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Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts

Food and Life and Summertime

    Isn't it interesting how food can evoke such vivid memories? The taste, the color, the smell, the texture; it all brings us back to particular places and specific times in our lives. For me, summertime ushers in especially intense memories as seasonal fruits and vegetables take me back to my childhood growing up in the green, green forests of the East Coast, surrounded by my Mom's gardens and enjoying homegrown fruits and vegetables every day.

    Vermont, Summer 2011Vermont, Summer 2011Vermont, Summer 2011

    It's something as simple as the smell of rosemary that reminds me of the red skinned potato salad we would get from the small grocer down the street from our house, or corn on the cob that remind me of my Mom and Dad, sitting on the steps shucking corn- the silky fibers and rough, snappy green husks going everywhere. It's the snap of the green beans into the colander, the smell of red, ripe tomatoes on the vine, or even Ball Park franks, Heinz ketchup and Gulden's spicy mustard that remind me of nightly barbeques in our backyard.

    Summer is a lot of things, but to me it's always that first trip up to Carvel, gelatis from Rita's, or the ice cream truck at the park. It's the way orange and cream anything instantly transports me to the boardwalk, seagulls squawking and swooping in the distance, the ocean sounds mixing with laughing children, the smell of sunscreen and salt hanging in the air, all while enjoying a special treat- an orange and cream ice cream cone from Kohr's. The beach will always remind me of Gouda cheese and crackers, peanut butter and jelly on wheat bread, and how amazing crisp green grapes can taste under a big umbrella, on a brightly-colored towel. Summertime is slurpees from 7-11, sub sandwiches from Wawa, and berries. Always berries, every summer, and the first ripe raspberries of the season will always evoke memories of eating them by the handful out of my parents' refrigerator.

    New Jersey Shore, Summer 2011

    kohl's orange and cream- a boardwalk tradition!

    And so I think a lot about what we feed Henry and the experiences we give him through food. I look forward to having our own big garden he can help me plant and maintain. I am excited to shuck corn with him, pick our own berries from the bush in our backyard, and to enjoy experiences from the things we prepare and eat every single day, be it making homemade pizza in the kitchen, barbequing tofu kebabs out back, or taking a family trip up to Dairy Queen when the temperatures start to rise. Being a parent is great for a million reasons, but one of my favorites in the ability to make your child's environment as beautiful and magical as possible, in so many different ways. For me, summertime has always been a time full of adventure and enjoyment, filled with sweet treats and healthy, whole foods. And so I look forward to giving our boy as many of those ice cream-cone and fresh fruit-filled summers as I can, making memories from the simple, everyday things that somehow turn special in the shine of the summer sun.Source URL: http://vassago-demo.blogspot.com/search/label/Food
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Kiddo/Adult Recipe: Veggie Baked Ziti

    This week I'm sharing with you a "Hawthorne girl" tradition- a dish that is always present during holidays and the dish that stands for the vegetarian substitute for Hank on any given Sunday at my Mom's. "Oh, we're having steak? Don't worry, we have a ziti in the oven."

    Over the past eight years I've inched away from being vegan, Hank has remained vegetarian, and my Mom and sister have gone that route also, with all of them dabbling in long stints of veganism. So these days it's really just my Dad, brother-in-law, Grandma and myself who will eat any meat during dinner. Because of that my Mom always has a meat-free item available, and many times you can count on it being some variation of ziti. Luckily Henry loves it too, so it's been a quick all-in-one dinner idea for us that doesn't take long to prepare at all.

    The best part about this dish is that it is completely open for interpretation, much like my quiche recipe- and it's VERY easy to make...and easy to hide veggies in it too, for your picky eaters. 

    What you'll need:

    *I don't really use exact measurements when I cook a recipe from memory so hopefully this still makes sense.

    1 box/bag of penne pasta
    1 jar of tomato sauce
    2 lb. container of ricotta cheese
    mozzarella cheese
    veggies of your choice - I used frozen spinach, peppers, and broccoli
    oregano/basil for seasoning

    Baked Ziti Recipe

    Directions:

    1. Preheat your over to 350. Boil your pasta in a large pot. While your pasta is cooking, spread a thin layer of ricotta cheese on the bottom of your ziti tray or pan. Add a nice dollop of tomato sauce on top and mix it up a little. This will be your bottom layer.

    Baked Ziti Recipe

    2. Cut up all veggies. You can add them to your ziti raw like we did, or sautee them beforehand with some olive oil. I prefer a little crunch so I just throw them in there raw. You can also add frozen veggies straight into the ziti, like I did with the frozen spinach.

    Baked Ziti Recipe

    3. Get your pasta off the stove, drain, and get ready to LAYER!


    Baked Ziti Recipe

    4. There isn't a wrong way to do this, as long as you make sure to have a bottom ricotta/sauce layer and at least two layers of noodles. First add a layer of noodles on top of the bottom cheese/sauce layer. Then add some more sauce, top with some veggies, and then some mozzarella cheese. Then add more noodles, some ricotta cheese and tomato sauce, more veggies, and mozzarella cheese again. If you have room and want to go for a third layer, do it! The more layers, the more delicious it is, but just be sure to end with a layer of mozzarella and sprinkle some basil and oregano on top.

    Baked Ziti RecipeBaked Ziti RecipeBaked Ziti RecipeBaked Ziti Recipe

    5. Pop your layered beauty into the oven and cook for about 45 minutes at 350 degree, or until you see the insides beginning to bubble up. I love the cheese on the top to get a little brown, but if you're not into that sort of thing feel free to cover with tin foil for the first 30 minutes and remove it towards the end.

    Baked Ziti Recipe

    6. Enjoy! And on a side note, this ziti tastes even better heated up the next day! We actually make a big tray sometimes and enjoy it throughout the week.

    Baked Ziti RecipeSource URL: http://vassago-demo.blogspot.com/search/label/Food
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The buy of the century (probably)

    Buying a grill for the shop is something we've been talking about doing ever since it started to get warmer in Copenhagen, and on Friday we finally bought one.
    Me and Eckel went to the hardware paradise known as Silvan to look at the selection, and found the Dancook 7400 to be both reasonably priced and sized.


    This is one of the (many) test pictures we sent to Allan

    And here's our fancy new purchase

    I may have also bought this giant toolbox that fits almost all of our tools (and a ton of stuff for the garden)
    The weather wasn't all that great, so we ate in the kitchen, but it was awesome and delicious nonetheless!
    (Sorry for the crappy picture!)


    Shop barbecues are so my new favorite thing, and i hope we'll be able to do this all week until it's freezing outside again!

    Ps. Don't forget we have a guest artist coming soon, click here to read more about him and see some of his work!Source URL: http://vassago-demo.blogspot.com/search/label/Food
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Hail Satan... and birthday cake!

    As promised in the last post: costume pictures (or a sort)!

    For Allan's birthday last month Eckel got the great idea to surprise him with a black metal themed barbecue.
    Allan and our friends had thrown me a surprise party, my first ever, a few days earlier, and because of that, it all of a sudden seemed kinda lame to just have a barbeque like he'd asked for.
    So, he already knew of the barbeque part, but i (cleverly i must say) got him to stay home a little longer while we "decorated the shop", while in fact, as you can see, we where decorating our faces with some sick-ass corpse paint... and cow paint... and pentagrams... and skulls... and Peter Kriss...!?
    Anyway, when he arrived we were barbequing in the street outside the shop, all dressed up, and yes, he was surprised!

    Me, Anne, Corey and Thomas
    Corey, Rasmus and Eckel
     
    You'd think Eckel had previous experience with this, right? He claims no, but i'm not convinced...
     As soon as Allan arrived, we got him working on his face
     Done!

    A few instagram pictures of Allan, me and a very un-metal birthday cake (what? I like them sugary and cheerful!)
    The Wookie and the Eckel
    Young and Rabu looking gloomy as hell

    Hotdog... of DOOOM!
    Mille was a cow... a very viscous one!
    A present (i didn't get pictures of all of them, but they were all great)
     
    Another one... bubbles!!
     
    Happy birthday for life, yo!
    Allan had a great birthday, and he enjoyed the corpse paint so much that he even kept it on for the bike ride home (ok, i did too... it's super fun!)

    I don't think we've even used the Dancook 7200 since this wonderful night, but in our defense, we've been out of town on the sunny days, and the rest of the time, the weather has been shit.
    Like it is today.
    Come back, summer... please?
    Source URL: http://vassago-demo.blogspot.com/search/label/Food
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