Lamb Chops with Rosemary Potatoes

It's officially turning into snowing/sleeting/freezing-raining season in New York lately. And when that happens, all I really want to do is get home, light some candles, throw on a comfy old college hoodie, put on some music, and cook a super simple, hearty dinner, preferably composed of some sort of meat and potatoes combo. Also, preferably to be eaten while firmly ensconced on my couch, watching an episode of Revenge, or some other such guilty pleasure. Perfect for these cold November nights. xo

Lamb Chops with Rosemary Potatoes
From Canal House Cooks Everyday
Ingredients:
5 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 lbs lamb chops (shoulder or rib)
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
3 large sprigs fresh rosemary

Directions:
Put the potatoes in a large pot of salted cold water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and cook the potatoes until they are barely tender, 5-10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Season the lamb chops well with salt and pepper. Heat a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. When it's hot, add the olive oil, then put the lamb chops in the skillet. Cook in batches, if necessary, to brown the chops (crowding the skillet will braise them instead). Cook until well browned, about 5 minutes, then flip and cook for about 3 minutes for medium-rare. Transfer the chops to a plate and keep warm in a very low oven, if you like.

Add the garlic and rosemary to the sizzling oil in the skillet, reduce the heat a bit if the garlic is browning too quickly, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the potatoes in one layer, season with salt and pepper, and cook undisturbed until they have developed a nice crust, about 5 minutes. Continue to cook, turning only occasionally, until the potatoes are tender and golden brown on all sides, 10-15 minutes. Serve the chops with the potatoes, garnished with more fresh rosemary, if you like.

Serves 4

Food for Thought

I've been thinking about gratitude a lot lately (for obvious reasons) and what a huge role it plays in happiness. I was taking a class last week at Yoga Vida with Heather, one of my favorite teachers, and she mentioned that it can be said that "gratitude is rooted in our incompleteness."  It comes rushing in when we soften into the reality that we cannot be everything and do everything on our own. We need friends. We need family. We need co-workers. We need people to love us. But it can be super scary to admit that kind of vulnerability, so most of us (especially us Type A New Yorkers) just go around trying to do everything on our own.

I was reading a study published by The University of California, Berkley, and it came up with a multitude of definitions for gratitude from a variety of sources, including the following:

1. The object of gratitude is other-directed—persons, as well as to impersonal (nature) or nonhuman sources (e.g., God, animals, the cosmos; Solomon, 1977; Teigen, 1997).

2. Although a variety of life experiences can elicit feelings of gratitude, prototypically gratitude stems from the perception of a positive personal outcome, not necessarily deserved or earned, that is due to the actions of another person.” (Bertocci & Millard, 1963, p. 389).

3. “...an estimate of gain coupled with the judgment that someone else is responsible for that gain."

4. As an emotion, gratitude is an attribution-dependent state (Weiner, 1985) that results from a two-step cognitive process: (a) recognizing that one has obtained a positive outcome, and (b) recognizing that there is an external source for this positive outcome.

Seems all the definitions agree on one thing: gratitude is centered around external sources (i.e. other people). Also? The study developed a lot of fascinating, scientific findings, but I'll break it down for you: a grateful person is a happier person. Sounds like good enough reason to me to start letting more people in, focusing on what we have instead of what we've lost, and being happier for it. xo

Favorite Things: 11.21.12

I haven't done one of these posts in awhile and I thought the day before Thanksgiving was as good a time as any. I've been really into things that reflect a good deal of classic Americana heritage these days anyway. xo

Things I like:

1. Gold flatware--seems right for Thanksgiving

2. The perfect overnight bag

3. A set of hot sauces--so much more fun than wine as a hostess gift

4. The American Scene, by Henry James--fascinating

5. A little turquoise and diamond ring

6. Cowboy boots--except Isabel Maranticized (a.k.a. chic)

+more favorite things:

Slow motion ladybugs--cannot stop watching

Pumpkin crate by Terrain

New dinosaur!

I went to see this last night--incredible

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust

As promised, here is a new favorite recipe for a pumpkin cheesecake tart. Except the word "tart" always reminds me of fruit desserts, which this is most certainly not, so I'm just calling it a pumpkin cheesecake. Also, the cheesecake part and the pumpkin part are supposed to be prettily marbled together, which didn't quite work out for me. But, I swear up and down that marbling or not, this cake (not tart) is something pretty darn remarkable. So instead of lugging out your tired old pie dish on Thursday, I would suggest you branch out a bit and give this little gem a try. The ingredient list may look long, but most of it is stuff you probably already have laying around your kitchen, and the actual assembly as easy as, well, pie. Har.

Happy baking. xo

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust
From The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, by Deb Perelman
Ingredients:
Crust:
4 ounces gingersnap cookies (about 16 cookies), coarsely broken
3 ounces graham crackers (five and a half 2 1/2-by-4 7/8-inch graham-cracker sheets)
4 tablespoons salted butter, melted

Cheesecake batter:
4 ounces cream cheese, well softened
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg yolk

Pumpkin batter:
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Few fresh gratings of nutmeg
1 cup heavy cream

Directions:
Make crust: Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Finely grind the gingersnaps and graham crackers in a food processor (yielding 1 1/2 cups). Add the melted butter, and process until the cookie-crumb mixture is moistened. Press the mixture firmly into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Place pan on rimmed baking sheet.

Make cheesecake batter: Mix together the ingredients in a small bowl until smooth.

Make pumpkin batter: Beat the egg and the egg white lightly in a large bowl. Whisk in the pumpkin, sugars, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. Gradually whisk in the cream.

Assemble tart: Pour the pumpkin batter into gingersnap-graham crust. Dollop the cheesecake batter over pumpkin batter, then marble the two together decoratively with a knife. Try not to pierce the bottom crust as you do. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 30 to 40 minutes, or until a knife or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool the tart completely on a rack, or in the fridge if you like it cold. Serve immediately and refrigerate any leftovers.

Simple Chestnut Stuffing

In honor of one of my favorite days of the whole, entire year, I'll be posting my best recipes for the two Thanksgiving dishes that really matter--stuffing and pumpkin cheesecake. Because, come on, turkey's just not that exciting, and why eat pumpkin pie when you can have pumpkin cheesecake?

Here's a super simple, herb-laden stuffing dotted generously with chunks of creamy French chestnuts. It's got just the right ratio of crisp edges and soft, moist center (something that a stuffing baked inside a turkey just can't get right--it's all about the casserole, tradition be damned). Use a good, crusty, white peasant bread for this and make sure to let it dry out for a day before diving in, and you (and your stuffing) will be golden (and crunchy and chewy and delicious). Happy Thanksgiving prep week. xo

Simple Chestnut Stuffing
Ingredients:
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter plus more for baking dish
1 pound good-quality day-old white bread, torn into 1-inch pieces (about 10 cups)
2 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions
1 1/2 cups 1/4-inch slices celery
1 jar whole, peeled chestnuts, broken up into smaller pieces
1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth, divided
2 large eggs

Directions:
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Butter a 13x9x2-inch baking dish and set aside. Scatter bread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake, stirring occasionally, until dried out, about 1 hour. Let cool; transfer to a very large bowl.

Meanwhile, melt 3/4 cup butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat; add onions, celery, and chestnuts. Stir often until just beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Add to bowl with bread; stir in herbs, salt, and pepper. Drizzle in 1 1/4 cups broth and toss gently. Let cool.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk 1 1/4 cups broth and eggs in a small bowl. Add to bread mixture; fold gently until thoroughly combined. Transfer to prepared dish, cover with foil, and bake for about 40 minutes.

Uncover stuffing and bake, until set and top is browned and crisp, 40-45 minutes longer.

Buttered Popcorn Cookies

Fall brings many things that I like, not least of which is cookbook season. For some reason, all the good cookbooks get released sometime around October. Is it because people are hunkering down in their homes and getting in more kitchen time as the temps do their annual deep dive? Not sure, not sure. But regardless, as soon as November hit, I signed onto Amazon and clickety-clicked my way into owning upwards of five new tomes full of new recipes. File under: things that make me abnormally happy.

One of these books was the long-awaited Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, by Deb Perelman, based on the author's ridiculously popular (for good reason) blog. Perelman guides you through her excellent, incredibly detailed recipes, chatting with you as though you were a friend in her kitchen. This ensures (1) a highly entertaining read and (2) great results every time. When I came across this recipe for Buttered Popcorn Cookies, I went straight into the kitchen to give it a go. Popcorn and cookies are two of my most favorite things in the world, so it's not exactly surprising that I loved the two together. And I'm pretty sure you will too. xo

Buttered Popcorn Cookies
From The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, by Deb Perelman
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil or canola oil
1/3 cup popcorn kernels
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:
To make the popcorn: Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large saucepan until hot. Add the kernels, and cover, shaking the pan to make sure all the kernels are in contact with the bottom of the pan.  As soon as you hear the first few kernels pop, shimmy the pan until all of the kernels pop (5 minutes or so).  Remove from heat, add melted butter and salt, and transfer to bowl.

Dough: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugars, egg and vanilla until smooth. Whisk flour and baking soda together.  Stir flour mixture into butter-sugar mixture, until combined.  Fold in popcorn, making sure to get dough well distributed.  It’s okay if the popcorn breaks as you’re mixing, and don’t worry if it seems like there's too much popcorn for the amount of dough.  It all works out in the end. 

Bake: Roll dough into mounds the size of a golf ball or slightly bigger.  Place on a parchment lined baking sheet, making sure to leave a 2 inch gap between cookies.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until edges are golden brown.  Let cool for a minute or so on the baking sheet before transferring to a rack to finish cooling.

Makes about 24 cookies
 

The New Potato

The New Potato featured me on their site today! Click on over HERE to read more. xo