A Summer Hiatus

I owe my sincerest apologies to all of you, lovely readers, for the extended gap in my posting the last couple months. Dariush and I have been going through the process of purchasing a home, and the process turned out to be much longer and more involved than we had anticipated...and my precious blog has taken a backseat while we sorted everything out. Happily, the house is now ours (and in the same neighborhood, so I can still "cook in Cathedral Hill!). Unhappily (for my personal comfort and for the sake of this blog), this house needs a quite a bit of love and will require a great deal of attention from both Dariush and me this summer. Suffice it to say, there will not be much cooking happening in our new Cathedral Hill kitchen for the next couple of months.

One of the biggest reasons we fell in love with this house, however, was the beautiful, expansive kitchen (complete with a fireplace...in the kitchen! I can hardly believe it!), and I am anxious to get back to my regular cooking (and blogging) schedule this fall. So, Cooking in Cathedral Hill will return to its regularly scheduled programming at the beginning of September.

I appreciate the emails and comments I've received from friends, family, and strangers who are still interested in my blog, and those of you who keep checking back from time to time. Please know how much I miss this space and how anxious I am for my home life to settle down a bit so I can get back to writing here. To show you just how much I appreciate all of you, dear readers, I thought this would be a good time to offer the first ever Cooking in Cathedral Hill giveaway! I have a copy of one of my favorite cookbooks, Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann (slow cooker meals really come in handy, especially when you have a barely-functioning kitchen) to pop in the mail to one of my loyal readers. Leave me a comment below, or send me a private email if you prefer - just something to let me know you're still here after my absence. (make sure to leave me an email address to contact you if you win, of course). I'll select the winner at random next Thursday, July 16, and contact that person to get their mailing address.

I hope everyone is having an absolutely wonderful summer, and I'll see you all in September!

- Elisabeth

Embracing Spring

Recipe

Citrus Herb Salmon

Spring signals a return to light, bright flavors with lots of color after the heavy, heartier dishes of winter. This salmon is the perfect meal with which to embrace spring: infused with the warm weather aromas of citrus and fresh green herbs, it's a light, healthy meal that won't send you into a food-induced coma - instead it may inspire you to get outside and enjoy the spring air! The dish is ridiculously simple to put together: salmon fillets are sprinkled with lemon and orange zest, then decked with sprigs of fresh oregano, thyme, tarragon, and chives, and finally, layered with thin slices of lemon and wrapped in foil. The result is a stunning presentation for minimal effort (no tedious chopping of the herbs, just a few quick passes across the grater for zest) with a delicate, tangy bite. Thank goodness for spring!

Last year at this time...Jerk Turkey Slow Cooker Soup and Two Layer Key Lime Pie.

Anxious to Go Camping?

Indian Spiced Roasted Chickpeas

Camping and hiking season are almost upon us, and DR and I are always on the lookout for new foods to take along with us on our treks that are lightweight, high in protein, and can be eaten at room temperature. These chickpeas meet all of those requirements, and they're also quite delicious - delicious enough that we've been eating them at home for snacks, even though we haven't started hiking yet this year. It's a simple concept: chickpeas tossed with a little oil and lemon juice, coated with various Indian-inspired spices (cinnamon, cumin, and coriander, to name a few) then roasted in the oven for about half an hour. The end result is a flavorful, portable snack that's crisp on the outside, creamy on the inside, and - due to the high protein content - very satisfying. These make a great appetizer for a Southern Asian-inspired meal, too - in fact, I made some for a recent book club meeting, and they were the perfect accompaniment to my friend Kim's vegetable curry. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for nicer weather - I know many of us are anxious to break out our tents and head out on the trail!

Last year at this time...Stovetop Baked Beans and Apple Crumble with Golden Raisins.

Comfort Food for Blustery Weather

Recipe

Baked Potato Soup

Just when I start to think that soup season is almost over, Minnesota plays a dirty trick on me and I wake up to snow on Sunday morning...on April 5th - you have got to be kidding me! The one good thing about the stubborn wintry weather here is that a big bowl of soup still sounds like the perfect end to a chilly day, so I've taken the opportunity to test out a few new soup recipes the last couple weeks before the weather gets warm enough that soup no longer sounds appealing. I'm pretty picky about my soup, so most of the recipes I've tried didn't make the blog cut - except this one. This soup is exactly what it sounds like: a baked potato in soup form, complete with all the trimmings...and it is oh-so-comforting on a blustery day. Creamy and thick, it's easy to tailor to individual preferences, because everyone can add their own toppings as they see fit. Served with a hunk of crusty bread, it's comfort food at its finest. As long as it stays on the cooler side in Cathedral Hill, I'll be looking for excuses to make this soup as often as I can until warm weather (finally) arrives.

Last year at this time...Creamy Vegetable Chowder and Oreo Crunch Brownies.

Looking for a New Friday Night Dinner?

Recipe
Drunken Cheesy Bread

This is one of our favorite Friday-night meals: it's quick enough to throw together when you come home from work, cheesy enough to be considered a little indulgent, and it calls for wine (you know, in the recipe...in addition to however many glasses you polish off while cooking and eating - seriously, we don't mess around on Friday nights). I suspect the only reason I haven't posted about it yet is because we always seem to eat a whole pan before I get around to taking any photos of it. In addition to being a perfect Friday night (or really, any night that suits your fancy) meal, this is also one of the most cost-effective things I make, because it just uses up odds and ends that I already have lying around. The basic ingredients are bread, cheese and wine, augmented by anything else you want to use up - meat, vegetables, herbs...this is the perfect recipe to be creative with. The end result will be a cheesy, wine-soaked strata-like dish that begs to served with a buttery Chardonnay and is the perfect finish to a long work-week.

Last year at this time...Slow Cooker Macaroni and Cheese and Breakfast Couscous.

Fresh From the Oven...

Recipe

Soft Honey-Yogurt Rolls

Making homemade bread is definitely a time and energy commitment, but I think it's a worthwhile commitment to make, because the end result is, well...homemade bread! These rolls were the highlight of my weekend when I made them to accompany a hearty stew a couple weeks ago, and I can't wait to make them again. The recipe is from Baking Bites, and I chose it because the use of yogurt in the dough piqued my curiosity. The original recipe Nicole posted is for sandwich rolls (and really, these would be great as sandwich rolls if you're so inclined), but I made smaller versions and used them as dinner rolls. The yogurt adds a tenderness to the finished product that helps keep them nice and soft, and makes the recipe relatively healthy. Most of the moisture in the recipe comes from the yogurt, so there's very little fat added (many roll recipes call for butter) - just a tablespoon of oil for a 16-roll recipe. The recipe also calls for honey, which adds a lovely natural sweetness to the bread that I really liked. A huge thank you to Nicole at Baking Bites for this wonderful recipe - she has a great site with tons of helpful baking tips - if you haven't already, head over there and check it out!

Last year at this time...New Orleans Style Barbecue Shrimp and Banana Cream Pie.

Happy Birthday, Chelsea!

Recipe
Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I've been hanging on to my grandmother's carrot cake recipe for a long time, putting it up on a pedestal as "the best" and refusing to try any other versions...partly because it is quite good, but mostly because I miss my grandmother terribly and the recipe reminds me of her. When Chelsea, one of our center's assistant teachers, asked for a carrot cake with lots of frosting for her birthday treat at work last month, I decided it might be time to give another carrot cake recipe a try- just to see if I could find something I liked even better than my grandma's.

Turns out...I did! This recipe is from the famed Mrs. Fields, and it is the best carrot cake I've ever had (no matter how much I love my grandma, and I love her a lot). The cake itself was fabulous: moist, delicate, and just the right amount of spice. The frosting was simply heaven: I've never made cream cheese frosting with butter before, but it adds an extra layer of creaminess that put this whole cake over the moon. The original recipe is for a two layer cake, which is the way I made it for Chelsea's birthday. To be honest, the next time I make it (and there will certainly be a next time), I will probably make it as a single layer cake in a sheet pan: it's a very moist cake, and I had a hard time keeping the layers together once the cake had been sliced. I'm a carrot cake purist, so I left the nuts and raisins out of the cake, but for those of you of like them in there, they can easily be added.

Chelsea is one of our college students that helps out at the center part-time, and she is a very, very sweet girl. She is such a hard worker, and the kids just adore her. I'm so glad she's part of our team, and we were all so happy to celebrate her birthday with her. Happy birthday, Chelsea!

Last year at this time...Irish Bread Pudding with Caramel Whiskey Sauce and Barbecue Fries.