Parker House in da Parkers' House!

Earlier, this week, my quartet paid tribute to its origins through our favorite activities: cooking and eating! We made a Parker House/Boston inspired dinner that included Parker House rolls, New England Clam Chowder, Boston Baked Beans, and, of course, Boston Cream Pie.

Happy and excited to share our food! Missed a picture of Dan with his baked beans, but we do have footage of him spectating with the guests--

The full spread: Parker House rolls; Boston Baked beans; Miso-Curry Delicata Squash; Parsnip and Carrot Gratin; New England Clam Chowder; Sautéed Collard Greens; Boston Cream Pie; Sam Adams

Kimchi and Korean food

My mother knows that cooking has become an increasingly important part of my life, so on her last trip to Korea, she picked up some spices for me that, while available in the U.S., are just better over there. Amongst these spices were hot, Korean chili flakes, dried and crushed at home by my aunts. These chili flakes were destined to be used for kimchi!

Kimchi, of course, calls for a Korean feast, so Patrick and I invited Lydia, Jason, and Chuck over to enjoy some hearty Korean food with us. We made our own KimBab (rice rolled in seaweed with various fillings) and DaenJang Chigae (fermented soybean stew).

  

KimBab: black, brown, sweet brown, and white rice; pickled radishes; sesame-soy spinach; honey-soy shiitake mushrooms; egg

DaenJang Chigae, seasoned sesame leaves, KimBab, rice, Kimchi, and mixed greens with sesame-rice vinegar dressing

Dinners of the week

Patrick made us a delicious Tilapia with orange bell peppers, red onions, and olives, which we ate with wild rice and brussel sprouts. He is an effortless chef!

Later in the week, we had Sophie and Jim over for dinner. Patrick and I have been trying to follow Julia Child's advice of having courage in the kitchen, so with that in mind, we decided to try our hands at making gnocchi. I had recently had pumpkin gnocchi with truffle sauce at a restaurant in Belgium, so we set out to re-create our version of that dish.

We used Anne Burrell's recipe for gnocchi, and

made half as suggested and half with pumpkin.

We used a food mill for the first time, which was

fun, but also kind of tiring!

The dough for the pumpkin gnocchi was more
dense and tacky than the pure potato gnocchi,
but had a nice flavor.

We made a crème fraîche-based sauce, threw in some parsley at the last minute, and topped it with walnuts and a drizzle of truffle oil.

And for dessert, we cooked some prunes in cognac and vanilla and served them with vanilla ice cream swirled with a chocolate cognac sauce. The warm prunes were soft and juicy and tasted great with the cold ice cream.

For love of butter

It's true: butter makes everything better. I've recently become infatuated with the tasty simplicity of sautéing bananas in butter with a little bit of sea salt. The bananas take on a delicious nuttiness, and they break down around the edges and and combine with the butter into a gooey, sweet sauce that is punctuated with juicy bits of banana. Patrick and I had this for breakfast over oatmeal spiced with a bit of cinnamon and cardamom, topped with toasted walnuts.

the return

Last night, I returned home from a long day of work, combed through my empty cabinets and refrigerator, and agonized over what to eat. My answer, it turned out, was in the freezer: Summer Veggie Pizza. The frozen pizza cooked up amazingly well, and in no time, I had a delicious and healthy meal in front of me! And it was great to bring back the memory of our Pizza Party while enjoying a quiet night at home.

attempting to toss the pizza dough

the spread: homemade whole-wheat crust, homemade baba ganoush, zucchini and yellow squash, shiitake mushrooms w/ lightly caramelized onions, pecorino and mozzarella cheese, pistachios, arugula w/ homemade lemon-herb dressing

Gina and Ian

Gina and Ian brought a Key Lime pie for dessert, which tasted great with the Lemon-Thyme cookies I had baked up.

Hanging on to summer

It is almost the end of September, and I find myself wishing that I could have a few more weeks with eggplant. In August, I went to the Birchwood Cafe and had a delicious Summer Veggie Pizza. The pizza was made with baba ganoush instead of tomato sauce, and among the unique toppings were pistachio and shiitake mushrooms.

Since I'm inspired to try to re-create this pizza at home, Patrick and I have decided to have a couple of friends over for a pizza party. We're going to attempt to make our own pizza crust, using this recipe. In case we have a disaster, we'll have some whole-wheat pita on hand. I thought we could turn it into a make-your-own-pizza party, so we'll have a bunch of toppings from which to choose. We'll also make a bunch of extra pizzas and freeze them. If this works out well, they could end up being the perfect thing to have in the freezer for when we return home from a long trips.


Karen's version of Summer Veggie Pizza

whole wheat crust

baba ganoush "sauce" (roasted eggplant, tahini, garlic, olive oil)

toppings: grilled zucchini and yellow squash, shiitake mushrooms, pecorino cheese, fresh mozzarella cheese, roasted pistachios, cherry tomatoes, arugula salad with lemon-herb dressing (parsley, basil, lemon juice, olive oil)