First Birthday Party

It is so difficult to write about one's child and not say what everyone has said already.

"A year has gone by so quickly!"

"Where has my little baby gone?!"

"Who is this big kid who is pouring tea on my carpet and tearing pages out of my cookbooks, and who let him in the house?"

Somehow, the weather gods shined their light upon us and gave us the most beautiful day of the month with which to celebrate my son's birthday.

I had no idea if 25 or 125 people would be celebrating with us, and as it turns out, I was glad that we cooked for more!

My husband knows his way around the kitchen too!

We served Nigerian chicken stew, rice, meat pies, deviled eggs (everyone loves deviled eggs!), and a cold prawn pasta salad with a dill cream sauce. My husband spent all day frying spiced meat, and friends brought grilled Suya (spice rubbed beef), beef curry and fried rice.

baby cutting his cake

The cake was beautiful, thanks to Judy at Tallant House. Not only was it beautiful, but unlike some birthday cakes that are only useful as holders for birthday candles, I would order this for dessert in a restaurant and lick the plate. She makes her own pear mousse and her own caramel! Yum.

After the sun set, the early fall air stayed warm, and everyone nursed their drinks, nibbled on cake, and laughed together in my parents' back garden. I took a few moments to take it all in - the glowing lights, the laughing voices of friends and family, my handsome boy in his traditional clothing looking so grown up already. Magic.

Just Desserts Challenge: Howwdya like dem apples?

Last week, I saw another blogger, over at Evil Shenanigans, remark that she would love to get some folks together to do their own Top Chef challenges, mirroring the weekly challenges on the popular cooking competition TV show. I jumped at the chance to participate in some friendly competition. Later, I heard the details and began to have second thoughts.

It wasn't just Top Chef, it was Top Chef - Just Desserts. And the first challenge involved making a dessert inspired by a cocktail. It dawned on me that since I had not watched any episodes from this season, I don't consider myself a talented baker or pastry chef, and I don't drink, I may be at a disadvantage here.

Advantage shmantage. I raided my husband's liquor cabinet, watched a few re-runs and decided to work with what I know - seasonal ingredients and flavorful spices.

Hennessy Spiked Apples and Chai Spiced Panna Cotta

Serves 6 to 8 

Author, and former pastry chef to Alice Waters at Chez Panisse, David Lebovitz says that if it takes longer than five minutes of active time to make Panna Cotta, then you are doing something wrong. Instead of recreating the basic recipe, I will direct you to his blog. Follow his instructions to make the Panna Cotta but instead of vanilla, add the following spices to the heated milk, and allow to sit covered, off of the heat, for 10 minutes to infuse:

Chai Panna Cotta spices:

2 cinnamon sticks
2 slices of ginger root (1/2 inch thick)
1/2 teaspoon of cardamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
8 whole cloves
1 dash of freshly ground black pepper

After the panna cotta has been setting in the fridge for a few hours (I used whole milk by the way, but you can use 1/2 & 1/2 or cream if you would like), make the spiked apples.

Hennessy Spiked Apples:

6 apples
2 tablespoons of butter
1/2 cup of sugar
tiny dash of salt
1/4 cup of Hennessey

Peel, core and slice the apples. Heat the butter in a sauce pan on medium heat. Toss the apples in the sugar and dash of salt. Cook the apples in the butter until the butter and sugar begin to caramelize and the apples are soft. Add the Hennessy, bring to a simmer and simmer until reduced by half.

Serve the apples with the panna cotta. Or, go back and make twice as much of the spiked apples and then sit and eat them all from the pan. Not only are these apples incredibly good, but I am pretty sure you can still count this towards your apple a day.


you can serve the panna cotta in a pretty glass

or you can turn the panna cotta onto a plate



West African Chicken Stew with Tomatoes and Peppers

Buys yams at the outdoor market

This dish makes me happy because it is one of many dishes that I learned to cook, as a young American bride, marrying into a vibrant, loving, tight-knit Nigerian family.

Shopping for spices in a Nigerian marketplace

With no cookbooks to reference, I have watched and practiced, tasted and experimented, first learning to make the dishes exactly like the women I learned from.

Good thing I have sisters to help sort out what I need to buy

Now, with years of stews, soups, and meat pies under my belt, I can make these dishes my own. This is my version of a Nigerian Style Chicken Stew.

Nigerian Style Chicken Stew

One whole chicken
1 small red onion
1 habenero (or other spicy) pepper, minced
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 teaspoons dried or fresh thyme
½ teaspoon chili powder
¼ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1-2 pounds of tomatoes*
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 handful of fresh basil leaves
a pinch of sugar
¼ teaspoon salt

*If tomatoes are in season, use fresh paste tomatoes, such as Roma or San Marzano. If tomatoes are not in season, I recommend using a canned tomato, such as Muir Glen. A half dozen tomatoes will be about equal to a large (28 ounce) can.

First, prepare the whole chicken for the soup pot. Butcher the chicken into the typical eight pieces: wings, breasts, thighs, and legs. Remove the skin from the breasts and thighs, and discard the extra fat and skin. Then, cut the wings into two pieces at the middle joint. Cut the legs and thighs in half, right through the bone, using a heavy cleaver. Cut the breast pieces into three pieces. If you are not squeamish, cut the back into three pieces, and add the back and the neck into the pot as well.

Place all of the chicken into a large soup pot, and begin to heat over medium-high heat. Slice half of the onion into large pieces and add it to the chicken pot with the spices. Turn the meat, to evenly distribute the spices. Continue to cook the chicken, turning regularly. When the skin begins to color, add one and a half cups of water, and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium, and continue to simmer.

I removed the skins of these tomatoes to make stew for the baby - this is not at all necessary

After the chicken has been cooking for about 30 minutes, begin to prepare the tomato base for the stew. Using a food processor or blender, blend the tomatoes, the other half of the onion, and the basil, until minced finely. Heat the olive oil in a medium sauce pan on medium-high heat. Add the minced garlic and cook for a few seconds, until fragrant. Add the blended tomatoes and basil, sugar and salt. Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to medium. Simmer for twenty minutes.

the tomatoes will begin to look dry

After twenty minutes, the tomatoes should begin to look a bit dry. It is now time to combine the chicken and the tomato. Begin by ladling the broth from the chicken pot, into the tomato pot, stirring to incorporate. Then, add the chicken pieces, stirring to coat in the tomato-broth sauce. Taste the stew. Add more chili powder, or more salt, if needed. Return to the heat, and simmer for an additional ten minutes. Serve with steamed rice.

Me, almost exactly one year ago, making stew to eat after the baby is born

The women from which we come...

My lovely Great Grandma Ruth loved the outdoors. She grew up in the Pacific Northwest (I am a rare 5th generation Seattleite) and many of my photos of her include a Washington landscape in the background.

At the beach, as a teenager in 1928

Fishing near Mount Rainier, circa 1930

I can see her vivacious spirit in her joyful smiles. She has her own style - fashionable, but in an easy, confident way. Of course, with family like "Auntie Mac" in her life, I think her spirited ways probably came naturally.

Auntie Mac and her bloomers

Tomatoes and Peppers for Chicken Stew

A few years ago, before I had much experience growing food, I planted a couple of tomato plants in front of my parent's house. Never mind that they didn't get full sun. Or that they were not early varieties. I took great care of them. I watered them, and helped their little branches stay tidy in their caged home.

I watched with anticipation as their little yellow flowers fell away into pregnant green fruits, inhaling the spicy herbed smell of my hands after tending the plants. But those suckers never did ripen. They just teased me with empty promises of tomato sauce and Caprese salads, until early fall when they all rotted on the vine while I was on a short holiday.

I have learned a few things, although admittedly, I am a self taught gardener (and a self taught cook, writer and quilter for that matter), so there are probably plenty of things that I am still doing wrong. I know now to choose a variety that ripens early and to plant the tomatoes in full sun. You have to give tomatoes the best chance possible when you want them to produce in the Pacific Northwest.

This year, no matter my efforts, was not a good year for tomatoes. I've been able to coax about 25 pounds of tomatoes, and I am grateful for them, but it wasn't the bumper crop I was hoping for.

weighing out our own share of the order

Thanks to a last minute invite from Annette, of Sustainable Eats, I just picked up an extra 15 pounds of organic Roma tomatoes from a bulk order that she arranged. Click on her link above to read about her motivation to arrange the order, as well as many recipes for putting up tomatoes.

not quite ripe tomatoes for next week's canning session

Her order supported a few small local farms that would have otherwise been badly hurt by this years small harvest of tomatoes that all ripened late and at one time. On the plus side for me, the quality is excellent and the price terrific.

some of these little peppers are destined for the stew pot

I got moving today on a very large pot of Nigerian style chicken stew, which calls for plenty of tomatoes and hot peppers. The rest of those beautiful tomatoes will be put up for winter ragus and stews.

Fresh thyme, hot peppers, curry powder flavor this chicken stew

Summer's Exit

On advice of other blogs, I am roasting some of my tomatoes before freezing.

Summer is getting ready for her exit and I am checking my tomato plants for a few more ripened fruits to freeze for the winter. I have covered my winter sprouts with the Gro-Therm that I used in the spring to keep my tomatoes and peppers warm. I have my fingers crossed for spicy salads to warm my days when the sun retires every evening at four o'clock.

Gro-Therm over the winter greens



Hey - I forgot about these! Nice surprise.

This weekend, we fired up the grill at my parent's house, possibly for the last time this year. That is my zucchini on the grill.

Before you leave my blog today, take a look over to your left.

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Easy Tumbling Blocks Quilt

I wrote a couple of months ago that I was going to start quilting again, now that the baby is a little older. It turns out that as kids grow from immobile infants to rampaging toddlers, hobbies that involved cutting blades and hundreds of sharp pins actually becomes MORE dangerous and difficult. Who knew?

I have found my solution in a quilters guild. This weekend, I went to my first gathering of a Modern Quilters Guild (i.e. most everyone was born after the Great Depression). I packed a half dozen unfinished projects to take with me.

I had a great time meeting the amazing quilters who were there, and being able to work on my projects for a few hours. Screw trying to quilt at home. For now, I am just going to dedicate one day a month to quilting with these ladies.

One of the projects I worked on was a cheater's version of the Tumbling Blocks pattern. This pattern uses three groups of colors (darks, mediums and lights), cut in a diamond shape, and arranged to create an optical illusion of 3-D baby blocks. I have long admired quilts with this pattern, but it requires paper piecing (hand sewing), which I have no patience for. So I have rigged a cheater's method to achieve the same effect.

I cut all of the pieces into the requisite diamond shape (there are plastic templates you can buy for this). Then, I ironed all of the pieces on to a backing material using double-sided fusible interfacing. I then used a zig zag stich to sew all of the pieces permanently to the backing.

If you do not mind the look of the zig zag stitch bordering each piece, then this is a great way to complete a quilt quickly that would have otherwise taken me months!

Camping with Platform Tents and Kids

I did not know summer would be over by the first week of September, when I made my camping reservation for Dosewallips State Park back in June. So when this week rolled around, and the clouds had blanketed the region, it didn't really look like camping weather. But, my mom and I were both born here in the Pacific Northwest, so neither of us mentioned canceling our trip.

The drive over was easier than we expected. We boarded the ferry in Edmonds without a wait, and it was an easy one hour drive from the ferry dock in Kingston.

the path to the river

Dosewallips has both salt water and fresh water beaches to explore.

Pacific Northwest flora and fauna: blackberries and slugs

Although it rained all night, it was dry during the day, and it wasn't too much work to get a fire going.

I love campfire cooking. I brought peppers from my garden and took full advantage of having a fire roaring (they are now in my freezer for winter). For dinner, we set corn, tomatoes, and chicken sausages on the grill. We brought along pesto pasta salad in the cooler. 

My "trick" for bringing meat along on a camping trip? I freeze it before putting into the cooler. It is always thawed by the time it is going on the grill, and I don't have to worry if it stayed cold enough in the cooler. Sausages are easy for the grill, but so are kebabs. If you want to make kebabs, cut and marinate the meat ahead of time. Store the meat, with the marinade, in a ziplock bag, in the freezer, until you are ready to pack the cooler. Assemble your kebabs fireside.  

Dosewallips has platform tents and cabins available for rent, in addition to individual and group tent sites. We stayed in a platform tent. It was our first time doing so, and we will surely do it again. It had the feel of camping, but without the discomfort. The tent has a wood floor, canvas walls, and a lamp. The rain pounded all night, and we stayed warm and dry.

Bacon for breakfast is a requirement on my camping trips. I brought the rest of an apple cake I baked this week, and heated in over the fire in the morning while the bacon sizzled.

When it was all said and done, there was no tent to roll up, and the baby drove us home.

Kidding about the baby driving, he doesn't have his license yet.

Homemade Flaky Biscuits with Sausage Gravy

When I go to a restaurant, I avoid ordering things that I can easily make at home. What is the point of paying three times the price for someone else to make it for me? I like to enjoy meals that seem special because the effort or skill involved surpasses that of a homemade meal. So, its ironic that I often order biscuits and gravy when I go out for breakfast. Why don't I make it at home? Its really not that complicated. Really, the gravy has three ingredients. After making biscuits and sausage gravy for Christmas brunch last year, I have recreated this heart breaker (in every sense) a few more times.

Yesterday, a fellow blogger was talking about biscuits on twitter and I searched through my stacks of old Cooks Illustrated magazines to find the flaky biscuit recipe that I used for Easter last year. I should look through that stack more often! Or maybe I shouldn't. I have now added pub-style fish and chips, Chicken Kiev, apple upsidedown cake, and oatmeal cookies to my to-do list this week.

After all that work searching through stacks of old issues, don't think I forgot about the biscuits. This morning we all enjoyed flaky biscuits and sausage gravy for a lazy Sunday breakfast.

The Cooks Illustrated recipe for Flaky Biscuits can be found in issue number seventy-eight. It is their method the results in the many flaky layers of the finished biscuit. Instead of using a food processor, pastry cutter, or two knives, to turn the butter into flour covered "peas," the Cooks Illustrated method asks you to pinch slices of butter into the flour, creating nickle sized discs of butter and flour. Next, mix in the buttermilk. When rolling out the dough, roll into an oblong shape, fold over three times, roll again, repeat.

To make sausage gravy could not be more simple:

Sausage Gravy

1 pound bulk, uncooked, pork breakfast sausage
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups of milk

Cook the sausage, over medium heat, in a deep sauce pan, until all of the pink is gone.

Sprinkle with the flour, stir, and cook for one minute.

Pour in the milk. Bring to a simmer over medium to medium-high heat. As the milk comes to a simmer, it will begin to thicken. Stir the milk as it thickens. If it becomes too thick, add more milk. Taste. Add salt and pepper if necessary (it probably will not be necessary).

Serve hot gravy over warm biscuits. Then take a nap.

The baby demonstrating the flakiness of the biscuit

Cleaning up after baby demonstrating flakiness of biscuit