Sausage and Apple Pasta Salad

I decided to take a quick break from the flower parade to talk about cooking once again. Given that it's Summer, it's pasta salad time chez Moore. Both Matt and I appreciate its many qualities (quick, minimal heat output, good to take as a lunch).

I recently read an article on slate about the (apparently) much-maligned pasta salad. (And I would malign it too, if it were covered in mayonnaise (I call that macaroni salad, as though there's a difference). I disagree with the author, however, when she contends that a vinagrette is always the wrong sort of dressing for a pasta salad. On the other hand, I'm willing to consider her advice that generally fewer ingredients are better and that vegetables should be roasted or otherwise treated before finding their way into the pasta salad.

That said, this particular pasta salad includes raw bell pepper, (and five total non pasta/dressing ingredients). We were inspired to experiment by the presence of sweet apple and maple syrup chicken sausage in the sausage case (we usually buy the roasted garlic ones). Note that these are the big hot dog sized sausages, which I don't typically associate with breakfast, so we decided to try a variation on our standard pasta salad using these sausages.

Sausage and Apple Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

1 box multicolored rotini

1 pkg (four sausages) apple and maple syrup chicken sausage

1/2 bag frozen corn

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 Granny Smith apple, chopped

4 oz. extra sharp cheddar cheese, cubed

olive oil

1 lemon

salt, pepper, herbs

Directions:

Cook rotini as directed on package.  Corn may be added along with the rotini.  

Meanwhile, grill or otherwise cook the sausages.  Slice into 1/4 inch thick circular pieces.

Drain rotini-corn mixture and rinse with cool water.

In a large bowl, assemble pasta, sausage, peppers, apples, and cheese.  In a small dish, make dressing with juice of one lemon, olive oil (about the same amount), salt, pepper and herbs to taste (I used my Penzey's Country French Vinagrette mix which has little of everything in it).  Coat pasta/veggie/meat/cheese mixture.  Serve or cover and refrigerate.

Review:

I think it's generally good but I think I would prefer this same salad with a plainer type of sausage.  This sausage is a little too sweet for me.  Matt likes it the way it is.

Heliopsis

I'm a big fan of the heliopsis. I find them quite cheerful (as I am apt to find any yellow flower) and I appreciate that they don't smell awful the way daisies do despite their generally daisy-like appearance. These heliopsis are planted in the front yard in a huge mass with the echinacea. The bees and butterflies seem generally to like them. They are, in my limited experience, quite low maintenance.

Roses

Unfortunately, I still haven't figured out a proper way to maintain my blogging schedule in addition to everything else. I'm still hopeful that I can find a solution.


Today, I have roses to present. On the left, we have a lovely bud and below an open flower. Both pictures were taken on a rainy morning almost two weeks ago. The variety is Tahitian Sunset, and it's really quite lovely. The bush is currently huge, leafy and covered in buds to bloom again (the first four blooms have already passed). I am experiencing a bit of a beetle problem, so I broke down and sprayed it with some pesticide-style stuff.

Peonies

First and foremost, I'd like to apologize about the length of time since my last post. My readers (Hi Mom!) certainly know that it's been a hectic month, with my thesis proposal, Keisha's graduation, the cold Keisha gave me and our new addition to the family, a beautiful Newfoundland puppy named Iorek after the armored bear in Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass (and the rest of the trilogy).

Last weekend we had a rather unpleasant heat wave, but the upside is that we have been jolted into summer, so I begin a series of posts about my summer flowers. We begin with the peonies, which are one of the very few flowers that neither Gue nor I planted at our house. Unlike all of the flowers I have featured so far, these lie in the bed on the East side of the house. They're contained by those metal cage things but clearly far exceed the size of them and are flopping all about the place (and over the irises, which I believe Gue planted). I may need to get brave and split these whenever that would be appropriate.

Here's the accompanying detail shot of the peonies. These weren't a flower I had a previously formed opinion on, but I have to say that they have won me over; it's largely the scent, I think, although it may be how little work I've done for them to be this way. I desperately need to weed their bed though (ugh).

Crabapple and rhododendron

Unfortunately for me, the crabapple tree was at peak last weekend while I was in Claremont for my five year reunion. Luckily for you, however, my wonderful husband obliged me by taking pictures. I tried taking a few more yesterday, but they were so obviously inferior to the ones he took (in the beauty of the tree, hopefully they were comparable in quality of photography) that I deleted them from the computer. As you can see in both the pictures of the whole tree and the details, the flowers on this beauty are fuschia: gorgeous, bold and striking. By now, about a third are on the ground and the remaining blossoms have started to fade to a nondescript pink. Nothing lasts, but I do know what I'm looking forward to next year.



The rhododendron had just started to bud before I left for California, but when I came back I was greeted by the welcome sight of its delicate pink blossoms. We bought and planted this rhododendron last July, so I didn't know exactly what color it would be. I find it to be quite lovely (the blossoms remind me somewhat of those of the pink cherry tree we planted). Unfortunately, the leaves are a bit brown at the edges (and have been since the end of winter...or more likely since sometime during the winter). I'm not quite sure how to rectify this particular situation.

Various dinners from a while ago

Pictured on the left (on the fine china!), we have lemon-rosemary chicken (grilled) with roasted potatoes and balsalmic asparagus.  This meal took place almost a month ago and I've been too busy to write it up.  The chicken recipe is from the (small) Williams-Sonoma Grilling book (which is highly recommended by Matt & I--we haven't had a single bad thing from it).  The chicken had great flavor and the marinade was fairly easy.  If you're interested in the recipe, I'd be happy to pass it on.  The potatoes are quartered red potatoes, roasted in olive oil with garlic, salt, pepper and rosemary.  The asparagus is cooked the way I cook asparagus (sautéed, with balsalmic vinegar drizzled over it at the last second of cooking.

Another entrée from Grilling is pictured here on the right.  This shrimp is grilled on skewers (see below) alternating with big chunks of blanched garlic (the recipe calls for cloves of regular garlic, we used thirds/quarters of elephant garlic cloves) and basted with a spicy tomato sauce.  It's delicious and fun.  As pictured, we served it over a wild rice blend and with asparagus (I cooked it the same way described above--I like it that way).  As with the chicken, I'm happy to pass on the recipe if you actually want it.

Tulips, a bit late

I've had these pictures for a couple of weeks now.  I'm sorry I haven't posted.  I have been busy busy busy, but it's been a good sort of busy (thesis proposal out the door--my oral exam is scheduled for May 14th!)

The tulips pictured above are actually completely past now (but I have others that are still going strong and a whole new set that is just beginning to bud--so more to follow hopefully).  I am a particular fan of gently multicolored tulips and these completely fit the bill.  (I used to hate tulips since I associated them with regimented rows of bright red and bright yellow.)

These pink and pale yellow tulips to the left are among my favorite groupings.  (There were also two white ones in this group, but they had not yet bloomed as of this picture).  These tulips, like the first set, are in the beds in front of the house, but unlike the first are still hanging on for a little longer.

Down by the evergreens, the tulips are not yet passed but the daffodils shown in some of the pictures are. Below is my favorite tulip picture. It makes a great background for my computer desktop. 

The tulip groups in the evergreen bed are predominantly pink and pale yellow, although I saw one yesterday that I would describe as "orange sorbet".  In any event, they're lovely.  With regards to the daffodils pictured below, I love seeing the dew glint on the grass in the background.

 

Coming soon: flowering crabapple and the now blooming rhododendron!

New Additions

Our grub problem, which resulted in a nasty mud patch, has actually proved to be a boon to us.  While at Country max, looking for the necessary items for reseeding, we noticed this little beauty.  (The pink one.)  This is an Autumn Flowering Cherry (Prunus subhirtella 'Autumnalis').  It's already doing a beautiful job at cheering up our yard.

It is joined in this endeavor by our new Snow Fountain Cherry (Prunus x 'Snofozam').  We couldn't choose between the two types, so we decided to go with one of each.  A little bit of variety and a lot of beauty.

There is also some new flower bed beneath the two trees.  We're slowly but surely transferring our outdoor work to me from Matt.  At least it's pretty.

Daffodil Update

Two more daffodils up by the house bloomed during the day (as did one down at the corner):

First blooming daffodil! (with four hyacinth)

I am pleased to announce that here, we have our first blooming daffodil.  Daffodils are, without a doubt, my favorite flower (spring, summer, indoor, outdoor).  Nothing seems as cheerful to me as happy yellow daffodils.  All (or at least most) of my daffodils are grouped with various hyacinth, to provide multiple colors to the groupings since they're supposed to bloom at similar times.  I have to say that I'm pleased with the results in this particular early blooming group.  I do have several other daffodils that might open today or at the latest, tomorrow, so there will certainly be more pictures to come.

Also, since I still have numerous beautiful croci, I thought I'd throw in this shot looking straight down at them, since they're quite lovely that way.  (Also, this particular grouping is very nice since it has one of each color). 

Des Gaufres! (Waffles)

Waffles are one of our (we being Matt & I) favorite breakfasts. To imagine that he once dated someone who didn't like waffles. What pain he endured! How can you deny someone this kind of deliciousness?
It turns out that making really great fluffy-on-the-inside, crispy-on-the-outside waffles from scratch is so easy that I haven't even considered using a mix since the first time I made this recipe. It does mean that I keep buttermilk in the fridge as a staple ingredient, however. I'll admit that that may be slightly peculiar, but if you make these waffles, I'll bet you'll do the same (especially since there are many other delicious things to be made with buttermilk).  The recipe below is based off the recipe in the Joy of Cooking, using the buttermilk modifications and the least amount of butter.

Buttermilk Waffles

Ingredients:

1 3/4 c. flour 

1 Tbsp. sugar

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

4 Tbsp. melted butter

1 1/2 c. buttermilk

3 eggs

Directions:

In a medium-large bowl, mix the dry ingredients.  I typically whisk them together since I use a whisk for the rest of the mixing and there's no point dirtying more dishes.  In the above pictured waffle, I used 1 1/4 c. all purpose flour and 1/2 c. white whole wheat flour.  They came out great and tasted very much like the ALL all purpose flour version.  

In a medium-small bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk and melted butter.  Whisk this mix into the dry ingredients just to combine.  Cook 'em in your waffle maker.  Eat 'em however you like.  I recommend with real maple syrup (we buy the largest size Wegman's sells--the Club Pack--I'm not lying).

Croci! Many, many croci!

Well, as the title of the post implies, I have many croci growing now.  I made the mistake of putting them all in the bed that Matt and I put in last fall (down by the corner, where the poor little spruce is).  Next year there shall be even more croci and there shall be some in the beds right in front of the house.  This particular grouping on the right is one of my favorites, since the yellow flower in front is the first one that bloomed.

I had failed to understand how cheerful croci make me.  I love the bright colors and each day I like to go down to the corner and see how many more are blooming.  To the left we have a grouping that is accidentally fairly monochromatic.  I'm not really sure how I could prevent this.  It does show off the darker purple croci that are not visible in the first picture.

Just for good measure, I'm adding a picture of one more grouping (there are 2 or 3 others that I didn't photograph).  

Sweater Update Number Two

It's been a while since I provided any kind of sweater update.  I now have a front and a back.  These pictures are both of the same side, but the two sides look as identical as I am capable of making them.  I'm pretty happy with how they have come out.  Now I need to knit some sleeves.  I'm sure I'll be done by the hot part of the summer.  Oh well.

The first crocus of Spring!

Saturday, I saw my first blooming crocus of the year!  I'm so happy that color and flowers are back!

My Birthday Orchid

Matt bought me this orchid (to the right) for my birthday.  He actually got it at Wegmans, which may sound silly to anyone who hasn't experienced Wegmans, but I have to say that I was quite excited about it at the time and I still am now.

Since my birthday was almost a month ago, I've evidently had this orchid for a little while.  I'm pleased to say that it is still alive, still blooming, and still beautiful.  It has been quite easy really.  It came with directions and I have been following them quite carefully.  In essence, while the orchid is blooming the directions boil down to water the orchid once a week with room temperature water and allow the moss in which it is planted to dry out between each watering.

Hot Cross Buns (a little late, I know)

Unfortunately, this photo is significantly less lovely than my photo of the beef and broccoli.  I assure you, however that these hot cross buns are no less delicious.  They are, perhaps, a little out of season, but they are too yummy to relegate to Lent.  I think they should enjoy a prominent place in breakfast menus year round.

Before we get to the recipe, I'm going to emphasize that I use rapid rise yeast in all yeast bread that I bake.  This means that the temperatures of liquids can be a bit higher than usual, and that there's no tempering process, most of the ingredients are just mixed right away.

I never used to like hot cross buns, when Matt would buy them at the grocery store.  Then, the spring before we got married, we were in Maine for wedding planning purposes shortly before Easter.  We stopped at Matt's favorite bakery in Brunswick (Wild Oats), where they had the most phenomenal hot cross buns.  They were lemon-ey and cardomom-ey and completely delicious.  I then set out on a crusade to learn to make them that way myself.  Here's the recipe I came up with (based loosely on the recipe in the Joy of Cooking). 

Hot Cross Buns

Ingredients:

3 1/2-4 c. flour

1 packet of yeast

3 Tbsp. sugar

1 c. + 3 Tbsp. milk (125-135 degrees)

5 Tbsp. melted butter

1 egg

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. cardamom

1 tsp. salt

1/2 c. currants

zest of one lemon

squeeze of lemon juice

For glaze and crosses:

juice of one lemon

powdered sugar

Directions:

Boil some water.  Put the currants in a small bowl and pour the boiling water over them.  Cover and set aside for around thirty minutes.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (with the bread hook attached), combine 2 cups of flour, yeast, spices, lemon zest, sugar, egg, melted butter and milk.  Mix with bread hook.  I recommend using bread flour for these two cups.

Add more flour (I usually add all-purpose here, and this time I used 1/2 c. of white whole wheat, with absolutely no ill effects).  When you've added the better part of the remaining 1.5-2 cups, drain and add the currents.  I recommend adding them in small groups and then adding more flour, since the addition of the currents will make the dough wetter. I usually add a quick squeeze of lemon juice (not too much--you don't want to mess up the chemistry). In the end,  the dough should be well worked, elastic and not too sticky (and deliciously currant-studded).

Place the dough in an oiled bowl and leave in a warm place to rise.  When the dough has doubled, roll it into balls (depending on my mood I make between 13 and 18 rolls) and place them on a cookie sheet (leave some space since they're going to rise again, but I think it's nice if they touch after rising).  Cover with oiled plastic-wrap.  Leave to rise until double again.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Brush the rolls lightly with a beaten egg.  Place them in the oven.  Let bake for around 15 minutes.  The rolls should sound hollow if you knock on them.  While the rolls bake, juice the lemon.  Strain the juice into a bowl and mix with powdered sugar to create a glaze.  Brush the glaze onto the warm rolls after removing them from the oven.  Cover all available surfaces.  Mix in more powdered sugar until you form a stiff paste.  Once the rolls have cooled, use this paste (and I usually use a fork as my drawing implement), to draw crosses on the rolls.  Enjoy.

My poor little spruce

Last fall, Matt and I created a new flower bed and planted two evergreen trees (a type of cedar and a colorado spruce) near the corner of our lot.  We did this for several reasons: to break up the huge expanse of grass on that side, to give a little winter color, to eventually have more privacy and to create an additional barrier (since apparently, the rocks around the edge of our lot are to stop stupid kids from cutting across the corner in their cars).

Last weekend, much to my chagrin, this is what I found:

That's right.  Someone drove into our yard and OVER our tree.  I will admit to having been extremely angry about this.  Luckily, my wonderful Step-Mother-in-Law and my Father-in-Law came over to help me right the poor thing.  It's currently tied to keep it upright and I hope it'll be ok.  It's hard to tell from the angle from which I took that picture, but it's also missing about a thirty degree angle's worth of branches in the direction from which it was run over.

On a more hopeful note:

Sadly, it snowed last night but it really isn't supposed to last, so hopefully I'll have actual flowers too.

Mom's Beef and Broccoli (partially from the freezer)

I hope that makes you hungry.  I've been playing around with trying to learn good food photography techniques, and while this is far from perfect, I feel like it's a decent start.

Anyway, this dish is easy, makes great leftovers, tastes very much like a restaurant version of beef and broccoli and is a prime candidate for freezer cooking.  In fact, in this particular version pictured above, I prepared the beef and marinade at least a month ago and stuck it in the freezer.    I simply thawed it this morning, chopped the veggies, made the rice and cooked that sucker.  To save even more time, you could definitely chop the veggies ahead and freeze them in a separate bag from the meat.  Then you'd have your own home-made stir fry pack.  If you do that you might want to attach the two bags somehow (put them both in a larger bag?).

Although the recipe that I got from my mom is labeled oyster beef (due to the oyster sauce), here we shall call this:

Mom's Beef and Broccoli

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. steak, sliced very thin (I usually use strip steak, this time I used sirloin)

1 lb. bite size veggies (I probably do about half broccoli and the rest carrots, onions and bell peppers--you could certainly use any veggies that appeal to you)

peanut oil, sesame oil, red pepper flakes

2 Tbsp. lite soy sauce

2 Tbsp. water

1 Tbsp. corn starch

3 Tbsp. oyster sauce (I recommend the spicy version)

Directions:

Using a ziploc baggie, marinate the beef in a sauce made from the last four ingredients for at least 15 minutes.  As mentioned above, the bag could just be labeled and tossed in the freezer at this point.  I always end up making too much, so I usually need 1.5-2 times the sauce.

Heat (about 1.5-2 Tbsp.) peanut oil (with dash of sesame oil and pepper flakes as desired) in a wok or large saute pan.  Dump the veggies in and stir fry to desired crispness (mom's version says about 3 min.--since I make to much this always takes me somewhat longer).  Remove veggies from pan and set aside.  

Heat another 1.5-2 Tbsp. oil mixture in the wok/pan.  Add the beef (thawed, if previously frozen) and cook until pink.  Add the veggies back to pot and complete cooking the beef.  Sauce can be thinned with additional water.

Serve over rice.

Strata

Once again, I have to apologize for not writing.  I've been a trifle busy of late. 

I made a lovely strata the other week though, that I've wanted to discuss for some time, and I think I'll just make this a general discussion of strata.

In case you are a member of my family (or one like mine) where we never ate strata, I'll first define it.  A strata is kind of like a cross between a bread pudding and baked French toast, and can contain a wide variety of ingredients other than the bread and the egg custard.  It's characterized by several layers of slices bread (and whatever else you're putting in) and then you cover it with the egg custard, let it sit (preferably overnight) and then bake.  It's pretty easy.  It's yummy and it heats up well for leftovers.

I made my first strata this August for our housewarming (spinach and mediterranean spiced feta), which was a brunch event.  I made another intended for breakfast [with roasted peppers, onions and cheddar (or swiss or jack)] some time later, and then two weeks ago, I made a distinctly dinner (although obviously brunch would work--just not straight-up breakfast) strata with roquefort and pears (inspired by The Best of Cooking Light--the combo is theirs--but I never quite follow strata recipes because they never seem to have enough eggs/liquid).

Basic Strata

Ingredients:

1 8 oz. carton eggs whites

2 eggs

1-2 c. milk

loaf of italian bread, sliced

type of cheese

other stuff

Directions:

Cover the bottom of a large (and deep) casserole dish with slices of bread (which can be slightly stale if you want).  Make a layer of your cheese and other stuff.  Make another layer of bread, and then toppings, and possibly, depending on the depth of your casserole dish and the height of your slices, make another layer of bread (and put just a touch of cheese on top in this case).

In a bowl, mix together the egg whites, the eggs and the milk.  Pour over the layered bread/stuff.  Cover and stick in the fridge for 3 -24 hours.  Bake at 375 for around an hour.

Notes:  The pear and roquefort strata recipe in cooking light  called for white wine (a couple of cups to be poured over the bread).  This is generally available for other recipes as well.  Even with a relatively sweet strata like pear and roquefort, I don't strictly recommend making do with the moscato you opened for your birthday, as the bubbles create a some strange foaminess.

Niki's Mistake Coffee Cake

Sorry I haven't updated recently!

This evening, I was attempting to make currant scones, but I wasn't paying enough attention to the recipe.  I realized after it was too late that I had added 2 times as much milk as I needed, so the dough wasn't anywhere near firm enough to make into scones.  What to do?  I added another cup of flour, sprinkled some cinnamon sugar on top, and called it a coffee cake.  I just snitched some, and it's not bad. 

Niki's Mistake Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

3 c. flour

1/3 c. sugar

1 Tbsp. baking powder

6 Tbsp. butter

1/2 c. currants

1 egg

1 c. milk (I use skim)

cinnamon sugar for topping

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425.  Mix first three ingredients in a medium bowl.  Cut in butter until you have crumb to pea sized pieces.  Stir in currants.  Mix together milk and egg, and stir in quickly to dry ingredients.  Press dough into 9 by 9 pan.  Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top.  Bake for 25ish minutes until knife comes out clean.  Cool.

Notes:  raisins would work fine in place of the currants, you could add slightly more if you like, also a little more sugar in the dough (maybe a 1/2 c. instead) might be more your style.

Sweater Update Number One

My progress on the sweater has been a little sporadic.  It's been a "two steps forward, one step back" kind of process (heck, once or twice it was more like two steps back).  I had been accidentally dropping stitches off the edge, so I was unable to pick them back up with a crochet hook.  Several inches of this sweater have been knit at least twice.  

But I have got nearly nine inches worth of sweater and I'm a little less than three inches short of starting to make the armholes.  I'm also only two rows away from getting to start the stripe pattern again.  I'm still a little worried about it being too small, but from the measurement I made of it tonight, I'm slightly less worried than I was before.

With regards to my M1's I have to say that I don't think I ever knew how to do that before and I am totally hooked.  I love seeing the stitches appear out of nowhere and look like nothing happened at all.  Magnifique!

Starting a sweater

On Saturday, I bought the yarn for my newest knitting project (most recently, I made three hats and finished a scarf that I had started in early 2002): a sweater from Debbie Stoller's Stitch 'n Bitch which is a lovely stripey thing with raglan sleeves.  

This is the second sweater I've ever attempted.  The first was a disaster (although it was obviously a sweater when I finished, so I suppose it wasn't an unmitigated disaster).  I knit it in France in late 2001 and early 2002.  The biggest problems with it (amongst them a horribly pointy shoulder) were basically caused by the fact that I didn't know what I was doing.  I think I might now (with the help of the aforementioned book).  

With a little help from the ladies at the Village Yarn and Fiber Shop in East Rochester, I picked out the yarns I'll be using for this sweater.  It's a 75% acrylic/25% wool mix.  There were more interesting fibers available in the correct gauge, but not in such pretty colors. I picked out the colors of the sunset: dark red, fuschia, orange and yellow. 

I'm using size 2 (american) needles.  They are the smallest needles with which I have ever knit. I also made my first swatch ever (I told you I didn't know what I was doing as I made the other sweater).  I used the yellow since that's the color that appears least in the sweater.

I even got started knitting and now have a stripe of every color (sorry the close up is dark, but the flash makes it look extremly strange).  I am coming up on my first row where I have to increase pretty soon, so we'll see how well I understand her description of the make one increase (M1) in a little bit. 

Knock-off Banzai Burgers

I have been fascinated recently with freezer cooking (as in making a lot of food ahead of time and freezing it and reheating it later, see for example, 30daygourmet.com).  I saw a recipe for burgers that reminded me of Red Robin's Banzai Burger, but this one had the pineapple mixed in and sweet and sour sauce.  I decided to try something a little closer to the Banzai Burger and went with the following

Knock-off Banzai Burgers

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs. ground beef

1/4 c. teriyaki sauce

1/4 c. bread crumbs

pineapple rings

lettuce

tomato

mayo

cheddar

buns

Directions:

Mix together first three ingredients, form 6 1/4 lb. patties.  Grill pineapple rings and burgers.  Serve with any or all of the other toppings.

I cooked two today, and froze the other four.  I'll comment later about how well they froze.  The flavor is good (we just ate ours plain--no cheese/tomato/lettuce/mayo).  

Football and clam dip

Starting a couple of years ago, our local grocery chain, Wegman's, stopped carrying clam dip.  Matt and I both viewed that as a personal affront, seeing as it is our preferred dip for potato chips.  

Yesterday, for the playoff football games (Go Pats!), we decided to try our hand at making our own clam dip.  

Clam Dip

Ingredients:

1 8 oz pkg neuchatel or cream cheese (thawed)

1/2 c. sour cream (I used light but not nonfat)

2 5.5 oz cans minced clams (we only had one and it wasn't enough)

clam juice  to taste (we used about 4 oz)

worchestershire sauce  to taste (we used about 2 Tbsp)

generous pinch white pepper

2 Tbsp. minced scallions  

Directions:

Put all ingredients except scallions in a medium bowl, and beat using an electric mixer until completely mixed and it has the consistency you'd expect for dip.  Stir in scallions.  Eat with potato chips while watching football.

Welcome!

This is the first of hopefully many posts.  I'm excited to have a place to discuss the things I like other than optics (which is generally what the rest of my website is devoted to).  The plan is to discuss knitting in the winter, gardening in the summer and cooking/baking/eating at all times of year.  Unfortunately for my ability to currently discuss these things, I probably won't cook again until Saturday and I'm on a spending freeze and can't buy yarn until later this month at the earliest.  I do have ambitious plans to make a sweater once I can buy the yarn and needles (smaller than any I currently own) to do so.  

I will mention that I made gnocchi for the first time earlier this week, from Mark Bittman's recipe in How to Cook Everything.  I wasn't super happy with my results the day of (they were a bit slimy) but they reheated really well and were much better on subsequent days.  I think the key may be spending more time making sure that they're thoroughly drained.