In case you're interested . . .

Oh man, I am looking forward to the weekend. My last few weekends have been packed with activity. First, there was the Kentucky Derby, a weekend filled with parties, some fairly successful betting, mint juleps, and large hats. Then, last weekend I flew back to DC to celebrate Mother's Day and my birthday. I came back on Monday morning, exhausted. Don't get me wrong, the last two weekends were unforgettable, but I am a little bit tired. The upcoming weekend is thankfully empty and I have nothing but sleep to catch up on, reading to do, and my neighborhood farmer's market to visit.

Anyway, I thought I would share a few links that I have been reading/watching this week. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

- David Lebovitz on how to prepare and cook artichokes.

- Take ten minutes to watch this short film that brings to life David Foster Wallace's 2005 commencement speech This Is Water — an insightful and compelling discussion about awareness, choice, and education.

- Obligatory post because I live in Louisville, but also because (embarrassingly enough) I always laugh at the "I think I ate the bones" commercial.

- This spring salad looks amazing.

- One of the (many thousand) reasons I'm jealous of NYC residents: they have a Bluth Frozen Banana Stand.

- Love & Lemons has posted a creamy leek and almond pasta, that I want to eat immediately.

- Kale salads have become cool. I use kale in pasta, soup, and smoothies, so I guess I shouldn't be averse to this.

- While I would like to start composting, I'm not yet convinced I should do it in an apartment.

Cannellini Bean Salad

Last weekend was my birthday and KT surprised me with my very own Atlas Pasta Machine, along with a pasta drying rack, and a pasta-making book. It was totally unexpected and an incredible gift — I was giddy flying back to Louisville with the seven-pound pasta machine jammed into my tiny carry-on suitcase (the Atlas machine did not worry TSA one bit) and I wanted to start experimenting immediately.



The result of my first foray into the amazing world of homemade pasta was pretty successful — I didn't get flour all over my house, the machine worked beautifully, and the fettuccine didn't fall apart when I cooked it or ate it. But, I'm going to hold out on posting about pasta for at least a week as the recipe needs a few tweaks before I send anyone out to replicate my experiments.

Instead, today I thought I would share a white bean salad recipe that I make often. I eat the salad on its own with pita bread, as a side dish, or I use it to bulk up my mason jar salads. Cans of cannellini beans are a staple in my house and as long as you have a few herbs in your fridge or growing on your porch, you can pull this salad together in no time.



Cannellini Bean Salad
Printer Friendly

Ingredients
- 1 15 oz. can of cannellini beans, lightly rinsed
- 3 tbsp. of a red onion, chopped
- 3 tbsp. parsley, chopped
- 1 tsp. of fresh rosemary and thyme, chopped
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 1-2 tsp. red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp. lemon juice (squeeze half a lemon over the salad for a few seconds)
- salt and pepper to taste
- pita bread, toasted

Preparation
Chop the red onion and place it in a bowl with the lemon juice and red wine vinegar (allowing the onion to sit in the acidity while you prepare the rest of the salad will help prevent bad onion breath). Rinse the cannellini beans and add them to the bowl, add the parsley, rosemary, thyme, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Mix together and serve with toasted pita bread, or add it to a salad for protein.

The salad is best after it has sat for a few hours in the fridge and is really good when eaten the next day.

Cheddar-Jalapeno Drop Biscuits

My friends, I am not a baker. No, I lack the variety of skills that one might consider essential to baking effectively: patience, time, energy, an OCD-like drive to make exact measurements, or a willingness to inhale flour particles day and night. Perhaps more daunting to me is the ever-present fear of one misplaced measurement leading to huge mistakes that will rob me of an afternoon's worth of work. Then, a month ago, I ate some cheddar-jalapeno biscuits at a coffee shop and my general fear and dislike of baking quickly disappeared.  Those sweet and spicy savories have been dancing in my head ever since. I wanted more biscuits, and I wanted to make them. Crazy, right? The result was biscuits that were surprisingly easy to make and were perfect with my breakfast this past weekend.

Cheddar-Jalapeno Drop Biscuits (makes about 12 biscuits)

Print Version

Ingredients

- 2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour

- 3/4 cold, unsalted butter cut into small pieces

- 1 c. buttermilk well shaken

- 2.5 tsp. baking powder

- 3/4 tsp. salt

- 3/4 tsp. baking soda

- 1 tbsp. sugar

- 4 tbsp. jalapenos finely diced

- 8 oz. grated cheddar cheese 

- 1/4 tsp. black pepper

- a pinch of cayenne pepper

 

Preparation
1. Set your oven to 425 degrees. In a bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, sugar, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.

2. Cut the butter into small pieces and rub the butter by hand into the dry ingredients until the mixture becomes coarse. OR, another, faster, option is to place the dry ingredients and the butter into a food processor to mix them together.

3. Next add the cheddar cheese and jalapenos and mix well.

4. Slowly add the buttermilk into the bowl until you have a sticky dough. 

5. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a 1/4 c. of dough per biscuit drop the biscuits onto the parchment paper keeping them around 2 inches apart.

6. Bake for 15 - 18 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Serve warm with breakfast (or at any point during the day). 

Derby Essential #2: Mint Juleps

OK everyone, it is Derby day and KT and I are ready with what everyone needs for the Derby: Mint Juleps. Before I moved to Louisville I had never had a mint julep and I assumed that there were a lot of ingredients involved in making the drink. Not true. There are only three ingredients in a mint julep - mint, bourbon and sugar. The recipe for the juleps we have been drinking this weekend are below:

Mint Juleps:

- 2.5 oz. bourbon (or just pour)

- 1 tsp. granulated sugar (or a sugar cube)

- crushed ice (or ice cubes)

- 5-6 mint leaves

- 1 mint sprig for a garnish

Place the sugar and mint in your glass and muddle them together. Add your ice, bourbon, and the spring of mint and serve!

Have a great derby!