Gougères

Last weekend I visited my boyfriend in LA and we decided to make one of our favorite breakfast foods, gougères. Although gougères are typically served as an hot d'oeuvre, my dad always made them for brunch and they've been one of my favorite foods since I was a little kid. Now that I'm older, and have learned to make gougères myself (they're one of those things that I thought was going to be super hard but actually turned out pretty easy), I made a whole batch just for just me and my boyfriend! Yeah, that's a lot of cheese, butter, and eggs for two people. These are seriously so good – crispy, cheesy, and unlike anything else. The recipe comes from a nineties magazine advertisement for Saveur, who in turn got it from the novelist Colette.

GOUGERES

(recipe from Saveur)

1 cup grated gruyere cheese (I typically use Trader Joe's swiss/gruyere blend, but if you can afford it go for the good stuff!)

1 cup water

5 tbsp butter

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

1 cup all-purpose flour

5 large eggs - at room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 425°. Grate the cheese.

2. In a medium-sized saucepan bring the water, butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg to a boil. When butter has melted, remove from heat.

3. Add all the flour to butter/water mixture and beat with a wooden spoon until mixture leaves sides of pan clean.

4. Add cheese and heat until incorporated. Beat in 4 eggs one by one until thoroughly absorbed. Beat until mixture is smooth, shiny and firm.

5. Drop by small spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Beat remaining egg with 1/2 tbsp water, then brush tops of uncooked puffs with egg wash.

6. Bake in upper third of oven for about 20 minutes or until golden and doubled in size. Remove from oven and serve. You'll have about 3 dozen.

Berkeley Afternoon

Last week I grabbed an early dinner with friends at Cheese Board Collective in Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto. The pizza of the day was a delicious sweet corn, zucchini, feta, and onion topped with cilantro pesto. It was soooo good. Right as we sat down to eat a blues band started playing. I felt so happy with my pizza, my friends, and some good music. As the sun started to set we left Cheese Board and I noticed these beautiful Dahlias at the florist's next door. What a lovely day in Berkeley.

September

End of August camping trip to crystal cove

Dahlias from the Farmer's Market

New project – striped scarf!

Amazing show by the Arctic Monkeys

20!

This past weekend I celebrated my 20th birthday with a few good friends. I wanted a casual backyard bbq vibe but with really good food – so we made crostini, grilled lamb chops, carnitas, seared albacore tuna sandwiches, and had my favorite cake from Maison Richard for dessert. We decorated with string lights, white linen, homemade beeswax candles, and gorgeous flowers that my mom and I arranged in vintage jars.

To start we had a tray of little snacks – dried apricots, chocolate-covered raisins, banana chips, Asian peanuts, sesame sticks, olives, white chocolate nuts, and snapea crisps. Then we brought out a cutting board with three crostini – mini versions of some of my favorite sandwiches. The first was smoked salmon with chives and cream cheese. Then we made a faster (no grill) version of the fig sandwiches featured in my last post, with goat brie, honey, black pepper, and figs from the garden. The last sandwich featured mini heirloom tomatoes on ricotta sprinkled with olive oil, salt, and pepper. They were all delicious! We enjoyed the crostini with some blueberry limeade (my dad squeezed 28 limes!). 

The dinner spread was awesome. I made carnitas for the first time (using this recipe) and they turned out really well. The homemade guacamole really stole the show though! We also barbecued our favorite marinated lamb chops and made mini tuna sandwiches – pepper-seared albacore tuna with crispy shallots, arugula, mayonnaise, and ponzu sauce on a toasted mini french roll. For sides we had a mediterranean orzo salad and a green salad with bleu cheese, dried cranberries, and candied walnuts.

The party went very smoothly – I did a lot of planning and prep work so that as soon as the party started my parents could completely take over and I could focus on hanging out with my guests. I loved the way everything turned out, from the food to the flowers and decorations. And I loved having all my close friend and family there to celebrate with me! Special thanks to my parents who I couldn't have done this without. 

In Season: Figs!

We have a little fig tree in the backyard and and the past few days it has just EXPLODED with ripe fruit. I picked a bunch of figs yesterday and wanted to do something with them for lunch. I didn't have all the ingredients for Bon Appétit's Grilled Bruschetta with Teleme, Honey, and Figs (a great recipe that I've had a few times before) so I made this quicker version. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:
Ripe figs
Baguette slices
Soft cheese (I used a strong goat brie and a mild cow brie)
Honey
Black pepper
Olive Oil

Directions:

Brush baguette slices with olive oil and place on grill pan* olive oil side down. Grill until nicely toasted. Flip bread and top with cheese. Once the cheese has melted a little, take the toasts off the grill and top each with one fig slice. Drizzle with honey and sprinkle with black pepper. Serve warm.

*If you don't have a grill pan, you can easily make this on the barbecue (as the Bon Appétit recipe suggests!), in a regular pan, or in the oven (use the broiler).

Beautiful Palm Springs

For Memorial Day Weekend I went to Palm Springs (my first time!) and it was lovely. We rented a house with a pool and the weather stayed at a bearable 90ish degrees. We didn't heat the pool at all, the sun warmed it to the perfect temperature. I woke up every morning to birds singing, and sitting out in the garden I found myself surrounded by gorgeous hummingbirds. An adorable rabbit ran around the yard one afternoon. We put together some fast and delicious meals - guacamole, watermelon, and popsicles for snacking, lamb for dinner - and played games. Overall it was a lovely, relaxing weekend. I miss the view - mountains that looked like a giant wall of rock - and the birds. 

Guacamole:

Mash 2 ripe avocados with a mortar and pestle or the back of a spoon. Add the juice from ~1 lime. Add salt to taste. Optional: add a few sprigs of chopped fresh cilantro and about a quarter or an onion, chopped. Serve fresh with tortilla chips.

Breaded Chicken

Ever since I discovered this method of making chicken, I've been eating these about once a week. Breaded fried chicken is super fast, simple, and can go with almost anything.

Here's what you need:
2 thawed frozen chicken tenderloins per person (or use cut up breasts/thighs)
Flour
1 egg, beaten
Bread (we always keep the crusty end bits of bread in a bag in the freezer for this purpose)
Grated parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

First make the breadcrumbs: pulse bread in food processor until fine breadcrumbs have formed. Mix the breadcrumbs in a shallow bowl with some grated parmesan cheese and salt and pepper.

Pour enough olive oil in a large pan to coat the bottom. Heat the pan to medium-high. The oil needs to be hot enough to fry the chicken, otherwise your chicken will taste soggy and oily. Test by releasing a small drop of water onto the pan. If it makes that frizzly frying noise, the oil is hot enough.

Working with one tenderloin at a time, first coat in flour, then egg, then enough breadcrumbs so that the chicken is fully covered. Shake off excess breadcrumbs. When the tenderloins are coated, place them carefully in the pan. Cook for a few minutes on one side – until the breadcrumbs are dark golden brown and crispy. Flip over until both sides are dark and crispy. Cut through one tenderloin to make sure it's fully cooked with no pink spots. Transfer to plate and serve with lemon wedges and coarse sea salt.

Breaded chicken goes great with a big, fresh salad.