Weekend Cooking: Dinner at My House

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

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If you can believe it, this is my 301st Weekend Cooking post! I kind of wish I had known last week was 300, because I might have celebrated or something!

Anyway, for the first time ever I was at a loss of what to post today. So I did what any normal person would do--I asked Twitter. I got a number of great suggestions (which I'll use in the future) and decided to go with dinner at my house last night. So here we go.

I started cooking at 5:33 pm. I had five large peaches left over from the farmers market and thought I should make a peach crisp. OK, so really I wasn't planning on baking, but because I was documenting the meal, I felt compelled (I'm kind of an overachiever). I used my standard recipe, which you'll find by clicking the link.

Next, I had some beautiful heirloom tomatoes, a cucumber, and a couple of carrots, which were crying out to be some kind of salad. I ended up using only the tomatoes: I sliced them, drizzled some olive oil and balsamic vinegar on them, sprinkled them with pepper, and then grated some ricotta salada cheese on the top. Yum. And pretty.

Finally, we grilled lamb chops and zucchini. I've used a variety of seasonings on lamb chops over the years, and our current favorite is the salt-free Cajun seasoning mix from Penzey's, which I used last night. We grill the chops at about 400F for 6 minutes on the first side and 5 minutes on the second side for a perfect medium rare. I simply sliced the squash in half, brushed it with a vinaigrette, and grilled it exactly like the meat.

We were eating dinner on the deck, with a nice glass of red wine before 7:00. We'll dish out the peach crisp a little later in the evening (after I've already written this), and will likely make a pot of coffee to go with it. I kind of wish we had vanilla ice cream in the house, but alas we don't.

All in all this was an easy summer dinner that I managed to pull off after a full day of work. Of course, I didn't have time to take a walk last night and I do work from home, but still, I didn't feel rushed or put upon, and the evening on the deck was lovely. It didn't hurt that grilling means cleanup was super easy.

If Mr. Linky is gone (there are some issues today), just leave your link in the comments and I'll add it to the linkup when it returns.

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Review: Two Piper Green Books by Ellen Potter

Although I really enjoy reading middle grade books, I rarely read anything geared for a younger audience, but there was something about Ellen Potter's Piper Green series was just too cute to pass up. The first two books, running about 100 pages each, were published this week.

Piper Green and the Fairy Tree introduces us to young Piper on the morning she's starting second grade. Her school is likely very different from the one you went to. You see, Piper lives on a small island off the coast of Maine, and the handful of elementary-school kids who live there must ride a lobster boat every day to a nearby island, where the schoolhouse is located.

On this day, Piper is distressed because her older brother has had to move to the mainland because there is no middle school on the islands, and she misses him a lot. Then when she gets to school, she learns there's a new second-grade teacher, and she and Piper get off on the wrong foot. Fortunately, with the help of an elderly neighbor, Piper discovers there's a special tree right in her own front yard and realizes that change is not always a bad thing.

In Piper Green and the Fairy Tree: Too Much Luck, Piper learns that sometimes there can be too much a good thing. All in one morning her bedroom is painted her favorite color, she finds a perfect strawberry, she gets to eat a cinnamon roll for breakfast, and her wiggly front tooth finally falls out. Her friend Jacob is a bit worried, however: too much luck means something unlucky is about to happen, and sure enough, things soon start going downhill, beginning with Camilla, the new girl in her class. Can Piper find a way to turn her luck around?

Ellen Potter created a wonderful character in the spunky, outspoken Piper Green. She is mischievous, has an active imagination, loves her family, is a good friend, and can make mistakes--just like a regular little girl. Young readers, especially girls, will want to be her friend and will wish they had a fairy tree in their own yards.

I have a weakness for books set in Maine, especially along the ocean, so I knew I'd be easily hooked. But anyone who loves the rugged Atlantic coast will appreciate that Potter has the details of island life just right. Lobstering is the principal profession, and the schoolgirls consider life jackets to be a fashion item.

The Piper Green stories are early chapter books, but they are nonetheless charmingly illustrated by Qin Leng. In the scan I've included here, Piper and her best friend, Ruby, are jumping for joy over Piper's good luck. The boy under the slide is pretending to be in jail; don't you love the look on his face as he watches the girls (click image to enlarge). The black-and-white drawings are surrounded by a rope border, which ties the pictures into the boating life of the Maine coast. Oh and don't miss the maps of the islands at the beginning of the books.

I wholeheartedly encourage you to read Ellen Potter's Piper Green books yourself and with your children. Although there are messages about being a good friend and about making the best of things when you're sad, most kids and adults are going to love Piper Green and the Fairy Tree and Piper Green and the Fairy Tree: Too Much Luck because of the fun stories, great characters, and cute illustrations. Put these on your buy list.

Published by Random House Children's Books / Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2015
ISBN-13: 97808553499230 and 97880553499278
Source: Review (eGalley) (see review policy)
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy)

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Wordless Wednesday 353

Marigold, 2015

Click image to enlarge. For more Wordless Wednesday, click here.

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Review: Fables 22: Farewell by Bill Willingham

Oh my, what to say about the final volume of the Fables series? Fables 22: Farewell by Bill Willingham) is a collection of "final stories," illustrated by Mark Buckingham and a host of other artists, which conclude some story arcs and leave others in a satisfying place.

The chapters within this volume range from a single page to several, and there are at least two prose (non-illustrated) segments as well. I particularly liked the stories about the Wolf family (Bigby, Snow, and the cubs), the Lady in the Lake, Rose Red, and King Cole. We get a peek into the distant future and learn what will become of the characters and their families . . . kind of.

I say kind of because some of the story arcs end right at a moment of transition, meaning that Willingham has shown us the characters' paths but is not leading us down them. It's up to us to figure out what may happen next. In other cases, we are given something more definitive (deaths, happily ever afters).

In general, I liked Farewell. I'm okay with some ambiguity, and I don't think the Fables universe will ever be fully at peace or at rest. I'm not so sure what I think about the integration of the mundy world (I don't want to say more for fear of spoilers), but I can live with it.

I thought it was fun that all the Fables artists had a chance to add to this final volume, but at the same time I was grateful that Buckingham drew the bulk of the book. I totally understand why so many artists contributed to Farewell, but the variety of styles meant that some of the continuity between stories was lost. Still, all in all the art -- especially the fold-out cover and fold-out end to the final story -- was fabulous. The scan is an example of Buckingham's work.

There a few extras in the back of the book, including notes from Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham, some reproductions of swag, biographies of all the people who worked on the series, plus a key to the fabulous cover.

I'm sad to say good-bye to Fables. I enjoyed the crazy journey and learning about how the Fables characters coped in our world while trying to defeat the enemy who exiled them from their own worlds. It may be the end to main Fables stories, but I'm happy to have a few spin-off volumes left to read.

Good luck to the Fables team in the years to come. I can't wait to see what else they have to offer us.

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Weekend Cooking: The Kitchen Journal, Summer Cooking

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

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If you follow me on Twitter then you know I'm getting rid of the vast majority of my ridiculously large cookbook collection. I've filled up the back of car with bags and bags of books, but I swear it seems as if I hadn't made a dent. I guess that's what comes out of having well over a thousand (Mr. BFR says more like 1,500) cookbooks. Sigh.

Anyway, there are several reasons I'm culling my collection. Two of the big ones are (1) I need the bookshelf and floor space and (2) I started collecting books before we had the Internet. In the dark ages, books were the primary way to learn about food in other countries, to discover new ingredients, and to find recipes. Now, of course, I can go online.

I still use magazines, though, and they are the source of three winning recipes from this week. I've pinned them all to my Tried and Liked board, so you can find them there, or you can go right to the source by clicking the links. Here I'll share the photos from the magazines and tell you what changes I made (cause I really can't cook without making changes).

We really loved this Honey-Turmeric Pork from Bon Appetit magazine. For this dish you marinate pork in a yogurt sauce before cooking it. The recipe also includes directions for a raw beet and carrot salad. Here's how I made this main dish: Instead of using boneless pork shoulder that's pounded flat, I used thick-cut boneless pork chops, which I cut in half horizontally and did not pound. The marinade calls for regular yogurt, but all I had in the house was Greek, so that's what I used. The directions say to cook the pork in batches in a skillet, but we grilled it outside instead. It was really tasty. Instead of the salad, I roasted carrots, beets, onions, garlic, and some fresh herbs. We will definitely be eating this again.

It's hot outside and that means tomato season! I live for these wonderful weeks of summer when the farmers market baskets are brimming over with beautiful, colorful tomatoes. This Ripe Summer Tomato Gratin with Basil comes from Cooking Light and is the perfect side dish for any grilled dinner. The tomatoes are mixed with fresh herbs and garlic, and seasoned bread crumbs are scattered on top. So easy to put together. The only change I made here was to start with dried bread crumbs, so I skipped the step that tells you to crumble up bread and then toast it in the oven. I just mixed the crumbs with the herbs, oil, and Parmesan cheese instead. This was really good and looked so pretty because I used a variety of tomatoes. We served this with grilled eggplant for a vegetarian meal with a Mediterranean twist, but these tomatoes would be delicious alongside steak or even a burger.

The third winner was a Sicilian Orzo Salad from the Food Network's magazine. This pasta salad was so good, we could barely stop eating it. And it was just as delicious the next day for lunch. This one is full of salty goodness with kalamata olives, sardines, and ricotta salata cheese. The dressing is a very light vinaigrette. I'm sure the recipe is fairly perfect as is, but, well, I made a couple of changes. First, the directions called for only 12 ounces of pasta, but I went ahead and used the whole pound. Next, I added a Hungarian wax pepper to the salad because we like the heat and I had one to use up. The recipe calls for either tuna or sardines and we opted for the sardines, although the tuna would be awesome too. The recipe says to top each serving with the cheese and some pine nuts, but I stirred them both into the entire dish. We'll eat this one again all year round.

We also had a shrimp and fennel salad that was only so-so and a zucchini and goat cheese quiche that had issues with the egg to milk ratio (as in the stupid thing took forever and ever to solidify).

Hope you try one of these dishes and let me know what you think.

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