Beginning of Summer Cooking at the Cabin

This dinner was pretty much based around a recipe for Cilantro-Scallion Bread from the July 2011 Bon Appetit.

The filling is made with lots of finely chopped cilantro and scallions mixed with sesame seeds and olive oil

The mixture is spread on the rolled-out dough

The dough is then rolled up and sliced to make swirls, the same way as making cinnamon rolls



We wanted to make something with beef because Ian and Jeanette have lots in their freezer, so we decided to marinate some rib-eye steaks in a Chimichurri Marinade from the July 2011 Bon Appetit, and serve more of the sauce with the cooked meat.

Even though we didn't end up having a lot of time for the meat to marinate, it was very flavorful, especially with the extra sauce spooned on top!

As a salad/side dish, we had Tuscan Kale Caesar Slaw, also from the July 2011 Bon Appetit. We used Kale from Ian and Jeanette's garden, as well as some from the garden at Cornerstone.

The hard-boiled egg is incorporated into the slaw in a way that neither of us had seen before, which was to press it through a strainer. This resulted in little crumb-like pieces, allowing you to have some egg in nearly every bite! We used a duck egg laid by one of Ian and Jeanette's ducks!

That was everything we had planned to make, but we finished sooner than we thought we would, and it seemed like we could use something with color other than green in the meal...so we decided to add a Carrot, Cilantro, and Chile Slaw (from the same magazine) that Jeanette happened to have pretty much all the ingredients for. It was a nice addition to the meal, adding color and a fresh crunchiness, but also complimenting the other elements' fresh and herb-y flavors!

We adapted a recipe for Vanilla Bean Cheesecake Tartlets with Roasted Rhubarb from the March 2011 Bon Appetit magazine for dessert.

Instead of making individual tartlets, we made one big tart in a deep-dish tart/quiche pan

The filling is much lighter than a typical cheesecake - after the crust is baked and cooled, the filling is made with whipped creme fraiche (we used raw that Jeanette had made) and cream folded into a mixture of cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla bean. Instead of the roasted rhubarb topping, we made a simple cherry sauce with some maple syrup and vanilla to pour on top. The crust was nice and thick since we made it all in one large pan, and the cherry sauce was a nice compliment to the cheesecake!

After eating dessert, we started a batter for Yeasted Waffles from Tasty Kitchen that we made the next morning for breakfast.

After sitting overnight, the only thing to be done in the morning is to add the baking soda and eggs to the batter, and then cook the waffles! They came out pretty thin, but were light and crispy, and the slightly sour yeasty flavor was a nice contrast to the sweetness of the maple syrup and whipped cream.

Wesley woke up just in time for breakfast, and enjoyed licking the whipped cream bowl clean!

Cooking at Cornerstone Again

This time around, we did not get very many pictures at all, especially for dinner/dessert - there is always much more going on when we are cooking here, with extra people and kids, etc.  Because of that, we are not thinking as much about taking pictures, and that makes it more difficult to take time to try and get good photos.  But we still had delicious food!

Natalie cooked mutton for us again--she braised it in wine, carrots, onions, and celery.

We made a salad based on the Little Gem, Feta, and Cumin Salad in the July 2011 Bon Appetit.  The dressing was delicious, made with greek yogurt, feta cheese, and cumin, and we used a mixture of salad greens from both Cornerstone and Ian and Jeanette's garden.  We also added freshly picked radishes, which added beautiful color, as well as a little spice and crunch.

Now on to side dishes...we'll start with Cheese-Stuffed Portobellos from the June 2011 Food Network Magazine.

These had so much stuffing in them (and there was still some left-over after piling it on really high) that no one realized they were mushrooms until we told them!  We used spinach from the garden in the filling, and omitted the celery salad the recipe suggests to serve on the side.

Next we made hasselback potatoes - the potatoes are sliced thinly, but not all the way through, filled with thin slices of garlic here and there, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with rosemary (from the garden), and baked at a high temperature until they're cooked through and crispy on the outside.



The final side dish for this meal was Spinach Gunge from the June 2011 Bon Appetit.  It takes a lot of spinach, but is a pretty simple dish made with creme fraiche, Pecorino cheese, and dijon mustard.

We decided to eat dinner on the second story of the 'barn'

Lauren also made her first loaf of sourdough bread using a starter and instruction from their intern/roommate Andrew, who ate dinner with us as well.

Frozen Key Lime Pie from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Family Style cookbook was for dessert.  We weren't able to make it as much in advance as we should have, so it wasn't too frozen yet when we ate it, but it still tasted good!  We stayed in the barn for dessert, and then started a game of Rats, which was later moved into the house.

The next morning, which was Lauren's birthday, we made Fresh Peach Cake from the June 2011 Food Network Magazine for breakfast.

The cake batter is layered with sliced peaches and cinnamon sugar, and then topped with chopped pecans

It took longer to bake than the recipe said, but we made it in a slightly smaller pan than it called for

It smelled so good while it was in the oven, and turned out great!  The cake was moist and fluffy, and the peach juices and cinnamon sugar seeped into it, giving it great flavor.

Now that the weather is finally warming up, there are lots of things growing, so we have a lot more farm-fresh ingredients to use!  We better get cooking!