English Breakfast...errr, Dinner

Last week a few of the finest women I know in this city came over to help me cook, drink and eat the following meal!
Here's the menu.

• We omitted the gin recipe (as I don't know that many people who enjoy gin, except for Amanda Bloom. Shout out to you and was it the perpetual white dress?!) But, a mimosa substitution worked out just fine!
• And also the chickpeas, since I thought they sounded a little involved and didn't know how they'd fit into the meal.

What wassssss going to be last ended up being first:

Currant cardamom pound cake with (not pictured: homemade strawberry butter)

This recipe killed. The girls loved it, took the leftovers home and I've already given out the recipe! I'll probably make this one again 4th of July weekend because it winds up tasting a lot like strawberry shortcake. Thank you to my boyfriend, Goat, for the teacupcake forms. This was my first time to get to use them and it was perfect!!! Everyone was a little hungry by the time we got things in the oven (I made the pound cake & butter the night before) so we went ahead and indulged. :)

Next up was the tomato mushroom panko breaded & baked eggs. Slightly less successful: they were over cooked and lacked that beautiful runniness I love. Next time I'll watch them more closely....

If I had ramekins, this might look prettier in those. Once you get it out of the pan it pretty much just looks like a mess. It did taste quite good though....little thyme in there.

The last recipe was one for a potato pie with green cabbage and bacon. A couple of my friends are Jewish non-bacon eaters and so we split it making one with with scallions and one with bacon. If you make this recipe cut it in half at least! It was way too much, in fact I ate on it for a couple of days with a fried egg on top and put the rest in my freezer. Unfortunately I only managed to get a day after pic, but here it is:

One more tip on this here pie: read the directions carefully. I totally missed that we were supposed to caramelize the cabbage first. Still had a great flavor and texture but might have been better with a sweeter tang.

All in all I had a great night and want to thank Rach, Erica, and Jen for cooking, cleaning, and coming! Good times. In the future I promise to choose recipes that are faster and just as delish. Thanks for reading faithful followers.

Okay, so this might just look like a sandwich. But I promise it does not just taste like a sandwich. I found this 'recipe' probably a year ago and I have no idea where it came from, but boy is it great. After buying a bevvy of strawberries a couple of weeks ago I remembered this 'wich and was dying to make it again.

Wheat berry bread, scallion mayo (although the recipe originally called for chives, I never seem to have chives) turkey, bleu cheese and strawberries. Man is it a treat! I'd also recommend as a panini.

Tomorrow I'm going on my first adventure to Findlay Market! I can't believe I've lived here for nearly two years and still haven't made a trip. Unfortunately I think the idea of walking around OTR was a big deterrent, but it's pretty safe especially during the day. I'll be following up tomorrow with a post about the lovely ladies breakfast from Wednesday!

Home grown

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Catherine and I perused the Hyde Park Farmers Market. I was in search of strawberries and tomatoes and good bread. I was too late on the bread (it goes fast there) and there was very little produce. Catherine made off with some lovely herb plants and I settled for a Belgium waffle. Still with the craving I headed to Kroger and found some beautiful heirloom tomatoes. Apparently it's too early in Ohio to be seeing the local crop fodder.

The result and one of my all time summer favorites: tomato, basil, mozz, balsamic. Here's a close up of the yummy fresh salad. I' m definitely missing my parents home grown tomatoes though! It's just not the same.

Hopefully in the next couple days I'll be posting my English Breakfast. The ladies are coming over tonight and I'm making almost an entire Tasting Table menu! The currant cardamom pound cake with strawberry butter is already made and I don't mean to toot my own horn but......wow.

Strange new world

Welp, I've decided my ramblings are better suited for the blogosphere than for fb. (Wow, first post and I'm already using words like 'blogosphere')

I've gotten a lot of feedback that folks like looking at my food, or my boyfriend's photography of my food, food that I eat at restaurants, or would like to make things I make. From time to time I'll post pics of recipes I've attempted, some successfully, some not so much. I'll try to add recipes or sources whenever possible. Hope you enjoy and I would love feedback about how your culinary challenges go and what you'd like me to cook (or NOT cook). :)

Please be gentle and keep in mind at this point I have no formal training, just great parents who loved spending time in the kitchen with us kids and have a very refined palate for Shawnee, OK.

On that note, I'll leave you with my most recent achievement: popovers. SO EASY. MAKE THEM. IMPRESS PEOPLE. Cheap batter of flour, salt, eggs, milk, butter. They look great and took so little time. The popovers I made were best eaten right out of the oven because they got soft quickly. Next time I'm definitely adding lots of pepper or Gruyere or some pizazz.