Popovers

I love popovers. They are soooo easy, tasty and far more interesting than any roll ever could be.  The only bummer is you need a special pan but it is worth the investment and hassle.

I used a recipe out of the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook,but I think pretty much all popover recipes are the same for the most part.

I usually make these for a special occasion, but after being reminded how delicious and easy they are I think I'll bring them into the regular rotation.

Sunomono

I love to order sunomono when we go out to Japanese, but it when I see the $3.50+ price on the menu I always think to myself I should make this at home.  In truth, I've tried a number of times.  My mother-in-law makes it all the time and has casually rattled off the recipe to me a number of times but I could never replicate it accurately - did I mention she is Japanese so I think its in her blood. :)

I got these great Japanese cucumbers from Amazon Fresh the other day and they inspired me to give it another try.  I found this recipe for sunomono and followed it exactly except I didn't use any daikon.  It turned out great!

Beet Salad

My friend Ripley makes this amazing beet salad. He gave me the recipe but it took me four, yes four, times to finally make it work. The problem was getting the beets to cook through. His recipe said to bake them, but boiling them is best I later learned and it takes 45-60 minutes to really get them soft depending on the size.

Here is the Barefoot Contessa version of this salad. She calls for canned beets (bleh!!), please use fresh ones. You can use any color beet but I find the red ones a bit strong but the color is really nice in the salad - ideally you'd use a mix of colors. You can also add feta or goat cheese and I had this salad at Pasta & Co. the other day with blue cheese and walnuts which was also good. I also put orange wedges in this salad too which is a nice variety of color and texture.

Sticky Buns

I decided to tackle the Sticky Buns recipe in the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook for Easter at the Pannoni's. They turned out great but they were A TON of work. It called for Danish Pastry and I was excited to try my hand at it, but it took pretty much all day to make - not much active time but 8 hours of total time.

I am glad I tried making them, but really doubt I will make them ever again.

Sole-Wrapped Asparagus with Tangerine Beurre Blanc

Well, I am back. Nearly 8 weeks ago I had my adorable son, Roark. He is a good baby, but nonetheless I've had my hands full and haven't had much time for cooking of late, but this week I started back at it. It feels good - I missed it!

We had some left over Dover sole (don't know if it was real Dover sole and when the Count asked the fishmonger at WF she looked at him like he had three eyes...sigh) and with this being asparagus season, I got on Epicurious to see what easy recipe I could find that would only require ingredients I already had on had. What a gem I found, sole wrapped asparagus with tangerine beurre blanc. Don't be fooled by it's fancy name - this was easy and delicious.

Truthfully, I didn't follow the instructions on the sauce. I reduced down the orange juice (didn't have tangerines) and added the drippings and shallots from the fish pan and then added a bit of butter but not nearly the amount the recipe called for (still have 8 more baby lbs to lose!!) and it was delicious. This is easy enough to be a weeknight meal but looks fancy enough to serve for a dinner party. Also, this isn't a particularly fishy dish so it's safe to serve to those that aren't huge seafood fans.

Pignoli Cookies

I am really into pine nuts right now - not sure if this is related to pregnancy or not but recently learned they are a superfood so now I have the perfect excuse to find all sorts of ways to incorporate them into recipes.

One of my favorite pine nut recipes is a Lemon Pine Nut Torta, so when I came across this recipe for pignoli (pine nut) cookies in the Martha Stewart Cook Baking Handbook, I had to give it a try.

They are super easy. They are tasty but strong in almond flavor. I found I ate quite a few the first couple of days but they have been lingering around the house ever since which never happens with cookies around here, so I am not sure what to think...

Graham Crackers

Another Martha Stewart Baking Handbook recipe I decided to try out was her recipe for homemade graham crackers. I think they are pretty tasty and they received raves from a three year old so that really says something!

They were pretty easy - not as easy as buying the Nabisco kind, but good for a special occasion.