Sunday, January 27, 2013

Squash Blossoms

I'm now back in Wisconsin and have started second semester. The first few days it was in the negatives... It was a whole new type of cold for me. But now it's getting slightly warmer (up to 40 tomorrow!) and theres even some snow which is making me really happy.
But before I came back I made sure to get in a lot of time outside in the sun and take advantage of the year round farmers markets we have in California. I found squash blossoms, which I have wanted to make for the longest time.
Richard and I made up a recipe for goat cheese stuffed squash blossoms, and they turned out great!
Enjoy!



Goat Cheese Stuffed Squash Blossoms

10 squash blossoms
8 oz goat cheese
4 oz ricotta cheese
1 tbsp chopped thyme
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 lemon zested
salt
pepper

1 c flour
1 c milk
vegetable oil

Combine the cheese, herbs, lemon zest, and salt and pepper (to taste) in a bowl. Carefully open the squash blossoms and use a spoon to place about a table spoon of the cheese mixture inside. Set aside.
Whisk together the flour, milk, and more salt and pepper. Dip squash blossoms in batter and set aside.
In a pan heat about a quarter inch of oil until very hot. Don't add the squash blossoms until they sizzle when they touch the pan. Add a few of the squash blossoms (3-4 at a time) and cook until golden brown (2-4 minutes), then do the same on the other side.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Holiday Party!

Last week I through my first ever cocktail party! My family has hosted parties before, but this time we made all of the food ourselves. I cooked all day, which was somewhat stressful, but the party was a great time and all of the food was gone at the end.

Caramelized Onion Tart

Zucchini and Goat Cheese Tart

Deviled Eggs

Ginger Cookies
Raspberry Crumble Bars


Tuna Tartare 

Smashed Chickpeas

Champagne Punch

Cheese Board



Holiday Breakfast and Dinner

I haven't done that much cooking this winter break so far, because believe it or not I was actually looking forward to a break from cooking. As much as I love it, it gets a little tiring trying to figure out what to have for dinner every day. But now I am well rested and plan to be cooking a lot more! I got a lot of cookbooks as presents so hopefully they will provide me with a lot of inspiration.

I did cook for christmas breakfast and dinner. For breakfast I made Ina Garten's french toast bread pudding. She calls for challah, but I couldn't find any so I made my own bread instead - a cinnamon swirl bread. It was delicious, basically dessert for breakfast.
For dinner I made a winter salad of walnuts and pomegranate, and I made a dressing using some walnut oil that our friend gave us. We got filets and lobster tails as a gift as well, so I made surf and turf with an herbed butter, and a spinach gratin and rice pilaf to go with it.