Fruit Crisp!

When Nick moved in last year,  Ina Garten also moved into our condo.  He brought along a bunch of her cookbooks and set up the DVR to record her show.  However, she has proven to be a great resource on many occasions.  Even better, her show has taught me a lot of good basics (that I probably should have already known!).  So when I needed a good basic recipe for a crisp, I looked no further than at Ina!

Ina Garten

In our CSA for two weeks we got a ton of plums, ground cherries and apples.  Having already made the Plum Clafoutis and the Ground Cherry Pie, I was looking for something different.  I figured a crisp was a great way to combine a lot of these fresh fruits.  Even better, we had a friend's house to go to that evening with plenty of hungry mouths to feed.

Fruit Crisp

A Rustic Potato and Onion Tartlet

Like I said, we have been getting tons of potatoes in our CSA, and rather than just making mashed potatoes over and over again (even though they are so good!) we have been trying to be creative.  When Nick said he found a recipe for a Rustic Potato and Caramelized Onion Tart I was completely sold and could not wait for dinner!

Dinner is served!

This recipe had a lot of moving parts going on...

Neiman Marcus $250 Cookies

Before I even moved out on my own, I knew I wanted to have my own recipe box just like my Mom's.  Even more, I wanted all of the delicious recipes I had grown up with, made with loving care (among other things) by my mother.  So, for about a week I sorted and copied loads of recipes to give my recipe box a good start.  My mom actually gave me some of the recipe cards written by both of my grandmothers, as well as one of my great grandmother (who I never met!).  There's plenty of nostalgia every time I go searching for something to make.

One of the recipes I copied was the Neiman Marcus Cookie.  This was not something we happened to make often at all, but I always loved the ingredients.  I think we never made them due to the number of the ingredients - we were always missing something.  Because Nick and I have been doing some cookie testing for our wedding, I figured it was a good time to bring this recipe back into the rotation.  The name comes from the actual Neiman Marcus department store.  Turns out this is their signature chocolate chip cookie that people always ask and rave about.  Having never heard about it from anywhere other than my mother's recipe box, I will take their word for it!  There is a story on the internet that says the reason this recipe got out was because the store over-charged ($250 rather than the $2.50) for a single cookie, but many claim that its false.  Regardless of how the recipe got out - I am just happy its out there because these are some delicious cookies!

Neiman Marcus Cookies

Corn and Potato Chowder

For a while in our CSA we were getting more corn and potatoes than we knew what to do with!  I know I shouldn't complain, but when you have 8 ears of corn and 15 potatoes and only 2 people, something needs to be done.  So turning to Gojee, I plugged in the vegetables I had on hand and stumbled upon this corn and potato chowder that looked relatively light and pretty simple to make.

Potato and Corn Chowder

I set out all of ingredients and hoped it would all turn out OK.  While it was not too difficult, there were quite a few ingredients involved.

The Ingredients

Tomatillos!

The same week we got our crazy ground cherries, we also got something a bit more traditional: tomatillos.  We took the obvious approach and decided on making a tomatillo sauce (salsa verde) as part of a little taco bar for dinner.  Lucky for me, Nick decided to take this on!  Turning to Google for some inspiration and a way to deal with the crazy husk and other surprises, Nick found a good starting recipe, whipping up some salsa verde.

Tomatillos

FOUR Burger - Boylston Street Burgers on the Common!

Back when I was diligent about working out, waking up at 5:30 AM, and heading out to bootcamp, I would longingly run by FOUR burger during the "warm-up" run.  Then, during the rest of the hour I wondered about their food - was it tasty?  With only catching a glimpse of the inside on each run, I saw some red booths, but really had no idea.  Was it fancy or casual?  Needless to say, Four Burger was way better to ponder than how much pain I was in!

The Burger

After the entire summer, Nick and I finally decided (remembered) that Four Burger was right around the corner and a perfect stop before heading to the movies to see Drive (a little Ryan Gosling goes a long way).  Upon a little review, turns out that Four Burger is basically a fast-food restaurant that is turned up a few notches - perfect for a good quick bite.