The first dinner we had was at a restaurant called Marble & Rye.

It was so dark in the restaurant I didn’t take any pics, so I’ll just have to walk you through the drool-worthy meal. I am still dreaming of it, it was so good. We started with eggplant Bolognese with cinnamon in the velvety sauce and homemade noodles, a smoky grilled chicken wing with pomegranate seeds and creamy dressing drizzled over it, and ended with a burger that was quite possibly the best thing I have ever eaten.

For breakfast the next morning, we went to Betty’s. There was a wait out the door so you knew it was going to be good. And it was also dark inside so I got no pictures, but the turkey sausage hash was amazing, as was Megan’s dish that can only be described as a mexican breakfast lasagna, with layers of tortilla and a mixture of sweet potatoes, corn and black beans and an enchilada sauce with cumin and cayenne, all with creamy queso fresco, guac, and cilantro in the mix. Recipe on this one coming soon, I promise, since I must recreate it.

After we stuffed ourselves, we said goodbye to Meg & Mike who had to return to Conneticut and headed over to my favorite grocery store EVER – Wegmans – to get the makings for a housewarming BBQ at Megan’s.

Fun fact: I learned to cook because when we were first married I lived across the street from a Wegmans, with tons of gorgeous ingredients and tons of time.

This time the yummy food was up to us. I can think of nothing better then hanging out in Megan’s new kitchen cooking for her party and listening to good music with a beer. I marinated 3 flank steaks using Tyler Florence’s Carne Asada recipe. The citrus juices totally tenderize the meat and the flavors from the lime and orange along with garlic, jalapeño, and cilantro make it so tasty. I also made a ton of burgers, since I was still dreaming about the one from Marble & Rye. I make burgers with Worcestershire and minced onion, salt and pepper. Easy and delicious. (See end for recipe for both). I also made Ina Garten’s Panzanella Salad and the Zucchini tart I posted last week.

On Sunday afternoon, as the weekend came to an end, we went to Lloyd’s. Lloyd’s started as a food truck and became so popular due to their delicious food (and from what I gather a really fun social media spin that involved finding the food truck under the guise of a “Where’s Lloyd?” marketing shtick). Knowing how good the food is, I would want to know ‘Where’s Lloyd?’ too. They soon opened up an eatery complete with a killer cocktail list. They make their own tortillas and rumor has it, the man they were ordering them from in the beginning came out from California to show them how to make their own and never left.

This is Anthony, a great example of how people in Buffalo just hang out and talk to each other. He steered me towards this Sunset cocktail which I was not sad about and made us belly laugh because he was hilarious (hi Anthony – still think you should become a stand up comedian).

We ordered the Breakfast BLT, the cheesy Shrimp and Grits, and the Huevos Rancheros. I can. not. even. tell you how good the shrimp and grits were. They are not what I think of when I think of taco truck, and I have not really had many good grits (usually they are runny and flavorless). But Lloyd’s did them right. Think all the creaminess of a good mashed potato casserole that has been cooking all day in a pool of butter and salt and creamy cheese, so that the edges get chewy, and you are approximating the dish. And that spice infused concoction on top with onions and tomatoes should just have it’s own name, as in ‘flavor bomb tomato onion cumin sauce’ or something.

Hueveos rancheros is always a favorite, and with all these fresh toppings it has to be good.And the BLT (sorry, ate it before I snapped a pic) was deceptively simple – just pork belly, cooked until it was chewy and crispy, fresh tomatoes, lettuce and scrambled egg on a fresh tortilla. Did I mention it only costs .99? (Any New Englander would just do a happy dance at Buffalo food prices.)

We tried so many new places that I had to wait until the airport to visit my very favorite restaurant, home of the Buffalo Wing, The Anchor Bar.

I even brought some home for Rob, because he loves them too. While I ate my way through Buffalo he held down the fort with the kids, so he deserved something.

Ok, off to have a Super Sunday. Happy Eating! xoxo Katie

Carne Asada (recipe from Tyler Florence):

Tyler Florence has you making the marinade (what he calls the mojo) in a mortar and pestle, but I just threw them all in to a blender the first time, and used an immersion blender the second, and I love how it distributed the ingredients well so the meat was coated evenly with all that flavor.

Ingredients
2 pounds flank or skirt steak, trimmed of excess fat
1 recipe Mojo, recipe follows
Olive oil, for coating the grill
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Mojo:
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno, minced
1 large handful fresh cilantro leaves, finely chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 limes, juiced
1 orange, juiced
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil

Directions:

Mojo:
In a mortar and pestle or bowl, mash together the garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, salt, and pepper to make a paste. Put the paste in a glass jar or plastic container. Add the lime juice, orange juice, vinegar, and oil. Shake it up really well to combine. Use as a marinade for chicken or beef or as a table condiment.
Yield: approximately 1 1/4 cups

Lay the flank steak in a large baking dish and pour the mojo over it. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or up to 8 hours, so the flavors can sink into the meat. Don’t marinate the steak for more than 8 hours though, or the fibers break down too much and the meat gets mushy.
Preheat an outdoor grill or a ridged grill pan over medium-high flame (you can also use a broiler). Brush the grates with a little oil to prevent the meat from sticking. Pull the steak out of the mojo marinade and season the steak on both sides with salt and pepper. Grill (or broil) the steak for 7 to 10 minutes per side, turning once, until medium-rare. Remove the steak to a cutting board and let it rest for 5 minutes to allow the juices to settle. Thinly slice the steak across the grain on a diagonal.
See his post on the Food Network website for a great Pico De Gallo recipe and other ideas for toppings.

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Ok, these are so simple I am reluctant to post but so many people this summer have asked me how I made my burgers. They are flavorful and moist and the easiest way to entertain. I easily triple or quadruple this recipe, and for parties I serve caramelized onions (just found this great post about them) and sautéed mushrooms along with the usual burger toppings.

Curtis Burgers:

1 lb. grass fed ground beef

2 T. Worcestershire sauce

2 T. minced onion

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

Directions:

Mix the ground beef with the seasonings and form into 4 patties. Be sure to push a thumb print down in the middle to ensure they will cook flat, otherwise they will puff up in the middle.

Cook in a pre-heated pan or grill, about 5 minutes per side.

6 Ingredient Zucchini Tart

17 August, 2016/in humbleonion/by Katie

It’s that time of year again, when gardeners and CSA members ask themselves: what else can I do with zucchini?

If your garden is anything like ours, then you might have blinked and then looked down to see one laying on the ground that is roughly the size of a baseball bat:

^ An offering to grandpa. I love how Andrew looks like he is paying homage with all his might.

I’ve seen a ton of recipes around for zucchini (I’ve added my favorites at the end of this post!), but in true Humble Onion philosophy that simple ingredients make the best food, I wanted to make a light zucchini tart with simple ingredients. So I gathered up these:

My number one way to use up garden veggies is just to sautee them with a bit of garlic and either serve them as a side dish or toss with sausage, ground beef and tomato sauce to serve on top of pasta. But zucchini is such a special ingredient I wanted to come up with a recipe that really showcased it’s simple goodness.

Enter puff pastry, which just makes everything special. I usually keep some in my freezer (it is so great for party apps on the fly). I rolled it out, then scored a one-inch boarder around the edge and pricked the middle with a fork so it wouldn’t puff up.

I sautéed some onions with thyme that is over flowing in my herb pot, and then sprinkled some gruyere cheese over that. In case we didn’t all need a reminder that sautéed onions make anything delicious, here is Exhibit A:

Then coat the top with a little olive oil and sprinkle the whole thing with salt, pepper, and cook at 350 for 30 minutes or until crust is brown. And of course, I added more cheese on top, because why not?

Whatever you do, don’t announce that you’re bringing this to something like, say, your final tennis league round robin and then taste it with your husband when it comes out of the oven and is warm and gooey, because if you do, you will have to bring some cheese and crackers and fruit instead since you will have eaten it all. Hypothetically speaking, of course!

The next time I made this (which was 2 days after the first time because it is so good it hurts) we dolloped goat cheese all over the top and it was AH-mazing. It was for my best friend’s house warming party and I honestly don’t think there is a better way to welcome people into your house then cutting up a piece of this tart and giving it to them.

(Cook’s Note: I did try to get the water out of the zucchini the first time by salting it and letting it sit in a colander for an hour and rinsing it, which I usually do for eggplant and zucchini, but I suspected this was unnecessary and the second tart proved me right when I omitted this step and it was a perfect velvet texture. Just in case you thought about it, I thought I would save you the angst.)

I’m going to layer my next one with tomato/zucchini, just waiting on some tomatoes to turn red. The bottom line is you really can’t mess up something so simple, but you can add whatever you want to it – summer squash, eggplant, all the ingredients for ratatouille – and it will still be amazing. Have fun with it.

So if you have any late summer bounty laying around, you know what to do with it! Just call me when it comes out of the oven and I’ll be right over.

Happy Eating, xoxo Katie

Other Zucchini Recipes I love:

{Tomato and Zucchini Gratin: if you can handle the old blog post pics, this is still my favorite}

{ Zucchini Parmesan from Alexandra Cooks (she has a ton of links on this for more zucchini recipes too).}

{Baked Zucchini Fries: these are next on my list to make! Or these crisps which are a close variation.}

{We make this zucchini salad with pine nuts when we go to Maine every year}

{Ina’s Zucchini Pancakes – my daughter loves these!}

Even as I added these, this tart remains my favorite. No bias here, obviously.

6-Ingredient Zucchini Tart (printer directions here):

1 large zucchini, cut into circles or sliced lengthwise

1 small onion, diced

1 garlic clove, diced

1 sprig of thyme, about 3-4 sticks

1 package puff pastry

2 oz. grated gruyere cheese

Olive oil, salt and pepper (since they are staples, not counting them as ingredients)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Let puff pastry thaw according to package (1 hour at room temperature when fully opened, or overnight in the fridge).

Put saute pan over med-high heat, and add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add onions with a pinch of salt and cook, 3-5 minutes. Add garlic, stir frequently, cook for about 1-2 minutes. Add thyme and pepper, and cook till onions are browned a little, about 5-8 more minutes.

While onions cook, roll out one piece of puff pastry on clean surface with a rolling pin. (One sheet makes 3-4 servings, for 6-8 servings use two sheets and add more cheese).

Add cooked onions in even layer to pastry. Then add gruyere cheese to cover. Finally add zucchini in co-centric layers, and coat with olive oil using a pastry brush. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook for 30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.

Alternate Variations:

// Add dollops of goat cheese to top of tart

// Use tomatoes, summer squash or eggplant in any combination with zucchini

Make Dinner Easier

10 August, 2016/in humbleonion/by Katie

^Dinner a few weeks ago. Techniques used: breading, pan frying, and doing a finishing roast in the oven.

If you heard me last week on the Jen Fulwiler show on Sirius XM talking about making dinner easier, you know that my goal is to make cooking easier and more fun. Since we are getting into the busy season of life again after the lovely slowness of summer, I thought I would recap my pointers for anyone who found me from her show (hi new readers!). I can’t tell you how much I agree with this Julia Child quote:

“To the new generation of cooks who have not grown up in the old traditions: learn the basics and understand what you are doing so cooking can be easier, faster, and more enjoyable. To the more experienced cook: have fun improvising and creating your own versions of traditional dishes.”

I think a lot of people battle with perfectionism in the kitchen and if they aren’t Martha Stewart or Ina Garten, they throw in the towel and think, well I don’t have time to learn so why bother trying? Ergo, it is not on my radar. But the problem with this is any time you have to cook, for your kids or a holiday, it stays a giant chore. Big huge mountain to climb, every time.

No one is born a great cook. You learn one dish at a time. And if you love to learn, it becomes a bright spot in your day because you are learning every time. So I hope you find ways to learn new techniques and grow, little by little, in the kitchen. Here are some things that help me get dinner on. I hope they inspire you!

Note: Before we get into my tips, go to this site and become familiar with these cooking techniques. That way when you spot them in recipes, you can understand them and own them a little bit more.

1. Get a freezer and buy a half or quarter cow of grass fed cow or local half pig. – This is what got me started food blogging, because I wanted to learn how to cook all the cuts of meat. It is so fun to have a Prime Rib in your freezer for Christmas, beef cubes for kebabs in the summer or beef stew in the winter. It gets you connected to seasonal living and celebrations. And I always have tacos or grass fed burgers that I can make in 10-15 minutes. Don’t sweat the cost of the freezer it will pay for itself since ALL the cuts are around /lb.

Living in New England there are lots of opportunities to get other locally raised meat. My husbands cousin lives 20 minutes from us in Southern Maine and his family just decided to raise pigs. So now we have a half pig in the freezer too with ham and the best bacon.

Also – one large piece of meat can stretch into 2-3 meals. Capitalize on that.

2. Have a list of 6-8 dinners you know almost everyone will eat, and keep those ingredients on hand. For me, these flow and change seasonally but our pantry always has the makings for tacos or fajitas, tomato pasta dishes, creamy pasta dishes, slow cooker rice bowls, hamburgers, beef stroganoff, beef stew, a few different soups and chili. They all take between 15-30 minutes. I try to make them early if we have sports.

3. Keep your pantry well stocked. Once you keep these 6-8 meals in mind, it is easier to keep the makings for them in their own place in your pantry or cabinet. If you find you have more time, you can do twists on these, like making enchiladas instead of tacos, or chicken tortilla soup instead of rice bowls.

4. Only try new dishes when you have time on a slow day or on weekends. New recipes keep you connected to learning and novelty. You can add the ones that you love into your rotation of meals. A lot of the recipes on my blog are the ones that we loved during weekends or experiment days and are adding to the regular rotation. But it is stress inducing to have to put dinner on the table and know that what the recipe said would take 20 minutes is taking 40 and everyone is hungry and grabbing marshmallows from the pantry. Don’t put yourself through it.

5. Find stores that will do curb side pick up for groceries or better yet deliver. BJ’s just started doing this. And in our region we have Peapod. We even have a local milk delivery service.

6. Let the grocery store be your sous – chef. I learned this tip from Jacques Pepin is one of my heros, he cooked on Julia Child’s show and is an amazing chef from France. But it is a great tip – look for meat or veggies that are already sliced or marinated, or pick up a rotisserie chicken or produce that has been grilled or prepared. Get a lot of veggies frozen that are ready to cook quickly. They are cheaper and frozen at the hight of their freshness.

Sometimes it can be a bit more expensive but if it saves you 10 minutes at 5 o’clock maybe the 50 cents is worth it? Yesterday I got char-grilled corn that was packaged as kernels for 90 cents. Do you know how much effort and time it would take me to peel, cook, grill, and cut 5 ears of corn?

7. Do what works for you to capitalize on fresh produce. Maybe a CSA makes you happy because its hard to get out of the house then do that. Some seasons I found that much produce stressful to manage and it was going to waste. Maybe you want to get out of the house and do Farmers Markets. I never can because we are so busy on Saturday mornings now. Right now we love having a garden but maybe that is not realistic. But find one way to connect with the seasonal produce and just feel good about doing that.

8. Give yourself a break when you are feeling burnt out without feeling guilty. Ordering pizza costs . We order pizza almost every Friday night for movie night. And we are play/experimenting like grilling or trying a new slow cooked meal one or two nights. So that only leaves 3 nights a week where dinner feels like ‘work’ and then it is not so bad.

9. Think like a kid in the kitchen. If you can look at cooking as playing or having fun, it totally transforms the daily chore into something you might even look forward to. Not every day, To quote her a second time, Julia Childhood said:

“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.”

Kids don’t analyze PlayDoh. They pick it up and start touching it. So pick one recipe that looks good to you and try it. Or try one technique – say making a béchamel or braising fennel. I am amazed at how much you can learn from trying 1 thing, and once you know it, you know it. Cooking becomes easier. And it can really ignite the passion for cooking when you try something new. Even if you make a mistake you learn something. Google how to fix it and you will have acquired a skill.

10. Turn on music when you cook. Everything is more fun when you dance.

Lemon Garlic Shrimp Salad with Arugula and Avocado

3 August, 2016/in humbleonion/by Katie

I could write a big post that is just an ode to the summer salad. We’ve been growing fresh romain and red leaf lettuce in our back yard, and I’ve been making big batches of this homemade Panara Greek Dressing.

But this salad is AH-mazing. Get ready for a flavor blast of lemon, garlic, and feta along with a texture explosion of crunchy radishes and nuts, creamy avocado, and meaty shrimp. You can make this for a party, or you can make it for yourself and halve the recipe. Either way, you’re going to wanna make it. Because its amazing.

I think I was laying by a pool while my kids swam when I dreamed it up. Most likely it was the lingering effects of Tamara Adler and her urge that a salad have something crunchy, creamy, acidic, and oily. Plus I totally crave shrimp in the summer for some reason – it cooks so fast so the kitchen doesn’t get hot and the lighter protein is my jam. If your people don’t love shrimp you can totally substitute two cubed chicken breasts.

I was having lunch with my mom and sister the next day, and had a bottle of my favorite Sancerre and wanted to bring something to go with it.

The garlick-y lemony dressing, and the crunch, not to mention how pretty it is, made us so happy.

I used some of the flavors from the dressing to marinate the shrimp. (A garlic spicy kick on shrimp makes me swoon). I made a marinade from the juice from 1 lemon, 1/2 olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic, 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes and salt and pepper. I put the raw shrimp in a zip lock bag with this and let it sit for a half hour. (You can do longer).

I started the dressing right after since it is very similar, and the longer the garlic hangs out with the lemon the more flavorful it will be so you want to give it some time to mingle. Combine lemon juice, Dijon mustard, minced shallot, 1 small grated (or minced) garlic clove. Let it hang. Go listen to some music.

When you are ready to start the salad, put some sliced almonds (or whole almonds or another favorite nut) in a pan and toast them. For some reason, I feel compelled to toast nuts in my cast iron skillet. It heats them so evenly.

Here is where you can choose your own adventure: I kept feeling like couscous would be a great texture to this salad. But when I assembled it, it looked too pretty to add it! So I served it in a bowl with a bed of couscous underneath and it was amazing. So experiment! Maybe put it under the arugula in a big bowl if you were taking it to a party. Or leave it out. The couscous does such a great job of soaking up the yummy dressing so it is a thumbs up, but the salad is great on its own too.

While everything is marinating and toasting and couscous is (optionally) fluffing up, start slicing your radishes. I can’t get enough radishes these days, so in they went. And I wanted a creamy element, so in went avocados too.

This dish comes together fast, because although there are a lot of steps you can do them at the same time. The only thing that this salad requires one you get past cooking the shrimp is assembly. Yay for some easiness.

Whether you are headed to a big Labor Day bash, or some relaxed get togethers with friends and family, delight everyone and make this. (But even if you eat it at home with Netflix, it’s still pretty great.)

You will thank me when you make this! I promise.

Happy Eating, xoxo Katie

Lemon Garlic Shrimp Salad with Radishes and Arugula (Printer Version Here):

For the Marinaded Shrimp:

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon minced shallot

1 small garlic clove, finely grated

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

½ cup olive oil

½ teaspoon salt

½ lb. raw shrimp, peeled

For the Salad:

2 cups arugula, thinly sliced

1 avocado, sliced lengthwise

1 cup radishes, sliced

½ cup toasted almonds

½ cup crumbled feta (I used low fat)

For the Dressing:

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon minced shallot

1 small garlic clove, finely grated

2 teaspoons chopped parsely

½ teaspoon salt, pinch of black ground pepper

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

If shrimp is frozen, soak in warm water until it is thawed (about 5-10 minutes.) Peel and removed tails. Mix marinade ingredients together, then pour over peeled raw shrimp in a ziplock bag. Let sit in fridge for 30 minutes-4 hours.

Start the dressing by mixing all the ingredients except the olive oil. Let sit to allow flavors to blend.

If serving with couscous, prepare according to package directions.

Toast almonds by pouring into skillet or pan, shaking to evenly distribute in one even layer in pan so they toast evenly. Checking for doneness every few minutes (set a timer if needed) shaking pan to toss and redistribute nuts. Repeat as necessary until toasted. (Note: you can tell when they are done by noticing when there is a toasted nut smell, but the timer is more reliable, which is helpful since they burn easily). Remove from heat when done and let rest until use.

When shrimp is done marinating, heat large pan on medium-high heat. Pour shrimp in pan, give one small sprinkle of salt and pepper, turning after cooking 1-2 minutes or when pink. Let cook for 1-2 minutes on the other side, then transfer to a plate to cool.

Meanwhile, place arugula in large bowl. Slice radishes and scatter around the top. Slice avocado, squeezing with lemon juice to prevent browning, then lay on top of salad. Scatter evenly the feta, nuts, and shrimp around top.

When read to eat, pour dressing evenly over top. Serve immediately.

Why I Love (Cheap) French Wine

30 July, 2016/in humbleonion/by Katie

First, let me start out by saying I am NOT a wine expert. This post is meant to share that as a decidedly NON-wine expert, I have found a few good wines that I am loving and a few reasons why, so I am sharing them in the hopes that you can take it and make it work for you in your (perhaps) non-expert wine drinking moments. (Julie and Henri, this excludes you if you are reading this since you both know more then I ever will).

I wanted to share this because I feel like I found a treasure trove by accident. It is the French wine section at our New Hampshire Liquor Stores.

Wherever you live, find a place that sells good wine, and head on over to the area marked ‘French’ or is broken down by French regions, like ours is. Once you are there, please note the prices.

They are not that bad! Right? Price points from .99 to .99. So this leads us to the first myth about French wines that I want to overturn.

Myth #1: French wines are expensive.

Ok, maybe some are, but I think the anxiety about them comes from the fact that some bottles are sold for a gazillion dollars because they are rare. For 99% percent of us, we will never be faced with the decision to open a ,000 bottle of a 1957 Bordeaux.

But guess what? The 2014 Bordeaux is only .

French people drink wine everyday and still somehow manage to give half of their income to taxes (little joke there) and pay for their homes and food and clothes.They care ALOT about quality and the time-honored traditions of terroir and flavor and cultivation. And they have figured out economical ways to make them.

Myth #2: French Wines are complicated.

I thought they were. Until I realized you can just fall in love with a region – or even a town – and every bottle from there will be delicious. French people care so much about the soil grapes were grown in that they got very specific about it, and started naming their wines after each town or region it was grown in. But start small and just pick one region and try some to and see if you like it.

My current favorite is Médoc. I learned about it from the (much better) food blog Manger.

Two quick travel stories from this year that I will share with you about Médoc wines:

First, When my husband took me to the AMAZING restaurant Primo in Maine for my 40th birthday dinner, we looked at a menu by a James Beard awarding chef, and an equally impressive wine list. I was overwhelmed by everything, of course. When I looked down the list of wines, I saw one from Médoc that was the cheapest one on the menu (!) at around . We were willing to splurge, but I knew from shopping at my local wine store that all the Médoc wines were delicious, and I wanted to do justice to the amazing food we were about to eat. So we ordered it and it was Heaven. Such a relief at such a big moment to love the wine you chose.

Second, when we went out to eat with a huge group to a steak house in the Outer Banks with my husband’s college friends, I spotted a Médoc wine that was again the cheapest bottle on the list, I think it was (hello dirt cheap for a steak house). I went to order it for our end of the table. The rest of the table followed suit and they ordered 3 bottles for everyone.

No pressure.

When it came, it was delicious. Sigh of relief and happy people all around.

Myth #3: All wines contain natural sugar.

When we traveled in France last summer, you might recall that I was reading a ton of food memoirs throughout our trip. I learned from Ruth Reichl’s book Comfort Me with Apples that Americans prefer sweet wine, so some wine makers dump extra sugar into the wine that sells in the US.

This little factoid is what made me turn to the French wines. I don’t believe in being a wine snob, or a food snob, but now that I taste a lot of the grocery store wines, all I can taste is the sugar.

Myth #4: A Sauvignon Blanc from France tastes the same as one from California.

Nope. The best thing my wine-savvy sister taught me is to take a wine, such as a Sauvignon Blanc or Cabernet Sauvignon, and buy one from a few different places. Italy, France, California, New Zealand, South America. Then taste them to see where you like them grown the best. Throw a wine party and taste them to see which ones you (and your friends) like.

Turns out a Sauvignon Blanc grown in France has many names. There is the Pouilly-Fumé, which Julia Child wrote about in My Life in France (favorite food memoir of all time). She also demystified the Pouilly-Fusse, since it is the French name for Chardonnay. Along with the Pouilly-Fumé however there is the Sancerre.

I love it. Not all of them are created equal though – since we have returned from France I have tried all of them and this one is my favorite bottle, ringing in at .99 but is a whole lot of goodness for that price. I just brought over a bottle today for lunch with my mom and sister and we all loved it.

To learn more about the Sancerre check out this (far more knowledgeable) wine person.

I have to mention one other winemaker from Médoc that have truly made some special evenings with friends and other celebrations. It is the Michael Lynch winery, and their reds and their white Graves have been so outstanding.

To learn more (and memorize their labels my friend! If you see them you are in good hands), check out this website.

Favorite Wine Recipes

I really love cooking with wine. Here are some of my favorite recipes – try them on your next adventurous cooking night.

Ina Garten’s Beef Bourguigon – Ina loves using Cote du Rhone in her cooking.
Chicken Fricasse – this recipe has me over the moon. I love it so.
Jacques Pepin’s Red Wine Beef Stew – favorite Christmas Eve dish ever.
Red Wine Braised Short Ribs – I love these so. Honorable mention for Pale Ale Braised Short Ribs.

Ok, happy eating (and drinking!) friends.

xoxo Katie

Mediterranean Stuffed Chicken Breasts

20 July, 2016/in humbleonion/by Katie

You guys! These Mediterranean stuffed chicken breasts are amazing! I am seriously drooling looking at the picture because they were so yummy. I just made them last week and I think I need to make them again tomorrow.

I love stuffing anything – chicken breasts, pork chops, zucchini boats. It is just a great way to take something boring and make it sparkle a wee bit. (Sorry, I’ve been watching too much Outlander). The options are truly endless for what to stuff them with – gouda/bacon/breadcrumbs? (super good in pork chops), sautéd veggies/kale/parm?, olives/mushrooms/fontina? But I seriously love these Mediterranean flavors. I first made it for my husband who loves sun-dried tomatoes and spinach. And my love of feta knows no bounds. So it was pretty easy to combine them.

When I first split the breasts open, I tenderize them with a meat hammer (free therapy). This makes the meat so tender and wonderful. Then I fill it with the flavorful stuffing, and I use a few toothpicks to close it, trying to lay them sideways so it cooks evenly.

One you have done this, the rest is so simple. Just heat olive oil in a pan, and sear on each side, about 4 minutes a side. Then you pop it in your preheated oven at 425, and let it finish cooking. The result:

Seriously, if you can crank your AC or find a day that is less then 90 degrees, put this on your meal plan for next week. You (and whoever else is at your dinner table) will thank me.

Happy Eating! xoxo Katie

Mediterranean Stuffed Chicken Breasts (printer version here):

Ingredients:

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced open and pounded thin

4 T. olive oil, divided

1 onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, diced

1 10 oz. package of spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess water

1 cup (about 14) sun dried tomatoes, diced

4 oz. feta cheese

Salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425.

Heat oil in pan on medium heat, then add onions with a pinch of salt. Saute for 3-5 min until soft, then add garlic. Cook for one minute, then add spinach and sun dried tomatoes, along with 1 t. Salt and ½ t. pepper. Cook together for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until tomatoes become soft and ingredients are well combined.

Lightly season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Open up and spoon about ½ cup of spinach filling into each, then add about ¼ cup of feta. Close using 3-4 tooth picks.
Heat pan (lightly wiping out spinach mixture if using same pan) with remaining 2 T. olive oil on high heat. Place stuffed chicken breasts in when pan is hot, searing for about 4 minutes each side. Place in oven and cook for additional 6-8 minutes until cooked through.

Terra Firma

18 July, 2016/0 Comments/in Writing/by Katie

There is a man who walks around my neighborhood every day, the grandfather of two children who go to school with my kids. He is stout, balding, with curly white hair and a little dog who looks like he is dancing on his tip toes as they move, a contrast in big and solid vs. tiny and nimble.

He recognizes my car now, the one that I use to chauffeur four kids to lacrosse and baseball and skiing. And every time we pass, he gives a wave, a thrust of his arm that is part salut, part friendly greeting. Something about the way he does this is so encouraging. So life-affirming. It reveals some inner strength or hope that he possesses. He seems happy to see us. When he passed in the street while my kids are playing in the yard, he tells them the dog’s name. “Reee-chhhard” he says in a thick Russian accent. The dogs name is Richard. So we shout, ‘Hi Richard!’ when we pass them.

The other day when I was running, and they walked toward me. I stopped. “The dog is Richard, but what what is your name?” I asked.

“Vitale” he answers. A good name, one that sounds like “Veee-tah-ly” when he says it. Then he walks away with his wave, the one that makes me so happy.

It think it makes me happy because Vitale’s wave is one small sign of goodness that makes up our days, and more and more, as world events and doctors appointments and relationships hold so much uncertainty, I am holding fast to these small gestures. These small pebbles of community that, when we zoom the lens out, start to make something that resembles goodness.

What I want – what my heart and my head want – is to stand on solid ground that feels like concrete. For the bad news that keeps popping up on my phone to stop long enough to enjoy a summer afternoon, to be able to enjoy a retreat with out the re-entry to life being so heavy with grief. For my son’s NF-1 to just have smooth sailing instead of tests and questions and more tests and vague news that could be bad or it could be fine, only time will tell. For the world around me to dispense justice easily and readily, instead of painfully, slowly and insufficiently. For relationships to always bring out the best in each other. I want to stand on terra firma. I want Heaven to just be here already.

But people are broken. They make horrible, heartbreaking mistakes that hurt others unspeakably. And though people rightly feel angry about events, I can’t help but think that if our response to events divide us further, then the hate is winning. If our response is to judge others, love is losing. And when all we can see are the wounds, we miss the goodness getting in through the cracks. Around the boulders of hate and violence. I can’t help but see people make small gestures that reveal an innate goodness. Maybe it’s just a wave. Maybe it’s the way strangers smile at my children. These small acts are tiny, but they are helping me.

When all we pay attention to are the headlines and what the news gives us, we miss what’s happening right where we are. We definitely miss the good stuff, because the news doesn’t report that. When we go to church and see the same families week after week, like the family who, when life gave them a special needs child to adopt after having two boys of their own, said yes, even though they have shared that it was hard and scary. Every Sunday news crews could come down and see the brothers dote on their tiny sister with Down Syndrome whose smile lights up the whole church. When a friend’s child faced surgery recently and our community rallied around them, no news cameras were rolling and no journalists covered it.

There is such a goodness in our communities. A faithfulness.

My own faith is strengthened by the faithfulness of others. It is a kind of terra firma all its own.

I am learning that life will not deliver the certainty my head and my heart want. But faith will. The belief in each of us having a goodness that shines out when we look for it. When events happen to make us doubt this, we have to remove the doubt. Remove the anger and revenge and hard-heartedness that can bring us to a level where we become like the thing we hate. We need to keep finding the good and reaching out. Even if the rubble from the last heartbreak, the last sad headline, is blocking our view.

We can pour our worry and sadness towards our community, and find a way to build it up. Lend our faithfulness to each other with one nod, one smile, one wave hello at a time.

Shrimp Ceviche

14 July, 2016/in humbleonion/by Katie

Is there anything better to eat on a hot summer night then ceviche?

The first time I ever tasted ceviche was on my Honeymoon in Aruba, and I have been in love ever since (both with the dish and my husband).

I went to a tapas party last night, and decided to make ceviche because holy humidity. When I got there, it was the most amazing spread, filled with families from all over the globe, and the best food I have ever eaten. Rice and beans with octopus and mussels, garbanzo beans with spinach and buttered bread crumbs, stuffed fried sardines, manchego and olives and dates, spicy cheese fondu-type dips with cubes of bread, something amazing and creamy with chicken and mushrooms that was supposed to go into a tortilla but I ate it without and it was delicious, and flan for dessert. Plus there was plenty of Spanish wine and sangria. Can we discuss the amazing flavor of peach sangria? It tastes like a glass full of sunshine and fresh sweet peach flavor. There are a ton of recipes for this (this one looks amazing with rasperries), but what made it was the peaches were diced very fine, so they swirled in your mouth and infused flavor into every sip.

It was such a magical night, and as I left and went to my car, the stars were so bright, and the half moon echoed their glow, the heat of the day had turned into one of those sweet summer breezes that feel like a kiss from summer.

Usually, ceviche is made with raw fish that gets cooked in the acids of the citrus juices it is tossed with. (Mind blown, right?) I love it too, but I also love shrimp which can sit around in my freezer until I am ready to make this, unlike fresh fish ceviche. It also uses a lot of the same ingredients as gazpacho, my other favorite summer heat buster (there was so many amazing gazpachos last night too.)

I actually just ordered this on vacation and I was so excited to eat it when it came to the table. And it turned out just…meh. So when I went to make it for tapas, I turned to the recipe at Simply Recipes since I trust everything Elise makes, though I tweaked it with my own touches, like using the less spicy jalapeño rather then serrano chili so my kids could eat it, adding garlic (which I loved) and since I only had parsley I substituted that for cilantro and it tasted great, very fresh. Often at parties there are people who don’t love cilantro, so it is good to know you can make it with either herb.

Hope you are staying cool, having a lovely summer, and plenty of delicious summer dishes. Or just some cucs and cheese and bread, which is the best kind of summer eating.

xoxo Katie

Shrimp Ceviche Recipe (printer version found here):

Ingredients

1 pound medium-small shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 Tbsp salt
3/4 cup lime juice (juice from 4-6 limes)
3/4 cup lemon juice (juice from 2-3 lemons)
1 cup finely chopped red onion
2 garlic cloves, diced
1 jalapeño, diced
1 cup chopped cilantro or parsley
1 cucumber, peeled diced into 1/2-inch pieces
1 avocado, peeled, seed removed, cut into 1/2-inch chunks

Directions

1 In a large pot, bring to a boil water salted like pasta water. Add the shrimp and cook for 1 minute to 2 minutes. Remove shrimp with a slotted spoon and place into a bowl of ice water to stop cooking.(You can also defrost a bag of cooked shrimp if it is too hot in your kitchen, but I recommend cooking them yourself).

2 Drain the shrimp. Cut each piece of shrimp in half, or into inch-long pieces. Place shrimp in a glass or ceramic bowl. Mix in the lime and lemon juice. Cover and refrigerate for a half hour.

3 Mix in the chopped red onion, garlic, and jalapeño. Refrigerate an additional half hour.

4 Right before serving, add the cucumber and avocado. Add olive oil and more lemon or lime to taste, depending on if it is too acidic or not enough. (I loved it with 1-2 T. of olive oil, it seemed to meld all the flavors).

Adapted from Simply Recipes.