​I wanted to share with you a short vacation my husband and I took at the beginning of June. We decided to visit Boston to see an old friend of mine who used to live at the Jersey shore, tour the city and take in a baseball game at Fenway Park. 
 
My friend’s daughter went to college in Boston and remained there after graduation. Although my friend drove a few times by herself to Boston, she decided to take AMTRAK from Metropark Station in New Jersey to Boston. I convinced my husband to give it a try and he agreed. We booked a trip from Friday to Monday leaving at approximately 9 in the morning. We selected two aisle, business class seats to allow for extra leg room and assigned seats.
 
We arrived at the station and found our car. The car was comfortable and spacious. The trip took approximately 5 hours, but we arrived relaxed and my husband wasn’t exhausted from driving.

I am friendly with my former coworkers at a local school. Two of my friends still work at the school were lamenting that the new school year begins in a mere three weeks. How can it be that summer is almost over? In fact, my husband was asking me when I was going to start making my fresh tomato sauce.
 
During the summer months, most of my produce comes from two sources either Dreyer Farms in Cranford or Matt’s Farm Market in West Belmar. As I have mentioned before, the tomatoes, peaches and corn have been outstanding. In a recent CSA box, I received a container of cherry tomatoes. Luckily for me I had the perfect recipe from The New York Times/NYT Cooking for Lemon and Garlic Chicken with Cherry Tomatoes. The recipe, by Martha Rose Shulman, calls for extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice, fresh garlic, fresh rosemary, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, boneless and skinless chicken breasts, dry white wine, cherry tomatoes, sugar, all-purpose flour, a neutral oil, fresh parsley.  Parmesan cheese is optional.

It’s been a busy start to July as our daughter and her family were here for the week, followed by playing catch up after they left. The weather this summer has been unbearably humid and hot; so, who feels like cooking. My husband likes a “cold supper” in the summer, which means I have to cook it earlier in the day so that we can enjoy it chilled for supper. However, I had in my possession from last May a recipe by Steven Raichlen for Shrimp a La Plancha. For this simple, tasty recipe you’ll need shrimp, extra-virgin olive oil (preferably Spanish), minced flat leaf parsley, fresh garlic, pimentón (optional), coarse sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, either brandy or sherry and lemon wedges.
 
Pimentón is a type of paprika used in Spanish cooking and comes in several varieties such as sweet, spicy, smoked and combination. I substituted smoked paprika.

The title of this week’s blog post is credited to Aristotle. I am most happy when I have a list of things to do each day and can cross them off when accomplished. Sitting still isn’t something that comes easy to me. I find cooking relaxing and very enjoyable. From the search for the right recipe, sourcing needed ingredients and a review of how the dish came out is satisfaction for me.
 
Such was the case with Melissa Clark’s recipe for Roasted Asparagus with Crispy Leeks and Capers. In all honesty, I did adjust Ms. Clark’s recipe by using spring onions from my CSA box in place of leeks. Besides the ingredients named in the recipe title you’ll also need extra-virgin olive oil, kosher salt, black pepper, drained capers, lemon wedges, fresh parsley, Dijon mustard and fresh garlic.

My husband loves both stir fry meals and meatloaf. I have made my fair share of meatloaves and shared the results on this website. I recently started listening to a podcast called “The Recipe,” hosted by recipe developers/food bloggers/cookbook writers Deb Perelman and J. Kenji Alt-Lopez. Ms. Perelman has a blog called “Smitten Kitchen” and  you can find Mr. Alt-Lopez’s recipes on the website “Serious Eats,” his YouTube channel and The New York Times/NYT Cooking (both are paid subscriptions).
 
In a podcast posted in March of this year, Deb and Kenji had a discussion about meat loaf. In the podcast notes, a link was given for her recipe for Turkey Meat Loaf for Skeptics. Two things that drew me to this recipe was the fact that it used ground turkey and vegetables that infuse both flavor and moisture to the meat. For the recipe you’ll need a yellow onion, a garlic clove, a carrot, olive oil, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, panko-style bread crumbs, chicken broth, tomato paste, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, fresh flat-leaf parsley, an egg and one pound ground turkey (light and dark meat or just dark meat).  There’s also a glaze for the turkey that consists of ketchup, molasses, apple-cider vinegar, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.

​I’ve been trying to write this latest blog post for over a week. I was unexpectedly called upon to babysit my grandson, who was home from daycare for a few days, and preparing for an upcoming family reunion that my entire family will attend.
 
I love bread in all forms, chewy and crusty or warm biscuits from the oven. Recently in The New York Times, contributing food writer, Eric Kim, came across the irresistible Buttermilk Sugar Biscuits from Briana Holt of Tandem Coffee + Bakery in Portland, Maine. The recipe is on The New York Times website NYTCooking, where Eric has both the recipe and video on the process. Some of the tips he offered to replicate the same outcome as the bakery was to shave cold butter with a microplane; then chill it in the freezer for ten minutes. He also demonstrated how the dough is folded over to create the flakey layers.
 
For the recipe you’ll need unsalted butter, all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, kosher salt and cold buttermilk. Using a wooden spoon, I tossed the butter with the flour making sure it was evenly coated and not clumped together. The buttermilk is mixed in two steps to evenly hydrate the flour. To make the dough come together, there are specific, yet easy to follow steps. The process involves placing the loose dough on a floured surface, pressing the crumbs together and using a bench scraper to fold the dough over 5 times and rolling after each fold. You can view Briana Holt’s video or Eric Kim’s on YouTube for free.

I’m just getting under the wire for Valentine’s Day recipes. Luckily, the ones I’ve made that I recently made take very little time and a bit of shopping.
 
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and what better way to start off the morning than with an easy to prepare Dutch Baby pancake.  You could make the batter the night before and remix Wednesday morning while you’re preheating the oven.  For this recipe you’ll need eggs, flour, milk, granulated sugar, nutmeg, unsalted butter and to bring it over the top, Woodford Reserve Bourbon cherries. I ordered mine from Walmart, but discovered that Total Wine in Eatontown, NJ as well as Amazon carries it. Contact or visit your favorite liquor store to see if they carry them.
 
The batter goes into a preheated oven proof pan (I used a cast iron fry pan) for 15-20 minutes. Before serving I dusted the pancake with powdered sugar and several cherries with bourbon syrup, delicious!

This past weekend we finally celebrated both my and my son’s January birthday. My son requested dark chocolate chips with sea salt. After a bit of internet searching, I found a recipe on “Smitten Kitchen” website for Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies. For the recipe you’ll need unsalted butter, granulated sugar, turbinado (Sugar in the Raw), light or dark brown sugar, an egg, vanilla extract, fine sea salt or table salt, all-purpose flour, semi- or bittersweet chocolate and flaky sea salt to finish.
 
All the ingredients are mixed in a large bowl beginning by creaming the butter and sugars. Next in are the wet ingredients, egg and vanilla. Salt and baking soda follow with the flour last. I used Ghirardelli’s Premium Baking Bar Bittersweet Chocolate 60% Cacao that I chopped into small chunks and mixed in by hand. I used a scooped that was roughly 1-1/2 tablespoons to form the cookies. I flattened them slightly so that the Fleur del Sel salt would not slide off and baked them for approximately 11 to 12 minutes. ​

Recently I’ve prepared some familiar recipes, but different versions. My last soup for the month of January was a Lentil Soup with Pasta, Bacon and Garlic by Marcella Hazan. Ms. Hazan was born in a fishing village on the Adriatic in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Her recipe is made with extra-virgin olive oil, chopped bacon, onion, garlic, celery, parsley, fresh ripe tomato, lentils, salt, pepper, short tubular pasta and Romano cheese.
 
Unlike the lentil soup with fennel and sun-dried tomatoes recipe which is on my website, this version uses a minimal amount of ingredients, but is very flavorful.  You’ll notice that the recipe calls for bacon, not pancetta or guanciale. The bacon is cooked in olive oil along with the onion, garlic, celery and parsley until a rich brown color. Then the tomato is added and cooked for a few minutes before adding the lentils and enough water covering the lentils by 1-inch. The soup simmers for 25 to 30 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Lastly, pasta is added along with salt and freshly ground pepper and cooked until the pasta is al dente. The soup should be on the thick side rather than thin. To finish the soup, adjust the seasonings and add grated cheese and some olive oil.