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!