Mignardise

Lemony Herbed Israeli Couscous Salad

May 23, 2013 by Karen 1 Comment

As I’ve previously admitted, I’m not much of a grower. I think I lack some gardener’s gene. I like to use the excuse that my yard doesn’t get enough sun. Which is mostly true, and gets me off the hook. Last summer I did successfully nurture one chile pepper plant that was in a pot on my deck. Although I’m not sure “nurture” is the right word. I pretty much just let it take care of itself and it thrived ok. (This sounds suspiciously like my parenting skills too.)

I’ve made this delicious salad twice now, and it takes a lot of fresh herbs. It’s the herbs that make all the difference. Israeli couscous is one of those ingredients that’s a blank slate. It takes on whatever flavors it’s mixed with. Therefore, if your herbs are fresh and flavorful, your salad will be as well. How to get the freshest herbs is probably very obvious to most of you - grow them yourself. Well, yes, I suppose. Unless you’re me.

But, wait, what’s that, there on my deck?

Why yes, it’s oregano. And basil and thyme. Even some Hungarian wax peppers, waiting to be planted. And hopefully they will actually grow. And then I can go and pick them.

What a concept. Hope springs eternal. Please, when you leave a comment here on the blog, remind me to water them.

Enjoy this salad at room temperature. It has a slight Asian flavor from the mint and cilantro, as well as the sweet splash of rice vinegar. When I had leftovers, I added a can of tuna and took it for lunch. Deliciousness. And remember, you can always try a different grain. Rice would be great, as would barley or quinoa.

Lemony Herbed Israeli Couscous Salad

2 cups Israeli (pearl) couscous

4 cups water

2 lemons

3 Tbsps. rice wine vinegar

2 tsps. packed brown sugar

1 tsp. honey (or agave syrup)

1/4 cup olive oil (if you have a lemon-flavored oil, use it!)

4 scallions, thinly sliced

2 medium carrots, peeled and finely diced

1/2 large red bell pepper, diced

1/2 small red chile pepper (more or less to taste), minced

1/2 cup salted and roasted peanuts, chopped

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped

1/3 cup fresh mint, roughly chopped

1/2 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped

1 bunch watercress, tough stems removed, leaves torn

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Bring the 4 cups of water to a boil and add salt generously. Add couscous, turn heat to simmer and cover. Cook until all the water is absorbed and couscous is tender 10-15 minutes. When done, turn the cooked couscous out onto a baking sheet lined with wax paper, spread it out and allow to cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile, make the dressing. Juice both lemons into a medium bowl. Add the vinegar, brown sugar, honey, 1 tsp. sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Whisk in olive oil.

Place all the cut vegetables in a large bowl, top with cooled couscous and then chopped herbs and the watercress. Add most of the dressing and toss well. Taste, and if you think it needs more dressing, add it. You may also want to add more salt to your taste at this point. Top salad with chopped peanuts. Refrigerate until one hour before serving. Let the salad come to room temperature before serving.

Filed Under: Grains and Pasta, Salads Tagged With: coucous salad, Israeli couscous

Road Trip, Part 2: Are We There Yet?

May 9, 2013 by Karen 2 Comments

Ok kids, back in the car. Let’s get this show on the road.

Hershey was a blast, but we were feeling a bit of a chocolate hangover when we loaded into the car the next morning and headed south. Destination: Nashville TN, where Mignardise daughter #1 now resides. We rolled into Music City just in time for dinner. Thank goodness. There’s so much good food in Nashville that missing a meal would really set us back on our quest to try it all. Just down the street from our hotel we found Soulshine Pizza. Like most places in Nashville, there was live music. Good band, great pizza. Happy to have made it to our destination.

Every website I checked (and believe me, I check them all) told me that The Pancake Pantry was THE place in Nashville for breakfast. On the map, it didn’t look too far from the hotel, and we were so ready to stretch our legs the next day and get moving. It took a good half hour to walk there, but we didn’t mind (too much), enjoying the blossoming trees and explosion of flowers that we have yet to see in Maine. We were lucky to get there when we did, because by the time we left, the line was out the door. It’s hard to wait when the servers are rushing by with armloads of Caribbean Pancakes (bananas, pecans and coconut), Sweet Potato Pancakes and Smoky Mountain Buckwheat Cakes. Good thing we had a nice long walk back after all those carbs. Bob needed a nap before we headed out again.

Lunch was at the awesome Taco Mamacita. Quite possibly the best fish taco I’ve ever had outside of San Diego! Fun, festive outdoor patio too. I might have spotted some music industry types there, since many of the talent agencies and recording studios are in the neighborhood.

Since you are the foodie type, I’m sure you’ve heard of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream. All of her exceptionally splendid ice cream shops are in Ohio, except for one - the one that is in East Nashville, nowhere near where we were. But we are intrepid travelers and will go to anywhere for ~~great~~ splendid ice cream. There was no way we were leaving without a taste of Jeni’s.

Look at those flavors! They will patiently let you taste each one, while you struggle to make a decision. So hard.

I’m happy to report that my choice of Brown Butter Almond Brittle and Roxbury Road was JUST RIGHT. Oh Jeni, please bring your splendid ice creams to Maine!

Have you ever heard of Nashville hot chicken? Neither had I, until I started doing my road trip food research. It’s very famous and very, very hot. Even the “mild” is somewhat hot. Here are the types of hot you can order at Hattie B’s, where we ate our chicken.

We are spicy food lovers, but trust me on this – medium is a smart choice, while hot will have you sweating. I can’t even imagine going higher on the hot scale, without having to sign a waiver. Best. Fried. Chicken. Ever. And the potato salad wasn’t bad either.

Are you full yet? I hope you still have room for breakfast at Fido before we hit the road again. Awesome coffee for the driver, eggs and terrific hash browns for the navigator. And a cookie to go.

We were blessed with picture-perfect weather as we headed north on the Blue Ridge Parkway to Asheville, North Carolina. Eastern redbud trees were in full bloom and added gorgeous color along the road.

My sister-in-law and and her husband recently settled in the Asheville area. It was wonderful to spend time with them and to skip the whole hotel room thing for a few nights.

In Asheville, there’s a restaurant called The Lobster Trap. High up in the Great Smoky Mountains might seem like a strange place for fresh seafood, and I would agreed. But what makes it work is Amy Beard McNaughton, the restaurant’s owner, who also happens to own Royal River Books, the very bookstore in which I work here in Maine! Strange but true. Amy makes a direct connection from fresh-off-the-boat lobster from Casco Bay, shipped straight to Asheville. So not only is she running a popular and successful independent bookstore, she’s also got a busy, bustling and delicious dining spot hundreds of miles away. Some people can pull that off, and Amy is definitely one of them.

We skipped the lobster on our visit (we can get that any time) and went straight for the shrimp and grits, which was the perfect choice.

We also loved the smoked trout spread served before dinner and as soon as I can pry that recipe from Amy, I will pass it along.

After dinner, we strolled a few blocks over to The French Broad Chocolate Lounge. I hear the line is usually out the door, but we only had to wait a few minutes before choosing from their amazing selection of artisanal chocolates and pastries. I actually wish I had more time because it was almost impossible to decide.

I finally settled on this macaroon brownie because I’m a sucker for anything that includes both chocolate and coconut. You can sit in the lounge and enjoy a glass of red wine, a cup of tea or their signature hot chocolate. Or you can wrap up your goodies and head over to the Park Grove Inn, like we did. We sat in their garden, enjoying the dreamy view and our decadent desserts.

Alright gang, you’re doing great – just one more stop before we head home. It’s our nation’s capital! The Bonus Baby hadn’t been there since she was an infant, so we tried to cram as much as we could into 24 hours. First stop, Arlington Cemetery to say hello to my father-in-law, who was interred there almost 13 years ago.

It’s a beautiful and dramatic spot to visit and quite an honor to be among so many who served our country.

I won’t bore you with all the details of our day in DC, but I will say it was spectacular, with all the cherry trees and tulips in full bloom. We thoroughly enjoyed dinner at Oyamel. We devoured the guacamole that was prepared table side, the addictive chips, ceviche and the Brussels sprouts (yes, it’s always the Brussels sprouts with us, isn’t it?).

Thanks for coming along for the ride. It was crazy, it was long, but it was fun, wasn’t it? You’re good company!

Filed Under: Travel

Remembering and a Road Trip

April 25, 2013 by Karen 12 Comments

What a week it was.

Of course I am referring to the frightening and horrifying events in Boston, but also to our road trip. We spent a great deal of time in the car, trying to keep up with events in my hometown. Technically I grew up about 15 minutes west of Boston, but we spent a lot of time there. I used to accompany my mother to Newbury Street on Saturdays, when she would get her hair done at Diego at the Loft, just upstairs from Pappagallo. She would give me and my sister some money to go across the street and have grilled cheese sandwiches at the Raleigh. When we got a little older, we preferred to dine next door at the Travis.

If you remember any of these places, please let me know!

While we’re taking a stroll down memory lane, take a look at this:

The Standells on the Mike Douglas Show, singing “Dirty Water”. It’s pretty awesome, especially if you remember watching Mike Douglas while sitting on the couch with your mother after school, while she smoked cigarettes.

After college, there was really no question where I would live. I flirted briefly with New York, but I always knew I’d be most comfortable and happiest in Boston. Apartment on Beacon Hill, an ad agency job in the Hancock Tower, Saturdays shopping on Newbury Street. I walked through the Public Garden and down Boylston Street most days. To see that familiar stomping ground, shattered, on the news was heartbreaking. This is what the expression “really hits home” actually means. On the other hand, what followed - the outpouring of love and support, the helping hands and the outstanding work of law enforcement – has been so moving and made me so proud to be a Bostonian. Many, many thanks to you all…

Now about that road trip…

Here’s the welcoming committee when we arrived at our first stop. I’ll give you one guess. Hershey, PA has been on my must-do list for a long time. It’s not exactly like visiting Switzerland but yes, it actually does smell like chocolate. And yes, they give out chocolate bars and Kisses every time you turn around. And when Siri instructed us to “turn right onto West Chocolate Avenue”, I got a little chill up my spine.

Look what else they give you, at breakfast:

Those are chocolate muffins with a peanut butter spread. Dear lord – we hadn’t even left the hotel yet.

Chocolate World is fun and a little silly. We took the ride that shows you how chocolate is made. There are mechanical singing cows. It felt kind of like “It’s a Small, Small World” at Disney, but boosted with a generous shot of sugar. I do wish there was a real tour, of the real factory.

Then we opted to “create” our own candy bar. You could choose from about 6 options to add into your Hershey chocolate (milk, dark or white). I thought the add-ins were kind of pedestrian. I was hoping for something like salted pecans or dried cranberries, but then I remembered it’s Hershey so I made do with crushed pretzel bits and Heath bar chips. You could even design your own wrapper and we had some fun doing that.

Here’s the Bonus Baby watching the process:

I tried hard not buy out the store, but everything looked so much more tempting than it does at the grocery store. I feel lucky to have gotten out of there only spending $40(ish) .

This is just one corner of the gigantic Chocolate World store. Heaven!

Bob and the BB then spent the rest of the day enjoying the wide selection of roller coaster while I watched from a safe, happy distance.

Dinner at the Hershey Hotel was excellent, but of course the highlight was dessert. All my favorites – salted caramel, pecans, and chocolate – wrapped up in one perfect package. Too bad I was forced to share.

The next day, we rolled ourselves back into the car and headed for…

TO BE CONTINUED

But here’s a hint:

Filed Under: Chocolate, Travel

Butterless Brownies: Just Go With It

April 6, 2013 by Karen Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago, the Bonus Baby and a friend came home from a play date (do you still call them “play dates” when the girls are 13?) with a pan of some nondescript brownies. I asked what I always do, when presented with brownies,

“From scratch? Or a mix?”

Because you never know at someone else’s house and I never like to waste calories on brownies from a mix.

I got the answer I was hoping for “Scratch.” So I took a little nibble from the corner. Extreme chewiness, not too sweet but great chocolate flavor. They tasted a little like the Kate Hepburn brownies I used to make.

“Mmm, good. What recipe did you use?”

“I don’t know. We just Googled a recipe for butterless brownies because there was no butter in the house. And we didn’t have any cocoa powder either , so we used hot chocolate mix.” Well, knock me over with a feather…

I love the make-do, resourcefulness and casual attitude of these girls. No obsessing over finding just the “right” recipe. They used the first one that popped up on Google. No stress because they didn’t have the “right” ingredients. Let’s see what we DO have! And no expectations that these will be the best brownies ever. They’re delicious and easy but are they the best brownies they’d ever eaten? No, and that’s perfectly OK. We could all learn a lesson or two from these smart girls. Reeeeelaaaaax in the kitchen. And all will be well.

The recipe calls for vegetable oil. I had canola and olive oil, so I decided to use a blend of the two. I’m guessing you could use all canola, all olive oil or what the recipe actually calls for, regular vegetable. I’m not sure how the brownies would taste using a flavorful extra-virgin olive oil, but it might be just fine. Please let me know the results if you try that. And unlike the girls, I do have cocoa powder in the baking drawer, so there was no need for Swiss Miss.

Butterless Brownies

adapted from Pen Against Paper (a blog that, coincidentally, looks a lot like mine did when I first started)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 egg

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/4 tsp. espresso powder (optional)

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 9″ square pan with parchment or non-stick foil, allowing some to hang over the edge.

Mix oil and sugar in a large bowl. Incorporate vanilla and egg.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, espresso powder (if using), baking powder and salt. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet, mixing thoroughly but taking care not to over mix. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Cool completely before cutting.

And oh, yeah, I added a 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, because everything is better with chocolate chips.