The legend of tuna noodle casserole...and other maternity advice.

Just entered Week 24! (App 1 tells me she's an ear of corn, and App 2 tells me she's a "demi-baguette.") The cutesy pregnancy literature out there calls the second trimester the "smooth second" because it's the most comfortable time...after the exhausting first trimester and before I become too big to bend over and buckle my sandals. I wouldn't have noticed that I'm nearly done with Part II of III except that Nick had to help me unbuckle a sandal yesterday, so I figured I'd better savor the next couple weeks and commemorate with another post.

As I mentioned in the reveal, I was pretty lucky as far as eating goes in the first trimester -- apart from a brief period of nausea and sometimes-debilitating smell-sensitivity, I didn't have terrible morning sickness nor insatiable, guilty cravings (with the exception of mac and cheese...miraculously I mostly craved fresh fruit). There was one minor meltdown circa Week 12 during which I sobbed into a previously-beloved bowl of ramen that tasted like a cast-iron pan, so filled with fear was I that food would never taste the same again. My older sisters -- one with a five-year-old and two-year-old, and the other with a nearly five-month-old -- reassured me relief was near.

That's been the most wonderful thing about being pregnant...your world becomes this loving melting pot of other people's advice (the most consistent piece being that you will get a lot of inconsistent advice), stuff (thank goodness for the generous collections of rotating maternity clothes, gender-neutral baby onesies and toys and gear) and traditions.

Around Week 16, I was getting pretty fed up (pun intended) with metallic-tasting food when my mom told me that while she was pregnant, she had had basically no appetite and awful morning sickness until a family friend brought over an unlikely meal: tuna noodle casserole and peach pie. She ate both with gusto and was apparently cured.

Regular readers may raise an eyebrow...Campbell's soup and canned tuna? I had grown up eating "tuna bake" with some regularity, and I assure you, it's delicious...but it had been probably over a decade since I had last eaten it. I got the recipe from my mom and gave it a try. It tasted like home, and I ate two giant pieces. Was I cured?? As it turned out, later that week I was back to metal-mouth -- my mom astutely pointed out it was probably because I hadn't made the peach pie -- but it didn't last much beyond that.

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Gretchen's Tuna Bake
Makes one 9x13" Pyrex (serves 8, or 2.5 pregnant women)

12 oz wide egg noodles
1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/2 can volume of milk
8-10 oz canned tuna (look for a brand/grade with low mercury, for Ms. Expecting)
1-2 c frozen green peas
1 c breadcrumbs
2 c shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 400*F. Cook egg noodles in boiling, salted water, according to package instructions. Toss cooked noodles with drained tuna (flaked with a fork) and frozen peas. Add soup plus one half can of milk, topping off the rest with water (= 1 full can of liquid once the soup has been emptied). Top with shredded mozzarella and breadcrumbs. Bake 30 min. or until golden brown and bubbly.

(Not-so) Extreme cooking.

Happy 2017! Regardless of your political convictions, many will agree that the back half of 2016 was ready for a Whole30 cleanse/detox of sorts. One of the things I look forward to most every January is the influx of inspiration for healthful recipes.

Now, readers of this blog might scratch their heads at the idea that I get enthusiastic about kale and coconut aminos, but in order to eat the way we publish, we eat reasonably healthfully between all the saturated fats. I believe in "Everything in moderation, including moderation," and I subscribe to the theory that a balanced diet is a glass of red wine in one hand and a bar of high-quality dark chocolate in the other.

Presenting: my add-to-anything secret weapons:

• Farro (okay, some people think grains aren't okay, but to them I say THEY ARE DELICIOUS AND FILLING)
• Avocado (the plant kingdom's butter) - as my dear friend Janet taught me last week, a pinch of black lava salt flakes makes it even better
• These roasted chickpeas (on salad/in grain bowls)
• Any roast vegetable with lemon juice

(As a matter of fact, you can mix all of these together and have an awesome lunch...maybe toss in nuts or sesame seeds for crunch, or an egg if you're super hungry?)

But after a while even the old stand-bys in different combinations can get boring -- this time of year sparks creativity in the kitchen as people desperately try to coax flavor and excitement out of raw foods and make awkward substitutes for what we really crave. I believe we should love kale for kale...don't sneak it into things where it doesn't belong, just for the health benefits. Don't make a burger and pretend beets are beef...cook beets in a way that celebrates their beet-ness.

In design, there's a theory that creating products and solutions for extremes (user-outliers such as super tall people or lefties -- my husband, in both cases). If you can solve the problem for those people, you can solve for everyone. In cooking, I learn flavor profiles and texture combinations from both ends of the health spectrum, and we never sacrifice deliciousness for nutritiousness.

Tonight's dinner included white pasta (*gasp!*) but a boatload of greens and bold flavor. The best thing was that it only took about 20 minutes to make, leaving me the rest of the evening to snuggle up with my blog.

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Sesame Kale Noodles

(adapted from The Kitchen Girl - amped the veggies and adjusted the sauce based on what I had at home)

Noodles for four (to me, that translates to 1/2-2/3 lb)

1/4 c sun butter

1 T sesame oil

Juice from 1 lemon

2 T water

1 T soy sauce

2 T olive oil

2 c Brussels sprouts (thinly sliced)

1/2 c red onion, diced

4 T sliced almonds

3 T black and white sesame seeds

6 c kale

1 T yuzu juice if you have any (or Meyer lemon - the yuzu made the sauce incredibly bright)

avocado (because see above)

Cook pasta in boiling, salted water according to package directions. Whisk together sun butter, sesame oil, lemon, water and soy sauce and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat and cook Brussels and onions for 4 minutes. Add almonds and sesame seeds and toss for another minute. Add kale and wilt for 2-3 minutes. Toss with sauce and noodles until warmed through/kale is wilted, then sprinkle with yuzu juice, more sesame seeds and avocado cubes.

Duck foie de deux.

When Nick and I set the date for our wedding, he solemnly vowed to celebrate our anniversary and my birthday (less than a week later) independently every year. Exceptions should certainly be made, however, in the event of edibles which can be enjoyed very differently across both occasions.

This year my parents sent a delightful package of treats from D'Artagnan, purveyor of many things decadent and delicious. We've squirreled most of them away for enjoyment over the winter...but not without trying a bit of everything first. The theme:

Image from reddit.com

Duck can be a little daunting to cook - it's bigger and tougher than chicken, and quite the workout to break down a whole one ("Can you even conceive of boning a duck???" - Julie & Julia). Having made my own confit before, I know how much work it can be. Fortunately our friends at D'Artagnan make it easy to celebrate the season - flavorful confit, rich sausage, and even a medallion of truffled foie gras. We ate like kings for a week, savoring and highlighting the ingredients in two ways:

#1: Fancy picnic (after a long week at work, didn't really feel like firing up the stove on a Friday night):

L plate: the last of the summer peaches with creamy Brillat-Savarin and challah; R plate: duck foie medallion spread on toast and served with balsamic-roasted figs

As the photographer said, "Hmm, foie gras is best admired from afar."

Our local wine store team's recommendation: a dessert wine alternative to the classic Sauternes (somewhere between a Port and an ice wine)

#2: Dumplings and noodles in soup (a weekend experiment with our favorite newlyweds, my sister and her husband):

Chopping duck confit for Confit-Foie-Morel ravioli filling...

...Mixed up with the remaining foie medallion and some chopped morels:

A little assistance from Whole Foods pasta sheets (no shame!):

Brushed with egg wash to seal the edges:

The biscuit cutter returns!

Waste not - trimmed pasta sheet remnants make rustic noodles in the mushroom broth:

We reconstituted the dried morels in vegetable stock; the Chemex proved useful in filtering out mushroom sand:

Mini morels for garnish, so you know what's inside:

Because a flavorful broth makes everything better:

Surprise! a dusting of porcini powder for an extra flavor punch:

Between the two preparations, it's hard to say which I liked better - picnic-style was all about highlighting flavors, while the dumplings were more about texture (and an excuse to make and eat dumplings).

(W-L) Pats 3-1, (Sunday Home Game Braises) Bev 2-0

The greatest scapes.

Happy summer, everyone! What a crazy start it's been, kicking off non-stop travel and/or hosting family in town for just about two straight months. We've also taken summer cooking to the next level with the wonderful addition of our Land's Sake CSA, which I've been anticipating for a while. Every Thursday I brave rush hour traffic into the suburbs to retrieve fresh greens, herbs and a continually evolving cornucopia of other delights. It sounds kind of silly, but it struck me the first time I was washing lettuce from the farm that there was actually dirt between the leaves. Each week fellow CSAers select a set of items from crates of harvested goods listed on a blackboard (last week: cone cabbage, rainbow chard, curly kale, Hakurei turnips, butter lettuce, zucchini, zephyr squash, dill, cilantro, garlic scapes), and then there are you-pick vegetables from the field as well (peas, thyme, sage).

It's been highly educational so far...first of all, I've never seen a pea on the vine. I actually caught myself giggling as I plucked the fat, green pods off their curly vines (could I help it if one or two popped right open into my hand, little jewels defying gravity and somehow falling upward into my mouth?). Let me tell you, it took me quite a bit of time and effort to harvest just one little basket of peas.

Secondly, I learned that you can eat turnip leaves! (They turned out lovely, sautéed with their roots in butter, served over farro.) Thirdly, garlic what? (Even Chrome spell check doesn't recognize "scapes.") The helpful weekly newsletter Land's Sake sends included both a description ("These wild tendrils, tamed into bunches each day, are actually the flower stalks of our garlic plants...although green and tender, scapes retain a garlic taste") and a recipe for garlic scape pesto. I adapted it just a tad by adding a bright zing of lemon and added my slaved-over field peas, and dinner was wonderfully garlicky, light and satisfying. Looking forward to whatever else this summer brings.

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Spaghetti with Garlic Scape Pesto and Sugar Snaps
Pesto makes 8 servings; use half the sauce with the listed amounts of spaghetti and peas, and keep the rest up to a week in the fridge/freeze after.

1 1/2 c roughly chopped garlic scapes
zest and juice from one lemon
1/2 t Kosher salt
1/4 t ground black pepper
1 c olive oil
1 c grated Parmesan cheese

~12 oz sugar snap peas (remove the tough strings on either side of the pod)
8 oz spaghetti

Bring salted water to a boil for the pasta. Meanwhile, combine garlic scapes, lemon zest and juice, salt and pepper in a food processor and pulse until well chopped but not smooth. With the food processor running, slowly pour olive oil in a stream to incorporate into a slightly chunky paste. Add cheese and pulse to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings as you like.

Cook pasta and in the last 2 minutes of cook time, add the peas and cook until bright green. Drain peas and pasta and add generous spoonfuls of pesto. Sprinkle a little more Parmesan, twirl on a fork and enjoy!

Thyme to refresh.

The new year is always a good time for fresh beginnings. This year instead of my usual resolution to eat smaller portions and/or more ancient grains and leafy greens, I decided to focus my food goals at more of a macro level:

1. Cook simpler on weeknights (save the big-bang meals for weekends)
2. Minimize food waste (mostly in the form of being more clever about how I use what I already have in the pantry, fridge or freezer)
3. Explore more ways to extend my love of food (suggestions welcome)

Let's start with #1...cooking simply doesn't mean you can't eat deliciously. I recently found a scallop dish that took less time to cook than it took to boil the water for the pasta we served it with. Fridge-to-table in fifteen minutes flat.

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15-Minute Scallops Provençal
Adapted from Ina Garten

(Serves 2)

1/4 lb linguine
3/4 lb fresh sea scallops
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
All-purpose flour
4 T (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 c minced shallots
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 t fresh thyme
1/4 c chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/3 c dry white wine
lemon wedges

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook linguine according to package instructions.

Meanwhile, cut each scallop in half horizontally through the Equator (keeps cook time short). Pat dry with paper towels, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss with flour (shaking off any excess).

Heat a large pan (you want to be able to lay the scallops out in a single layer with space between) over medium-high heat and add 2 T of butter. Before the butter starts browning, quickly add the scallops and lower the heat to medium. Brown scallops on one side for a minute or two (resist the temptation to poke at them), then turn and brown the other side for another minute. Melt the rest of the butter in the pan with the scallops; add shallots, garlic, thyme and parsley and saute for 2 min. Add the wine, cook for 1 min., taste and adjust seasonings. Serve hot over hot pasta with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Twist and spout.

As you might guess, I'm an easy person to get gifts for -- if I can cook it, eat it, or use it to cook something to eat, I'm happy as a clam. You may remember one of my Christmas gifts last year -- my very own stand mixer. So treasured is my prized possession that when people (frequently) say, "Oh! your green mixer matches your green kitchen," I quickly correct them, "No, my kitchen matches my mixer."

This year Nick's family got me the crown jewel of attachments I've had my eye on since before I got the mixer itself: the pasta extruder. Bolted to my little workhorse, this gem squeezes pasta dough through plates that generate different shapes and sizes: spaghetti, bucatini, macaroni, fusilli, and rigatoni, and a little cutting wire pivots to slice off pieces of pasta. The tool combines my before-I-can-remember love of pasta with excellent childhood playtime memories (remember this?).

If you are fortunate enough to have the equipment but are intimidated by making fresh pasta, fear not! I found a dozen recipes and instructions that either contradicted each other or seemed otherwise to require special incantations to get to work ("don't add ANY water!" / "the eggs must measure exactly 7/8 c!"), so I shut my eyes and attempted an average of them all.

2 c semolina flour + 2 c all-purpose flour + 4 eggs + 1 t salt + a drizzle of cold water

(Just mix the flour and salt, then add the eggs one by one until incorporated. Drizzle water -- you won't need much.) 

The dough was indeed very dry and crumbly looking (top photo), but it clumps together -- as the recipes say -- when you force it into walnut-sized lumps (bottom photo). In the end, the extruder forces all the bits to come together to make beautiful pasta. Between all my squealing, clapping, and photographing, I managed to remember to cut the lengths about the same as the dough squeezed through at an impressive clip. The first few were a bit wiggly, but they were a cinch after the first couple came through. Just relax and let the machine do the work! The result is absolutely worth it -- a toothsome, hearty noodle; the perfect vehicle for a tasty sauce. And it's so fun to watch:

Nick's sister was in town visiting after Christmas, so it was the perfect time to test out my new toy. An excellent cook herself (and fond Fun Factory veteran), Em prepared a dish she loves, inspired by shrimp fra diavolo. We all love spice, and the sriracha in her version adds not only heat but a pleasant bite of acid from the vinegar. We made fusilli, and the deep ridges in the corkscrews perfectly trapped the flavorful sauce.

I was thrilled with the result -- but as they say, making fresh pasta is both art and science, and I look forward to perfecting the dough recipe through many reps.

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Em's Shrimp Fra "Thai-"avolo
(Serves 4)

1 lb shrimp, cleaned, peeled, and de-veined
1/2 large onion, diced
1/2 large bell pepper, diced
1/2 large green pepper, diced
6 oz mushrooms, sliced
olive oil
salt
cayenne pepper
basil
oregano
Sriracha sauce
half a jar of vodka sauce
12-16 oz fresh fusilli
chopped cilantro

Heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add shrimp and cook for about 2-3 minutes, seasoning with salt, cayenne pepper, basil, oregano, and Sriracha sauce -- just so everybody gets some (maybe 1/2 t cayenne, 1 T basil, 2 t oregano, 2-3 T Sriracha?), and the flavor is the way you like it. (You can always adjust.)

After the shrimp has cooked for a few minutes, add the vegetables and continue to saute, adjusting seasoning if necessary, another 5 minutes until tender. Add vodka sauce and heat through. Toss with freshly cooked pasta (the moment it's drained) and serve.

(Nearly) Passed the Pasta

Getting to know my new commute, I've discovered a few wonderful surprises along the way:

• It's actually not that far to walk from South Station to Park St. (especially in this nice early-fall weather).
• There's a whole world of artisan ($$$) home decor stores in what otherwise seems to be a pretty abandoned area between my office and the T.
• The route from work to home is bookended by two locations for my favorite bakery, Flour.
• There's a twice-weekly farmers market right next to South Station!
• On Tuesdays, there's a fabulous fresh pasta stand (Valicenti Organico) at the Dewey Square farmers market.
• Valicenti Organico accepts credit cards.

One of my favorite things about my apartment in Virginia was the Tuesday farmers market right at my doorstep. I had no idea there would be such a convenient market on my commute here as well...as I walked around the tents, I found delicious homemade granola, gorgeous leafy chard, bone-in, thick-cut pork chops, and Valicenti Organico  fresh pasta from New Hampshire. Valicenti uses their home-grown organic ingredients as much as possible, creating inventive, seasonal ravioli combinations (roasted pear, prosciutto, gorgonzola; grilled corn with fennel, peppers, and dry Jack; brandied lobster, to name a few) and tasty specialty pastas. I tried a gluten-free spaghetti that had all the satisfying bite of an al dente semolina noodle. After two previous weeks' failed attempts, I was finally able to get my hands on an obviously popular duck confit-ginger-shiitake ravioli. I took it home and sauteed some mushrooms with lots of garlic, shallots, chard, and brown-butter -- the perfect fall bite.

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Duck Confit-Ginger-Shiitake Ravioli with Brown Butter

Serves 3

1 pack of duck confit-ginger-shiitake ravioli (20 per pack)

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium shallot, minced

8 oz cremini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

2-3 green onions, sliced

medium bunch Swiss chard, roughly chopped

1 c frozen green peas

6 T butter

salt and pepper, to taste

Melt 2 T butter in a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Saute garlic and shallots until golden, then add mushroom slices and brown (don't crowd them!). Season with salt and pepper. When mushrooms are browned, add chard and wilt. Salt chard to taste. Toss peas until defrosted. Remove vegetables from pan.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook ravioli according to package instructions.

When ravioli is nearly cooked, melt remaining 4 T of butter in the empty saute pan and watch carefully - let brown gently until foamy, then turn off heat and toss vegetables, ravioli, and green onions together. Serve immediately. Check cholesterol.

New life, in pictures.

My first week here in Boston has been -- like the rest of the summer -- quite a whirlwind. Between starting a new job and installing myself temporarily in my sister's apartment (until mine opens up in October), I've seen old friends and made new ones. A quick recap:


Restaurant Week (surprise!), pt. I at Upstairs on the Square: reunited with a good friend/former roommate and her sister, at the first "fancy" restaurant I ate at in Boston (age 16, visiting sisters in college) with my good friend/former roommate (corn veloute with a seared Diver scallop, soupe au pistou with black bass and Sweet 100 tomatoes, dark chocolate mousse with Port-poached cherries).

Restaurant Week, pt. II at T.W. Food: a new spot for Nick and me, with an adventurous take on classic dishes (charcuterie, duck heart ragu over pasta with a miso-cured duck egg, fruit ile flottante).

First Family Dinner: chicken with lemon-arugula spaghetti

Barbecue and sailing on the Charles: grilled peaches, burgers, hot dogs, s'mores.

Drinks at the Liberty Hotel: perfect evening weather for a Hendrick's G&T.

Birthday lunch and shopping with another good friend/former roommate: my first trip back to the 'burbs to the ENORMOUS Natick mall and the delicious Nordstrom restaurant.

BASTA. PASTA. My old college favorite and sensational Italian spot. I finished my mountain of legendary bolognese, of course.

Tonight's Family Dinner: seared bay scallops in a lemon-herb cream sauce over fresh fettuccine, with local ratatouille (Cait's CSA box had some gorgeous corn, so we added that. Cait's CSA box also had fresh mint, so we made mojitos, of course.)

More posts as the dust settles!