Elizabeth: Please take me back even though I’ve neglected you.

Blog: No. I’m no one’s leftovers.

Elizabeth: But leftovers are so good sometimes! Sometimes they’re even better than the original meal.

Blog: I don’t believe you.

Elizabeth: Take, for instance, these lamb shanks. Sometimes when you leave things alone for a while, and the flavors have time blend and develop, the leftovers are better than the original.

Blog: Prove it.

Blog: Well, okay.

Add bottle of wine. WIN OVER WINTER.

MEDITERRANEAN LAMB SHANKS WITH CREAMY POLENTA, Bon Appetit, October 2003 (click for recipe)

My only change was to add only 3 lamb shanks instead of 6 (too much meat for 2 people, even with leftovers). I kept the rest of the recipe the same. It was perfect!

One of my best friends just moved to California. I am going to miss her so, so much.

Reed and I became friends through our husbands, who are in graduate school together. But we became great friends when we started training for a half marathon.

I learn so many little details about the lives of my running buddies. Many miles require a lot of minutes to be filled with conversation, and we wind up talking about whatever happens to be on our minds. Sometimes we talk about things of great substance. Other times, we talk about why I prefer Jif to Skippy peanut butter. When talking helps each mile tick by, our conversations resemble stream-of-consciousness. It leads effortlessly to close friendship.

Reed taught me to sew my Halloween costume last year. She helped me make jewelry for my bridesmaids. She introduced me to David Sedaris and gin martinis. She taught me the joys of dressing up and popsicles. Last year, she made our friend Kristina and me pumpkin soup on Halloween while we carved jack-o-lanterns.

This is not the same soup she made, but it’s a pumpkin soup, nonetheless. And a delicious one at that. Creamy, hearty, rich-tasting but healthy. And it even freezes well (no cream in this accidentally-vegan soup, folks). It’s a homage to fall, but mostly–in my mind, anyway, its a homage to Reed.

When I run on the bike path alone, I wonder what we’d talk about if she were here. Certainly the foilage, probably the weekend, possibly this pumpkin soup.

More posts involving Reed: Pasta Puttanesca, How to Have a Sick Time in Vegas, Bolognese Sauce

THAI SPICED PUMPKIN SOUP (from 101 Cookbooks)

This recipe is more of a guideline, and less of a formula. The curry paste I used the first time I made this was quite mild, so I used the whole jar! I bought a spicier one the next time, and only used a couple tablespoons.

A bowl of this soup, a crusty hunk of bread, and some salad greens topped with toasted pumpkin/squash seeds, dried cranberries, blue cheese, and balsamic vinegar is a great fall meal!

Serves 6

2 acorn squash, pumpkins, or other smallish winter squash
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
1 teaspoon (or more) red Thai curry paste
water or chicken broth
2 teaspoons fine grain sea salt (or to taste)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put racks in middle of oven.

Cut pumpkin and/or squash into halves. Spread butter over them. Sprinkle liberally with salt. Place on baking sheet and bake until fork tender throughout (about one hour).

Once squash cool down enough to touch, scoop the flesh into a big pot. Add coconut milk and curry paste. Stir together and place on medium high heat. Once mixture starts to simmer, take off heat and puree soup with a hand blender. Soup will be VERY thick. Add water or chicken broth one cup at a time until you reach desired consistency. Simmer again, then taste, and add salt and more curry paste (if you like) to taste.

<insert cliche sentiment about loving autumn here> Because Lord knows I do!

I have been in a cooking funk because I want to make Fall foods like apple pie and pumpkin soup, but it has been TOO WARM. Until this week, that is. It was a big week. My parents visited (hooray!) and we had a great time. Hey parents!

We had a picnic with friends and I made these delicious hand pies my friend Katherine introduced me to a few years ago. Sweet, tangy apple butter hides inside a cookie-like, crunchy, cream cheese-based crust. They were a huge hit.

Yesterday, we went to Oktoberfest. My friends Amy, Kristina, and Reed and I ran the Das Hustlehoff 5K–a race celebrating David Hasselhoff and Germans–where we won the costume competition. Here we are receiving our commemorative beer stein trophies.

I hope all of you are enjoying your September. And if you’re looking for a delicious fall treat, these apple butter hand pies are perfect. I might even call them wunderbar…

APPLE BUTTER HAND PIES (from Martha Stewart Living, October 1996)

Ingredients

Recipe

It’s the end of summer. We should celebrate!

Toast a slice of sourdough. Get it golden brown.

Top it with olive oil, shaved parmesan, basil, and heirloom tomato slices.

And maybe an egg or two.

Now pour yourself some wine. And, if you’re me, eat it while you watch RuPaul’s Drag Race. I never said I was classy. I only said I could cook.

OPEN FACED HEIRLOOM TOMATO SANDWICH

Serves 1

Ingredients

1 thick slice of crusty sourdough, toasted

Olive oil (I used about a tablespoon)

Parmesan, shaved (I used an ounce)

Basil leaves (I used 8)

4 small heirloom tomatoes

Cracked black pepper

Salt

Small pat butter

2 eggs

Recipe

Drizzle olive oil over sourdough toast. Layer parmesan across toast. Layer basil on top of parmesan. Layer tomato slices on top of basil. Sprinkle with salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

Heat a pan on medium heat. Once hot, add enough butter to thinly coat the pan. Add  eggs and cover immediately with a lid. Turn heat up to medium high. Eggs should be done within 2-4 minutes. Just keep checking on them periodically. I like them when they are a little bit white on top (about 3 1/2 minutes).

Place egg on top or next to sandwich. Enjoy!

I get really emotional when I eat pickles. Homemade ones, of course.

I can and pickle for experience of it, more than for the end product.  It’s how I give myself a little Spring, Summer, or Fall in the dead of Winter. Every time I open a jar, I close my eyes and try very hard to remember the details the day. How hot was it? What did the leaves look like in the tree outside our window? What did we wear? Each jar gives me a little rush of nostalgia.

The jar of pickles I made Saturday has a special significance. I made these on the very last weekend of our summer. That is, the very last weekend before Will started school again. Let me tell you about it.

The best way to combat the doldrums of adulthood is to pretend you are a child, but have budget and transportation of an adult. We spent Sunday doing only what we wanted. We woke up late. We went mini-golfing, drove Go Karts, and played Skeeball. We exchanged the Skeeball tickets we won for crazy straws and temporary tatoos. Instead of eating lunch, we ate Blizzards at Dairy Queen (Snickers for me, Heathbar for Will). We went to go see Bridesmaids at the discount movie theatre. I skipped my shower, because I didn’t want to wash off my frog and lizard tattoos.

And I made these pickles. And with every precise (or slightly imprecise) slice of cucumber, with every lid I screwed on nice and tight, I meditated on each moment of our wonderful day.

Opening this jar will be so very nice.

REFRIGERATOR DILL PICKLES (from Ball’s Complete Book of Home Preserving’sRefrigerator Dill Slices)

Yields about 5 pint jars of pickles

Though I haven’t tasted the finished product yet, I am certain these will be amazing. I ate a pickle or two before I put them in a jar. Yes, that means I ate it when it was a hot, briny cucumber. But my oh my, what a wonderful combination of salty and sour. It will be hard to wait the full 2 weeks.

Ingredients

8 1/4 cups sliced trimmed pickling cucumbers (1/4 inch/0.5cm slices)

2 cups white vinegar

2 cups water

6 tbsp pickling or canning salt

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tbsp pickling spice (available in the spice aisle of well-stocked supermarkets)

7 1/2 tsp dill seeds

5 tsp mustard seeds

1 1/4 tsp whole black peppercorns

5 cloves garlic, halved

Recipe

1. Put cucumber slices in a large heatproof bowl.

2. Combine vinegar, water, pickling salt, sugar, and pickling spice in the saucepan in a medium stainless steel saucepan over medium high heat and stir occasionally until sugar and salt dissolve. Let the mixture come to a boil, then turn down the heat and cover with a lid. Boil gently for 10 minutes.

3. Pour the hot brine over cucumbers. Cover the bowl with waxed paper and let it rest until the mixture cools to room temperature (about 30 minutes).

4. In each mason jar, place 1 1/2 tsp dill seeds, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1/4 teaspoon peppercorns, and 2 garlic clove halves. Fill jars with cucumber slices until they are 1/2 inch from the top. Pour pickling liquid into each jar until the liquid covers the cucumbers. Leave 1/2 inch headspace from the rim of the jar. Screw lids onto jars. Place in refrigerator. Allow cucumbers to marinate at least 2 weeks. Use within 3 months.

If you told me 5 years ago that I would someday go to a gamer store and ask advice from someone who talked just like Comic Book Guy, I would have called you a liar. Good thing I never bet on that one!

It all started with the Settlers of Catan. I was having dinner with some Math friends when they decided to break out this game. I mocked the game for having rules that took over half an hour to explain. “This is way too complicated to ever be fun,” I whispered to my friend, Angela.

At the end of the game, I was yelling things like “Well I’ll barter my sheep for your grain!”

I came home that night and ran over to Will who was working at his desk. “Will! I just played the best game EVER! It’s called the Settlers of Catan.” Will had a very skeptical look on his face. I asked him why. He said, “No, I’d… I’d love to play with you but… it’s just… I’m a little surprised you liked that game. I mean, I like that game a lot but…” But what? I asked him. “Well, it’s really nerdy.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked. “That, that’s not a nerdy game. That’s a normal people game. Like Scrabble. Or checkers.”

Will consulted Wikipedia. He read aloud, “The Settlers of Catan is used as the icebreaker game at the Silicon Valley Engineering Conference.” Suddenly, it all started making sense. It had a hexagonal board! You barter for grain! You can’t play it in less than two hours!

Since that time, Will and I have purchased several board games like it: Pandemic, Dominion, Gloom. But Thursday night, our nerd-dom reached a new level. Because we bought an RPG game. RPG means Role Playing Game. And to find this game, we didn’t just go to a normal game store, like we had for all the other games. We went to a game-r store.

We had some trouble finding the store, until we saw windows covered in paintings of dungeons and elves. On the bulletin board next to the door was a flyer that said, “Larpers* wanted!” with little paper tabs that had a phone number you can tear off. (*Larpers are people dress up and act out Dungeons and Dragons. No I will never reach that level, and if I do I give you permission to stop reading my blog.) Another wall was filled entirely with glitter for larping costumes.

We knew that the game we bought (Arkham Horror, if you are wondering) would take a long time to figure out so we decided to spend a night in, make a feast, and get down to evil demon fighting biz-nass. We grilled some burgers, broiled some sweet potato fries, popped open some beers and started beating back “the uncaring forces of the universe.”

While Will tackled the Encyclopedia-like rule book, I made dessert. To balance the heaviness of the burger and beer feast, I was looking for a dessert that was  light, tart, and refreshing. Earlier in the day, I saw a recipe for Lemon Buttermilk Ice Pops on Epicurious and was intrigued. I turned it into a sherbet (which apparently has only one “R” instead of two), and it fulfilled my every dream. Tart, tangy, sweet, cold, refreshing. Perfect summer dessert!

And if you’re wondering, yes the game is nerdishly awesome. In that special, gamer way.

LEMON BUTTERMILK SHERBET (adapted from Bon Appétit  July 2002)

Makes about 3 cups

Keep the buttermilk in the fridge until the last minute so it stays cold. This will help get the overall mixture cold and prevent formation of ice crystals.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons grated lemon peel
• Pinch of salt
• 1 2/3 cups buttermilk (chilled)

Whisk sugar, lemon juice, lemon peel, and salt in a bowl until sugar dissolves. Whisk chilled buttermilk into mixture. Prepare in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

We just came back from visiting Will’s family in South Carolina! It was so relaxing. I read 4 books (including The Hunger Games SO GOOD), stuffed myself with fried chicken, and, let’s be honest, watched a lot of reality television. And received this trivial pursuit question during a game with my sister-in-law, Brianna and her boyfriend. Q: What animal is produced when a bottle-nosed dolphin is crossed with a false killer whale. A: A wholphin. FOR REAL.

One spectacularly hot day, our friends Vickie and Mike invited us to their lakehouse.

We did this:

And this:

And a whole lot of this:

Will’s mom and sister, Lily, and I baked this pie, too. There are a good amount of steps, but the sweet peaches, creamy custard, and buttery crust are well worth the effort. You know what else is worth the effort? Driving down a country road for boiled peanuts and an ice cold Coke.

Happy August, everyone!

PEACH CUSTARD PIE (from Martha Stewart Living, June 2011)

Serves 8

Ingredients (Pate Brisee)

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

Salt

2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter cut into small pieces

1/3 to 2/3 cup ice water

Recipe (Pate Brisee)

Dump flour, sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt in  bowl, mix until combined. Cut butter into flour mixture using either a pastry cutter or 2 knives, until mixture looks like coarse meal. Slowly pour 1/3 cup ice water over flour/butter mixture, and stir in with a fork until dough holds together when pressed together with two fingers. Dough should be damp, but not wet or sticky. If dough is too dry, add more ice water by the tablespoon until dough is proper consistency.

Divide dough in half and pat into 2 disks. Wrap plastic wrap around in disk. Place in refrigerator until firm, (at least one hour and up to one day).

Ingredients (Pie)

4 medium ripe but firm peaches (about 1 1/3 pounds)

2 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Pinch of salt

Recipe (Pie)

While Will and I were in NJ during our wedding week, we popped up to NYC to visit Will’s brother, Joe, and Joe’s girlfriend, Caitlin. It was great. And I forgot to bring my camera with me. Both days. Roops. Here’s what we did.

1. Ate at Salt & Fat (highly recommended– particularly the pappardelle pasta with slow cooked egg, mushrooms, and peas and also the marshmallow ice cream. Genius)

2. Went to Coney Island (quite a place. Highlight– watching old Mexican men crab off the pier while listening to Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” on max volume on a boombox).

3. Ate chili cheese fries from the original Nathan’s in Coney Island

4. Ate Pho in Chinatown

5. Drank beer and played cards outside at the Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden (We played spoons. I thought I made my way to an early victory in the first round and shouted, “Gimme mah spoon bitch,” and then discovered that “four of a kind” is not the same as “four of a suit.” I also started referring to our delicious pitchers of Spaten as “delicious pitchers of Spock” late in the evening).

6. Made the ultimate hangover breakfast. Elizabeth’s Huevos Rancheros.

Salty, crispy, and fried, with cured breakfast meat. It needs no further introduction. Happy hangover, friends.

ELIZABETH’S HUEVOS RANCHEROS (from various internet sources)

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 link precooked chorizo, chopped

Canola oil

4 corn tortillas

1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese

4 eggs

Refried beans

Salsa

Hot sauce

Cilantro, chopped

Recipe

Crack eggs into a bowl, or (even more helpfully) a cup with a pouring spout.

Get all your toppings (beans, salsa, hot sauce, cilantro) into bowls and ready. You’ll want to eat these huevos while they’re hot.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add chorizo. Let the chorizo get hot sweat out its oil. Remove the chorizo from pan, leave the oil behind. This is what you will fry your tortillas in.

Place tortillas in skillet. Cook them in the oil until they’re brown, then flip them over in the pan.

Once they’re flipped, sprinkle on some cheese and plop an egg on top.

Once the egg white start to turn from clear to, well, white, flip the whole huevo over in the pan and let it cook 1 minute more. The egg and cheese will make a big mess.

Take huevo out of the pan, place it egg/cheese side up on a plate, garnish with chorizo and any other toppings you’d like. Enjoy with a huge cup of iced coffee.

I didn’t buy Will a present this year, but I did make him one. No, it was not a coupon for free hugs. I told him I’d make create a chef’s tasting menu with wine pairings. Everything would be a surprise. Thinking of a menu was a fun challenge! While I wanted to do something elaborate, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t too overwhelming and that most of it was make ahead so a) I didn’t cry, causing Will to spend part of his birthday consoling me and b) I could actually enjoy the meal without worry about the next course. I had a great time pouring over cookbooks and websites, and eventually decided on a menu. To start, I made a salad of warm figs, goat cheese, arugula, and a balsamic reduction. The main was Cacio e Pepe (homemade spaghetti with Pecorino Romano and black pepper). For dessert, I knew Will would most prefer something very chocolate-y, but I also didn’t want it to be too heavy, and I wanted it to be seasonally appropriate. So I busted out my brand spanking new ice cream maker (thanks for the wedding present, Kyle!) and made the richest, chocolate-iest frozen dessert I have ever tasted. Thank you David Lebovitz!

We did something else that was very fun last week as well. Several months ago, I found a Groupon for 70% off a whitewater rafting trip (wetsuit and complimentary disc of photos included). We decided to cash it in and spend it last week.

The Groupon was from Buffalo Joe’s Rafting. Before I’d bought the Groupon, I looked up reviews of the company to make sure they weren’t advertising tickets due to a sketchy safety record or anything. All the reviews were great, and I’d like to add one more glowing comment to the bunch. We had an amazing time rafting with them and would definitely like to return for another trip (hopefully with another Groupon, but maybe without one too). We did the Browns Canyon Full Day package. The guides were very knowledgeable and fun and we felt like we were in really good hands. And they had a pretty killer lunch too. We pulled the raft over to a little beach where they grilled steaks and corn on the cob. It was an awesome day, and it brought us closer to the unfortunate realization that some of the most fun things are expensive. Sigh. Back to work, I suppose.

CHOCOLATE GELATO (from David Lebovitz’s Ready for Dessert)

Makes about 3 cups

Ingredients

5 oz (140 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup (50 g) unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-process

1 cup (250 ml) plus 1 cup (250 ml) whole milk

Pinch of salt

3/4 cup (150 g) sugar

4 large egg yolks

Recipe

Place chocolate in a big bowl.

Whisk cocoa, 1 cup of the milk, and salt together in a medium saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, then pour it over the chocolate and make sure to get any remaining liquid out with a spatula. Stir the chocolate mixture until it is smooth and all chocolate has melted. Place a mesh strainer on top of the bowl.

Use the same saucepan to warm the other 1 cup of milk and the sugar, and stir until sugar dissolves.

In a different bowl, whisk egg yolk together. Then whisk constantly as you slowly add a bit of the warm milk/sugar mixture. Pour warm yolks into the saucepan with the rest of the milk.sugar mixture. Turn the heat to low, stir constantly, and occasionally scrape the contents off the bottom of the pan using heatproof spatula. Stir until the mixture thickens up enough that it coats the spatula. Then, pour the custard you’ve made through the strainer placed atop the chocolate mixture, then stir them until they are smooth.

Place bowl with chocolate custard into an even bigger bowl filled with ice. Stir, stir, stir the custard until its cool (this will take a while, like 10 minutes for me, so you may want to bring a magazine). Once cool, cover the mixture with Saran or foil and refrigerate until its very cold.

Freeze in your ice cream machine using the manager’s instructions.