Friday flowers

A mixed bouquet from the flower stall.

{mixed bouquet}

I love all the different textures, even though it requires a bit more work than my usual one flower arrangements. 

{flowers}

I'm certainly not a professional, so feel free to take my advice with a grain of salt, but when I'm putting together something like this I start by pulling out the largest flowers. In this case, that was the dahlia, the lilies and the snapdragons. I put my trusty flower frog in the bottom of the vase and stick the larger flowers in securely, spreading them out more or less evenly. Then I start adding in the filler flowers, often sticking a stem in and then pulling it out to trim it a bit. It's not effortless for me, because I'm always having to correct and re-arrange, but I do love the process.

Loving ...

Valbreso feta cheese, from France. I'm picky about my feta and will brave LA cross town traffic to purchase Greek feta (from here) when making spanikopita, but the French stuff is fabulous for summer salads. It's creamier and milder than Greek feta and in a totally different ballpark from the cheaper Bulgaria feta that you see around.

{valbreso feta}

Our Whole Foods stocks it for $10 a pound, but I recently found it at our local middle eastern market in bulk for $6 a pound. Sold.

{tomato salad}

Feta, tomato, basil + a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt. We eat it with baguette or warm naan and call it dinner.

CSA (ish) update

Currently, our fridge is filled with these ...

{produce bags}

Which are filled with this stuff ...

{CSA contents}

I'm on an ongoing quest to figure out how to best incorporate local produce into our lives. In a perfect world, I would go to the farmer's market every week and lovingly pick out perfect veggies. So far, that hasn't worked out for me. Mostly because I have a full time job and there are a whole lot of things I would rather do in my limited spare time, like sleep.

I tried a local CSA for a while (posted about it here).  My pick up location was pretty conveniently close to my work IN THEORY, but I had to lug the box home on the bus every week, thus taking up an extra seat and spreading ants around, both of which earn you some well deserved glares during rush hour. Also, you get a box of mixed veggies and fruit and the fruit is frequently cantaloupes, which neither of us is overly enthused about. That is an understatement. I hate the smell of cantaloupe so much that I can't have it in the house.

Currently I'm trying a new provider that sources from a couple different local(ish) farms and delivers. Delivery is heaven. The box arrives before 6 am every Wednesday, so we can get stuff put away before leaving for work. They let you pick out the option that suits you best, so we get a veggie only box every week - no more melons. It's pricier ($31.50 per week) but our grocery store trips have gone way down. We buy cheese, bread, eggs, lentils, pasta and beer to supplement the box contents. We eat out less because there is a certain amount of pressure to get through all the veggies each week. So far, so good.

Once the box arrives, I wash everything off and then place it in our muslin veggie bags (purchased here, but you could make your own for less money). You can't see through them, so I also make a list of what we have and we refer to it when deciding on meals and cross stuff off as we use it. Having the list to work with makes our lives easier, because instead of "what should we eat tonight?" we're thinking "we have to eat an eggplant tonight, how shall we cook it?". So much more specific and helpful for the chronically indecisive.

I love the variety we get, but I have a sneaking suspicion that subscribers get the older produce. I know how long produce from our garden lasts in the fridge and these veggies go off MUCH more quickly. We're okay with it, because we're on the weekly plan so nothing is sticking around for too long anyway, but it's something to be aware of.

A CSA box can be great for people who prefer not to spend much time shopping for produce and are pretty flexible with their cooking and eating. Good standby options to use up leftover veggies - chop them up, coat them with a bit of olive oil and salt and roast them in the oven at 425 degrees until tender. Then you can store the roasted veggies in the fridge and toss them into omelets, quesadillas and lentil dishes (these lentils are awesome cooked with fresh tomatoes instead of canned and with the addition of some roasted eggplant and potatoes).

The weekend, briefly

Nearly non-stop weekend, which always seems to be how these three dayers play out.

A bit of cooking, sorting through boxes of childhood stuff, games of memory, a pie contest (we just went for the tasting - amazing!), and some puppy time, family visits.

{green onions}

{sorting}

{memory}

{pie tasting}

{marscapone fig pie}

{circe + chocolate lab}

Friday flowers

Orange-y red freesia.

{freesia}

They smell amazing.

{freesia}

Dumpster chair

Our latest adopted chair ...

{dumpster chair}

Ages ago, D found two beautiful chairs in the dumpster outside our building. Technically, they were next to the dumpster outside our building, which is more appealing but sounds less exciting. They could both use some restoration, understandably, but one of them was in good enough shape that I am using it for the time being.

They originally had black (fake) leather seats, but these had since been covered in maroon fabric and both the fabric and the underlying leather had been torn and badly abused. I pulled off the maroon fabric and covered the leather with a simple green and white seersucker I had lying around, securing it in place with the aid of a staple gun. Our eventual plan is take apart both chairs completely, sand and refinish (not paint!) them and then choose a sturdy fabric for the seats. Hopefully we'll get this done sometime in the next decade.

Chocolate pavlova with fresh berries

We don't eat a lot of dessert - we're talking a couple times a month, max, with the exception of the holidays. I know that seems shocking, given the many recipes for cakes and pies and cookies that you see here. Almost every single one of those treats was made specifically for an occasion. Often a birthday. And because we don't get to eat it often, I tend to be conservative when it comes to choosing recipes. I want something amazing, something flavorful, something indulgent.

Meringues, however lovely, do not fall into those categories. While I like meringue dolloped on top of a pie, I've never really believed it could stand on its own. Egg whites enhanced with sugar do not a complete dessert make. Or so I thought. The latest birthday in our group was for a friend who is currently both gluten and dairy free. I'm pretty comfortable with food restrictions, and I can easily do one or the other but the combination is sort of mind boggling.

Then I remembered meringue's showy cousin - the pavlova. Egg whites and sugar, whipped carefully and cooked slowly at low heat. Afraid that it would come out tasting like air, I opted for a version with cocoa powder and shaved dark chocolate. It came out with a shatter to the touch crust and a slightly chewy center, much more substantial (and delicious) than I had hoped. Piled with fresh berries, it didn't feel at all like a consolation prize.

{pavlova}

Chocolate pavlova with fresh berries (serves 6, adapted slightly* from Nigella's recipe here)

6 large egg whites, room temperature
2 cups superfine sugar (or regular sugar whizzed about in the food processor)
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 ounces dark chocolate, finely chopped
4 cups fresh or defrosted berries (we used a mix of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons (ish) fresh lemon juice (optional but recommended)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest (optional but recommended)

:: Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat.

:: Beat the egg whites with a mixer until satiny peaks form (this is past the foamy stage, but the egg whites won't be very shiny yet), and then beat in the sugar a large spoonful at a time until the meringue is stiff and shiny. Beating the sugar in slowly is worth the time - you won't end up with a gritty meringue. Add the vinegar and whip it in. If you run your finger through the meringue, it should feel thick and very smooth and it should easily form peaks.

:: Sprinkle the cocoa and the chopped chocolate over the egg whites. Gently fold everything with a rubber spatula until the cocoa is thoroughly mixed in. "Folding" is one of those instructions that drive new cooks crazy. It's just a way to gently mix the ingredients. I take the rubber spatula and run it around the edge of the bowl, sort of lifting up the batter and then gently draw it through the middle of the bowl the pull the ingredients through the center. Repeat several times, until the mixture is uniform. What you don't want to do is just stir it around like crazy. You're trying to get the ingredients mixed without deflating the meringue, so the lifting motion will help keep the air incorporated.

:: Mound the meringue onto the lined baking sheets, making 6 mounds total. I did all of mine on one large baking sheet and they juuuust fit, but they expanded a bit as they baked and this made it difficult to separate them afterward so I'd recommend spreading them out a bit more. The mounds will be fairly large, about 5 inches across and a couple inches high.

:: Use a metal spoon to form a large well in the center of each mound. The meringue will rise as it bakes, so keep that in mind.

:: Place in the oven, then immediately turn the temperature down to 275 degrees F and cook for about one hour. When ready, they should look crisp and dry on top, and you may see some cracking in the middle of the wells. Nigella recommends opening the oven and touching the meringues to check for doneness. I read another recipe that recommended avoiding opening the oven altogether, so I didn't check.

:: Turn off the oven and walk away. I actually left mine in the oven overnight, for serving in the morning.You can apparently make the pavlova a couple days ahead and store it in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. DO NOT refrigerate it. Refrigeration wrecks havoc on meringue. When removing the pavlova from the baking sheet you'll want to use the thinnest metal spatula you have, to reduce the risk of shattering the delicate crust.

:: About half an hour before you want to eat, toss the berries with the sugar, lemon juice and zest. Just before serving pile the berries in the center of each pavlova. 

{pavlova, eaten}

Unless you are more talented than I, a few of your pavlova will probably shatter or crack a bit. They still taste excellent, but if you're compulsive about only serving perfect looking dessert you'll want to plan on making a few more than you actually need.

I'll be honest - I don't pavlova will ever win out over cake for me, but as a gluten-free, dairy-free dessert option, they're pretty spectacular. If you can add whipped cream, they'll be even better (as D and I discovered when we devoured the cracked leftovers later on).

* I changed the baking instructions (lowered the temp after looking at several recipes). The original recipe calls for a single 9 inch round, but I made 6 individual servings instead. Nigella also calls for adding freshly whipped cream to the pavlova, which sounds divine but wouldn't work for us as we needed a dairy free option.  If I were to make fresh whipped cream, I think I'd be tempted to add a little bit of mint. It seems like it would play well with the berries and the chocolate.