Turkish Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

Roasted Chicken

• Small chicken
• Oil basted
• Salt and pepper to taste

Salad

• 250g rice of your choice (recommended Tilda's Lime & Coriander Basmati Rice)
• Large cucumber, chopped in large chunks roughly
• 1 pomegranate, seeded
• 2 chives, diced
• 2-3T of chopped dill, depending on your taste
• Handful of feta
• 2 lemons, rind zest and juice squeezed
• 4T olive oil
• Pinch of sugar
• Salt and pepper to taste

Set the oven to 400˚F. Prepare the chicken by removing any gizzards from the cavity and removing fatty areas or remaining feathers. Drizzle olive oil and salt/pepper to taste. Cook the chicken for 15 minutes at 400˚F, then reduce the heat to 375˚F and cook for an additional 40-50 minutes. Using a meat thermometer, check that the chicken has an internal temperature of 165˚F or gently slice the meat. We are going for no pink! Set the chicken aside to cool.

While the chicken is cooking, prepare the dressing and salad ingredients. Using a small lidded bowl, zest the rinds of two lemons, then cut in half and squeeze the juice. Add the olive oil and a pinch of sugar with pepper to taste. Place the lid on the bowl and shake well. 

Cook the Tilda's Lime & Coriander Basmati rice, or similar rice, as instructed on the package. Place the rice in a large bowl and pour the dressing overtop, allowing the rice to soak in the flavor. Add all other salad ingredients except the chives.

Once the chicken has cooled, shred the meat from the cavity in a separate container. Add as much of the shredded chicken as you like to the salad mixture and mix well. After plating, include any leftover dill and the chives on top. Serve with pita and hummus for a well-rounded meal.

Recipe altered from GoodFood: Make-ahead meals by BBC Books.

Anna & Travis Engagement Session

Public Installation by Candy Chang

Sneak Peek: Anna & Travis

One sneak peek from the latest engagement photo shoot... congratulations Anna & Travis!

Homemade Tiramisu

Ingredients:
- 10 eggs
- Sugar
- Salt to taste
- Marscapone (roughly 2lbs.)
- Rum of your choice
- Package of Lady Fingers
- Freshly brewed coffee, cooled (or orange juice for a summer taste)
- Fruit of your choice, an option
- Cocoa (or cinnamon for summer taste)

Separate the 10 eggs, white from yellow (or red as they call the yolks in Italy) into separate bowls. Add 10 tbsp of sugar to the yellows and mix with a wooden spoon. I learned a very important note about eggs... always stir in the same direction you started! Add a pinch of salt to the whites and blend with a mixer until foamy (or like merengue). 

Mix the Mascapone into the yellows and stir until smooth. Take one shot of rum and add to yellows. This was originally meant to weaken the overall egg taste,  so not too much or it will be too bitter. Slowly add the whites to the yellows and gently mix, from top to bottom, almost folding into one another until color is a pale yellow.

Pour the chilled coffee into pan for dipping. You can use orange juice for a more summery taste. In a baking dish, pour some of the egg batter to fill the bottom. Open the lady fingers and gently dip into the coffee, then placing on top of the egg batter. The lady fingers will fall apart easily if they are soaked too much. Repeat pouring egg batter and placing lady fingers until dish is full. You can add fruit in between the layers for additional taste. Refrigerate for two hours or so. Upon serving, shower with cocoa overtop, cinnamon for a more summer dessert!

Humanae by Angelica Dass

"Humanae is a chromatic inventory, a project that reflects on the colors beyond the borders of our codes by referencing the PANTONE^® color scheme." A very cool way of looking at the Pantone world around us... thank you Angelica Dass. Now I just wonder... what PANTONE^® would I be?

Before you cook tonight...

Online Presence: The Great 2012 Purge

To go along with an earlier post about Online Simplifying, I've been off and on searching for sites I've joined and how each is benefitting my life, my past, and my future. The largest "purge" to date included my Groupon, Shutterfly, Ancestry.com, and Twitter accounts (along with other smaller sites!). Though I see the benefit by having these accounts, they aren't useful if you don't use them. I found myself spending more money, instead of saving with Groupon... I was buying gift certificates to places I would have never spent money in the first place. And with Twitter... I think the concept of sharing knowledge minute-by-minute is great, however I would rather continue my daily routines without the world knowing about it.

Have any of you tried to look at your overall online presence? It can be a bit overwhelming when you finally take a step back and realize how many sites have eaten up your time. I hope you can find some encouragement in this post to at least look into it! And talk about personal safety... all of your information floating around, whew. Be on the lookout for one additional Italian recipe this week and new picture from Venice!

Ciao, ciao.

In this house...

A beautiful hand-stenciled gift from my sister

Homemade Pesto

Pesto is super simple, not an exact science (again!), requires a bit of arm strength, and will make magic with just about any type of pasta. All you need is the key ingredients and a mortar and pestle! And don't forget to pour yourself a glass of wine, this is an Italian recipe after all.

Pesto Ingredients:
- basil leaves (you will need more than you think... try maybe 40?)
- olive oil
- 1 small packet of pine nuts
- minced garlic
- grated Parmesan cheese
- salt to taste

If you have garlic cloves, go ahead and mince enough cloves for approximately 1.5-2 tablespoons of garlic. Dice the small bag of pine nuts as best you can (and watch those fingers!), though this is not required... only makes grinding a tad bit easier. Set both aside. Separate the basil leaves from the stems.

Place a handful of basil leaves in the mortar and pestle. Begin grinding down to a chunky paste. It's okay if some parts of the leaves aren't ground down to paste, this will not affect the outcome of your pesto. As you grind, add additional basil leaves, as well as some of the chopped pine nuts and minced garlic. When the mortar is full, remove and place in a side bowl. If your glass of wine is slowly emptying, go ahead and give a good, full Italian pour.

After all the leaves, pine nuts, and garlic are ground and placed in the separate bowl, begin generously adding olive oil and grated Parmesan cheese to the mixture. Stir vigorously until all is blended, add salt to taste. Serve overtop the homemade gnocchi and you're set for an Italian meal! And now it's time to pour yourself another glass...

Homemade Gnocchi

During my stay in Menaggio, my wonderful hostel was offering cooking lessons. What a crime if you didn't partake! The menu for the day was homemade potato dumplings called Gnocchi and hand-ground basil leaves, among other ingredients, that make up Pesto. For dessert we created individual Tiramisu plates. I've made the recipes a few times since being home, loving each every time. Be ready to get your hands (and kitchen) messy. First up... gnocchi.

Gnocchi Ingredients:
- 12 white potatoes
- flour (you will estimate this!)
- olive oil to taste
- salt to taste

Boil the peeled white potatoes on the stove top in salted water. Make sure they remain somewhat firm, but cooked during this process. (And to note, save your salted water for your pesto!) Place on a large cutting board and mash with a potato masher, much like the example in the picture.

Now comes the tricky part... flour. Begin kneading a little flour at a time to the mashed potatoes.  Here's a quick how-to. To know you've added enough flour, note the dough should not stick to your hands, creating a solid base of dough. Like I said, definitely not a science!

Next, take the dough and begin cutting strips, carefully rolling each strip out into a long string. When the string reaches about .5" diameter, take a knife and cut into 1" pieces. Place the pieces aside and lightly cover with flour.

Continue rolling and cutting down until the loaf is gone. You can decorate your gnocchi by rolling a fork overtop, creating a cross in the middle, anything you like! Boil in water and olive oil until the pieces of gnocchi float to the top (maybe 5 minutes?).

Next up... pesto!

Tubidu from Paris, France

I came across a wonderful artist this past week and am so excited to share the work with you. Brigitta runs the little Etsy shop Tubidu, a shop full of wonder by whimsical watercolors. With Paris, France as her main theme, it's hard to turn your eyes from the graphic and color-popping work. I've selected a few of my favorites, but please feel free to see her collection here.

View in Detail

"Drawing is a hidden place in me. Here, I can be alone, in a different state of mind, without a phisical body and without any philosphy... only the drawing line, the pen and the paper exists. When I draw I only try to feel and not to know things... and hope it works."

View in Detail

View in Detail

View in Detail

A Lovely Reminder