Cloudy with a Chance of Sun Breaks

This is Heather, the savory half of the dynamic sister duo! Don't get me wrong, I love to bake and will choose to eat chocolate over most things any day of the week. But, when it comes to experimenting in the kitchen, I tend to play around with savory foods. I can spend hours perusing cookbooks and food magazines, collecting recipe ideas and savoring the glossy photos of artfully prepared foods. And I like to try small twists on recipes that I already love, just to see if I can improve them or make them a little more memorable.

Today was a typical cloudy January day in the Northwest, but on a hike this morning, my boyfriend and I spotted some sun breaks. What's a sun break, you say? Well, those who live in the Pacific Northwest know the term well. For the rest of you, that's what we call a hole in the never ending cloud layer that might, just might, let a ray of sunshine through. It sounds better than "mostly cloudy", doesn't it? The weather man thinks so, too, and is always thrilled to inform us when we might get even a spot of sun. So, today we cherished a few sun breaks amidst an otherwise gray day. It was the perfect day for one of my favorite winter recipes- Citrus-Scented Lamb Stew. It's not a heavy, stick-to-your-ribs kind of stew. It has body to it, for sure, but is also has a lightness from the citrus, and a comforting warmth from the mixture of spices. It's just like a cloudy day with a spot of sunshine.

I've slightly modified the original recipe from Food & Wine- adding a few more spices and making the stew a bit "soupier", because I love a good broth. Feel free to adjust any of the spices or herbs to your liking- that's what I did.

Citrus-Scented Lamb Stew

• 4 Tbsp butter
• 1 1/4 pounds lamb shoulder, trimmed and cut into 1" pieces
• Salt and pepper
• 1 med. onion, chopped
• 3 medium carrots, sliced
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme (or 1/2 tsp fresh)
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and lightly smashed with the side of a knife
• 4 whole cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 3" strip lemon zest (I prefer Meyer lemons), plus 1 Tbsp juice
• 3" strip orange zest, plus 2 Tbsp juice
• One 28-oz can dices tomatoes, drained (If Italian seasoned, you can modify above herbs)
• 3+ cups low sodium beef or chicken broth, plus more as needed during cooking (If your stock is strong, consider cutting it 50/50 with water)
• 1 10-oz. pkg frozen sweet peas (about 2 cups)

Melt the butter in a large pot- I prefer my enameled cast iron pot. Dry the lamb pieces, season liberally with salt and pepper, and add to the pot with melted butter. Try to get a good sear on all sides of the meat, which will take about 10 minutes. Remove the meat with a slotted spoon, leaving juices in the pot.

Add the onions, carrots, and thyme through bay leaf to the juices in the pot. Saute over medium heat until onions are translucent and carrots are just starting to become tender, about 10 minutes. Add meat back to the pot, and add the cinnamon, allspice, citrus zests and juice, plus additional pinch pepper. Stir the mixture until the spices are well distributed and you can smell the spices- about 3 minutes.

Add the drained tomatoes and stock. If you like a heartier, less brothy stew, start with just two cups of stock. If you like it soupier, start with three cups. Bring the stew to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, partially covered, for at least 45 minutes. If your lamb meat is on the tough side, feel free to simmer longer, until the lamb becomes tender. (After bringing your stew to a boil, you can also put your pot, covered, in a 300 degree oven for 60 minutes or more. This can help particularly tough meat get very tender). Check your liquid levels periodically and add stock as necessary to keep meat covered. Once the meat is tender, you can remove the lid and simmer the stew to desired thickness or brothy-ness. About 10 minutes prior to serving, add frozen peas and simmer to heat through. Also, remove zest, garlic clove, cloves (if you can find them, otherwise, keep an eye out for them while you eat), and bay leaf.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!




This stew will keep well in the refrigerator for 4 days.

Also in the photo is my favorite compliment to this stew- Crusty Irish Soda Muffins. I used to make these when I was a kid, and I still love them to sop up the final juices of a tasty stew. As the name implies, they are a crumbly, not overly-moist, muffin. They are meant to be sliced in half and bathed in a pat of butter! (The recipe makes about 18 muffins. I usually halve the recipe).

Crusty Irish Soda Muffins

• 4 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 to 1/4 cup sugar, to taste*
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon or 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
• 4 Tbsp butter, cold
• 1 egg
• 1 3/4 cup buttermilk**
  

*sugar is optional- I like to add about 1/8 cup for a whole recipe. The sweetness is a nice counterbalance to the salty, soda flavor. If I'm making these muffins for breakfast, I may add up to 1/4 cup sugar for the whole recipe, and add about 1 cup of raisins. Some people prefer this sweeter muffin.

** I never have buttermilk on hand, and don't like to buy it for one recipe. You can make your own "buttermilk" or sour milk, using about 1 Tbsp of mild vinegar (cider vinegar or rice vinegar) per 1 cup of milk.

In a large bowl, combine flour through spice. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture forms even crumbs. (If making a sweet version of this muffin with the raisins, as mention above, add the raisins after the butter, being sure to coat well with the flour mixture).

Beat egg lightly and add to buttermilk. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir until well blended. Batter will be very thick and lumpy.

Spoon into 18 well-greased 2" muffin cups. Each cup will be pretty full. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes, until golden. An inserted toothpick should come out clean.

Serve hot from the oven, and don't forget to serve with butter... Yum!

-H

Lemon Sunshine

Today I am craving the sweet and tangy taste of lemons. More specifically Lemon Bars. I know this is seasonally inappropriate and I apologize for that. All of the locavores out there are probably shaking there heads at me, the girl who is craving lemon bars in January in the Pacific Northwest. But sometimes when you have a craving for something, no seasonally appropriate food item, such as pumpkins or pecans, will do. Sometimes you just have to give in to that craving.

I'm pretty sure I know why I'm dreaming of lemons today. Because today was an unusual mid-winter day in Portland. It was sunny! Pretty much the whole day. I have to admit that it was a rather timid, wan sun. But as someone who is all too familiar with winters in the Northwest, I'll certainly take any sun I can get. Trust me, I am not complaining. In fact, I saw a lot of people today who looked like they wanted to do a happy little sun dance. (Or maybe that was just me). Don't worry, I didn't actually do one.

You see, my sister and I grew up in Southern California in a suburb of L.A., where it was sunny like 90% of the time. Every Christmas picture that I can remember seeing in my family's pictures albums, had Heather and I posing on the front lawn in our Christmas dresses in bright, sunshiny weather. And in the backyard of our childhood home, were two lemon trees. Lemon trees that produced lots, and lots of lemons. Trees that seemed to produce lemons all year round. Of course, that could just be my memory playing tricks on me. I mean, when you're a kid, 2 months seems like forever. But I do remember having so many lemons that we really couldn't use them all. Some of them actually fell on the ground and rotted. What a shame, I know. Oh, to have one of those lemon trees now, where I could pick fresh lemons for my lemon bars...

So the recipe that I'm sharing with you tonight is my mother's lemon bar recipe. It is the same recipe she used when we were kids and she sent us out back to gather up lemons for her. I know I am probably biased, as it's hard to be objective when talking about childhood memories and favorite foods, but her recipe, as simple as it is, is really one of the best I've ever had. Many of the lemon bars I've sampled in cafes and bakeries over the years, haven't been quite right. Usually not lemony enough and sometimes too firm. I prefer my lemon bars to be slightly soft, maybe even a little gooey, in the middle. It is definitely important not to overcook them.

Lemon Bars

• 1 cup salted butter, at room temp
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted if it's lumpy
• 2 cups + 1/2 cup flour
• 4 eggs
• 2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp grated lemon peel
• 6 T fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp baking powder

1. Cream butter and powdered sugar until smooth.
   
2. Add in 2 cups flour and beat until well-blended. Dough will be stiff but should start to come together.
3. Press firmly and evenly into 9x13 in pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 min. Edges will be lightly browned.
4. Allow to cool on baking rack for at least 30 min before adding filling.
5. Beat eggs, sugar and 1/2 cup floor together.
6. Combine lemon peel, lemon juice and baking powder in small bowl and stir together. (It will fizz like a grade school science project!).
7. Add to sugar mixture and beat until combined. Pour over baked crust and bake for approximately 25-30 minutes more at 350 degrees. (Make sure to check on them in the last five minutes of baking, as all ovens vary a bit. It should still be a little jiggly in the center, but will firm up as they cool).
   

After bars have cooled, you can sift powdered sugar on the top before slicing.

I hope this recipe brings a little sunshine your way. Enjoy! And if you try it, don't forget to let us know what you think...

- Colleen

P.S. When I posted the first blog, I didn't realize that people couldn't post comments unless they have a Google account. I think I have fixed this now, so that anyone should be able to post a comment if they choose to.

Sweet Dreams

So, I had a heart attack a couple of weeks ago and it got me to thinking, like these kinds of events usually do for people. Well, okay, not an actual, real heart attack, but a fake one. I had just had a lovely four day Christmas weekend and I was getting ready to go back to work on a Monday morning. I stepped out of the shower to dry myself off and there it was, "it" being an excruciating pain that rippled through my chest and back, up my neck and down my right arm. Sounds like a heart attack, right? I'm pretty sure you would have gone to the Emergency Room too.

I guess my first clue that it wasn't actually a heart attack was the fact that I am only in my mid-thirties. And ironically enough, due to the fact that the ER was fast filling up with more troublesome emergencies, I was actually seen in the children's section of the ER that day. Although, I don't mind saying that if I ever have to go to the ER again, and let's hope it's not anytime soon, I much prefer going to the children's ER. I think the staff on that side are nicer, not to mention the decor is a little more soothing. Anyway, as it turns out, I merely tore a muscle in my back and inflamed a bunch of nerves that travel down your arm. So the good news is that I'm going to live. Yippee! The bad news is that I'm obviously 30-something going on 80. I mean, who tears a muscle in their back just from toweling off after a shower? Clearly a woman who needs to start that exercise program she's been saying she was going to start soon. Hmm....but that's a topic for another blog. This blog is going to be about food, and trust me, I am getting there, though in a somewhat roundabout way....

So, as I was saying, this "heart attack" got me thinking about some important stuff. Let's just say that it did not escape my attention that it happended on a Monday morning as I was getting ready to go back to work, to a rather stressful job, where I am a counselor, and not just a regular counselor, but a counselor who works in a residential alcohol and drug treatment program within a correctional facility. That's right, I work with criminals. Which, on its good days, can provide some really amusing anecdotes. It can be quite entertaining to have me around the dinner table when I'm in the mood to share work stories. But on its bad days, this job can really stress a girl out. So my first thought, okay my second thought after musing about how out-of-shape I am, was that I need to find a new job. I know the importance of paying attention to the signs. I don't think I need a real heart attack to figure this one out. So I am working on finding a new job....actually I have a job interview this week. Can I get a second yippee?

My next thought, really the most depressing of all, was that I was not going to get to spend my upcoming four day New Year's weekend baking up a storm like I had planned to. Instead, I was going to be moping around, babying my right arm, and feeling rather useless. I'm one of those right-handed people, that when their right hand becomes injured for some reason, really just need to be taken out to pasture. I mean really, I can do almost nothing useful with my left hand. Sometimes, I wonder why I even have a left arm. Oh yeah, I can type with it. Whew! That's a relief. So anyway, as I lay around thinking of all the cool new recipes I wasn't getting to try, I had one of those light bulb moments.... I realized that life is really too short, and that one of the few things in life that really makes me happy (besides family and friends) is food. It's as simple as that. I LOVE FOOD. I love eating food, and smelling food, looking at food, talking about food, trying new restaurants, trying new recipes, researching recipes, reading food magazines, watching the Food Network on TV. ( I mean who doesn't love watching a true food nerd, like Alton Brown, create homemade rose water for baklava?!)

So here's my confession....are you ready? It hasn't always been my dream to be a counselor in the corrections field. I know some of you are probably astonished at this. (Yes, there was a wee bit of sarcasm there). But the fact is, my sister Heather and I have this dream of one day opening a bakery or cafe. We have been dreaming about this for quite some time now. Really, this dream helps me to make it through some of those really heinous days at work, those days when I just want to crawl under my desk and hide, like George did in that hilarious Seinfeld episode. (I think he was actually taking a nap under there, but you get the idea). As it turns out, we are the dynamic duo, my sis and I, since I am into the sweet stuff and she is into the savory. Though, neither of us likes to be pigeon-holed, and we each cross over from time to time. She has a killer chocolate souffle cake recipe and I have a pretty stellar butternut squash soup recipe....but we'll get to those in future posts.

So the idea with this blog is to take the first steps towards making that bakery dream a reality! We need to start by perfecting our collection of recipes. We are going to be posting some of our favorite recipes, both sweet and savory, for you to enjoy. And our hope is that you will try them out and then write to us, letting us know what you honestly think about them. Basically, we want you to critque us and give us honest feedback. Don't hold back either. Trust us, we can handle it. I'm also hoping that people will share some of their favorite recipes with us. Or, maybe some of those recipes that you are intrigued by, but can't seem to get to come out quite right. We'll give them a try for you and see if we can tweak them into perfection. So, does that sound like a plan? Oh, and in case you're wondering about the blog name, we live in Portland, OR, which is a great place to live if you're a foodie. "Stumptown" is one of the nicknames for this city, and it made a nice alliteration with Sisters, so there you have it....

-Colleen