European Linens on SALE!

For your farmhouse kitchen and table. European aprons and linens on SALE!

20% OFF

Meatless Meal - Cauliflower "steaks"

First of all, I can't believe I haven't posted here since the end of June. There are so many social media sites to keep up with and I obviously am not that great at it. My favorite and where I post most often is Instagram so if you want to keep up with us I recommend looking for @myhydrangeahome on IG. It's quick and easy and very interactive so you can see why I love it there.
Ok, back to the recipe.

Roasted Cauliflower "Steaks"

Roasted Cauliflower "steaks" over lentils with a little fresh parsley. A great meatless dish.
Cut cauliflower into slices at least 1/2" thick so they stay together.
Brush with olive oil and season with s&p and your choice of spices.
I used an adobo spice blend from Tainos Sofrito.
Roasted in a 425 degree oven 20-30 min (flipping once half way through).
Would have been nice with a bit of plain Greek yogurt too. Yummy!
Lentils were just prepared as indicated on package. I added a little adobo seasoning to the finished lentils too. 2 heads of cauliflower served 4 people with a bunch of loose pieces of cauliflower leftover. When you are cutting the head into steaks, you only get about 4 good size pieces that stay intact. I also seasoned and roasted the loose pieces on a separate cookie sheet.

zucchini blossom heaven...

While in Rhinebeck, NY this past weekend (more on that in an upcoming post), we visited the Rhinebeck Farmer's Market. While waiting for the market to open, I spied a photo on the market's Instagram feed of beautiful zucchini blossoms. I LOVE them! So I of course was on a mission to find them! And there they were at the Taliaferro Organic Farmstand. 

First time I had them was at Francine's, a great restaurant in Camden, Maine. We made them at home one other time and have thought about them often! I just don't see them too often for sale.  So tonight my son (the almost 17 year old that wants to be a chef!) made them as a starter for dinner. Stuffed with basil ricotta and fried.  So yummy!  I love when he cooks!

I found the recipe HERE. Enjoy!

Summer food

These yellow tomatoes were so good. Going to pick up more today from one of our favorite farms on the north fork of Long Island - Sang Lee Farms. A little s&p with fresh basil and placed between breaded eggplant with a dollop of ricotta. Sorry - no after pics - we were too hungry!

Happy Monday!!!

Why so happy? Because I had a party over the weekend (a belated Cinco de Mayo) and my girlfriend brought a platter of these...

Argentine Alfajores, Dulce de Leche cookies by Buenos Angie's.  OMG is all I can say.

Wishing you a Sweet Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

My quick version of the Sweet Heart Cupcakes

at Glorious Treats!!

Don't you love their packaging?

Pumpkin - Ricotta Stuffed Shells

Spotted this yummy recipe in the October edition of Country Living magazine.

If you like pumpkin - try it! The kids loved it too. I don't usually make tomato sauce for a pumpkin pasta but the recipe called for it and it was great.  I made a couple of changes to their recipe - I made my own sauce (I just can't use jar sauce) and I omitted sage (only because I didn't have any). Served it with some grilled sausage. Delicious!

Look for the magazine in stores - it's a good one!

Local Food Artisans - Dinner on the beach

So happy to have such great local foods on Long Island - I have to share my latest finds. After a date with my husband at the delicious Besito's in Huntington Village, NY we walked around and found this great shop - The Crushed Olive - an amazing tasting shop of olive oils and vinegars. Check out there site - they have some amazing pairing suggestions as well. The dark chocolate balsamic and black cherry balsamic were insane. For now we went with a bottle of the Tuscan Herb olive oil. But we will definitely be back for more!

This morning I stopped at the King's Park Farmer's Market for more of my favorites.

Ciabatta Loaves from the blue duck bakery cafe

Fresh Mozzarella and Mini Rice Balls (so good!) from Papa Pasquale's-Brooklyn - next week I'm going to try their ravioli

Tomatoes from Finks Farm

Everything we need to make some nice chicken cutlet heros for dinner on the beach.

If you live local and haven't visited the market - please do! There are also some great wine, beer and coffee vendors. I will let you know when I try some.

Cool Cucumber Salad

The temps were over 100 degrees here plus humidity this weekend.  We cooled off in the pool and with this simple cucumber salad and iced green tea.  Sorry, I don't usually measure salads like this - so you can make it to your own taste.

long island cucumbers
red onion
kalamata olives (from Astoria)
greek feta (from Astoria)
extra virgin olive oil (just a little)
fresh squeezed lemon
oregano
fresh pepper

So good! and refreshing!

Mini Chocolate Cake Eggs

Using a cake pop recipe with homemade cream cheese frosting - chocolate cake eggs without the stick!

Yummy!

Valentine's Day Love...for you!

Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

photo: Crumbs

For Dinner: 

photo: Marx Foods

Dessert:

I had a hard time choosing the cupcake flavors at Crumbs in NYC!

Just look at them all! 

But I had to make a decision.

YUM!!

Flavors from the left: Cookie Dough, Chocolate Hazelnut,
Vanilla Coconut, Red Velvet, Dulce de Leche
Middle : Smores

I also picked up some French Macarons for you from the
 Macaron Cafe in NYC!

And a special pink rose just for you!

Let's Celebrate!!

Enjoy the day and my gifts to you!

xoxo

Pretty Snow - lots of it! and Greek Chicken...

Yesterday we woke up to another snow day! I guess wearing our pajamas inside out really works - we never see this much snow on LI. But we've been getting hit weekly. So this is what it looked like out my door yesterday morning. So pretty when everything is covered in white fluff!

So, the fire was lit and my husband worked at home all day. I also worked on some new shelves for the shop and the kids (and dog) had a great time in the snow all day. Well, all except for the oldest one - she spent the day in her pjs studying.

We ended the day with a great recipe from Rachel Ray - Lazy Baked Greek Chicken and my own creamy tomato orzo.

Recipe Link  


Click on the link to go directly to the recipe. You might need to click the print button to see the steps since the show hasn't aired yet (as of today).

As far as the orzo, I don't use a recipe but I can tell you I sauteed some sliced scallions in a little olive oil, added a can of diced tomatoes with the juice and cooked for about 8 minutes - until the tomatoes break down nicely. Then I added about 1 cup of heavy cream and simmered for a few more minutes and toss with cooked orzo. Right before serving, I added some crumbled feta.  A delicious creamy side dish!

Summer Vacation Highlights

We took our vacation this year at the very end of the summer - too close to the start of the school year! A little hard for me to relax thinking about all that was going to go on when we returned.
So we went back to beautiful Camden, Maine. This time though it was a little different. They had a heat wave. We escape LI in the summer to cooler weather locations...but not this time. Believe it or not, 90's and humid the week we were there - very unusual for Maine. And because it is so unusual - there is no A/C in the house we rent. But there is a lake in the backyard, so that is where the kids spent a lot of time.

Fishing, kayaking, canoeing, and swimming....

On the way to Camden, our first destination was The Maine Diner. My son had seen them featured by Guy Fieri on Diners Drive-ins and Dives. We had to stop for some Lobster Pie and Crab Cakes. It was a pretty popular spot.

They had a beautiful flower garden on their property. Don't you love sunflowers?!

So our second night at the house we decided we were going to make some Stuffed Baked Lobster (you have to eat lots of lobster while in Maine!). This was so good! All but one child like lobster. I think it was the best meal we had there, well almost.

My husband and I did go out for a nice dinner alone one night to this great restaurant in town - Francines.

I had stuffed zucchini blossoms for the first time and of course more lobster. Wish I had taken the time to take a pic - it looked and tasted sooo good! Love this place!

So we did manage to visit Acadia Park while we were there and drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain. I also took some great pics of the kids on Sand Beach (a beautiful rocky beach in Acadia).

Mermaid toes...

We ended that day with dinner in Bar Harbor. Even Bella (our chocolate lab) had a great time. Maine is very dog friendly and many of the restaurants allow you to eat outside on the patio with your dog.

The Celladoor Winery was another great find for us on this trip. They had such a gorgeous view from the deck. The wine was pretty good too! They're having a Vinfest the first weekend in October - I wish we could be there!  If you're planning to go I'd love to hear about it.

Our last night in Maine we made a delicious dish - linguine with shrimp and clams. We all enjoyed this one.  It was sad to leave - but I was anxious to get back to LI and cool off!

Of course we were right back into the crazy schedule when we returned - a soccer tournament and team BBQ.  The day after that was Labor Day - the last day of summer vacation, so we spent the day unpacking and getting ready for the first day of school.  That night we had dinner on the beach - we had to wear sweatshirts - just the way I like it!

Goodbye Summer 2010 - it was a great one but it went too fast!

What's on the Grill

Just wanted to share a few good summer recipes with you.  This chicken was super easy and sooo good!

Honey Mint Glazed Chicken Recipe 

from Simply Recipes

INGREDIENTS

• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 4-5 pound chicken, cut into parts
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2-3 Tbsp water
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint (or 2 Tbsp dried mint)

METHOD

1 Place chicken pieces in a bowl. Mix vinegar with olive oil and pour over chicken pieces. Turn chicken pieces so that all are coated with the simple marinade. Let marinate for 30 minutes to an hour.

2 In a small bowl mix honey, mint, and just enough water for a good basting consistency. Set aside for glazing the chicken.

3 Prepare grill for medium high heat. Remove chicken pieces from marinade. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Place chicken pieces on the hot grill, skin side up. Cook for approximately 30-40 minutes, covered, turning every 7 or 8 minutes. For the last 5-10 minutes of cooking, baste all sides with the honey mint mixture. The chicken is done when the juices run clear (not pink) when a knife tip is inserted into both the chicken breast and thigh, about 165°F for the breast and 180°F for the thigh. Note that although the breast pieces are bigger, they may finish cooking earlier than the thighs.

Serves 6.

I served the chicken with some escarole sauteed with a little garlic and oil and some brown rice cooked in chicken broth (instead of water) and sprinkled with some fresh mint. Also on the side is some grilled pineapple slices - another summer favorite. I don't even put anything on my pineapple, just slice and grill.

Now, I know you've probably had fresh mozzarella and tomatoes over and over. But sometimes I like to change it up a little. Just cutting the mozzarella cheese into smaller bite size pieces, slicing grape tomatoes into quarters and drizzling a good extra virgin olive oil and balsamic glaze is a nice change. And don't forget the salt, pepper and fresh basil. So yummy!

And for dessert, these Pina Colada cupcakes made by the baker in our house (my daughter) have been a huge hit! The recipe calls for regular size muffin pans but she made them with minis (a little less guilt when they're that small) and they are just so cute!

Pina Colada Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup loosely packed sweetened flaked coconut

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

pinch salt

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1/3 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup crushed pineapple undrained (use unsweetened canned crushed pineapple that is packed in juice)

1. In a small bowl, mix together flour, coconut, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

2. In a bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, and egg until smooth. Alternately whisk in flour mixture and buttermilk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of buttermilk, beating until smooth. Stir in pineapple.

3. Scoop batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack. Top cooled cupcakes with frosting.

She made this recipe for the frosting and just sprinkled some toasted coconut over the top.

Vanilla Cream Frosting

This frosting is best made just before you're ready to use.

1 1/3 cups confectioners sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

pinch salt

1/3 whipping (35%) cream

1/2 tsp vanilla paste or vanilla extract

1. In a small bowl, using an electric mixer on low speed, beat together sugar, butter, and salt until creamy. Increase speed to high and beat until light and fluffy. Add cream and vanilla paste, beating until frosting is smooth.

2. Spread icing on cooled cupcakes with a knife or transfer to a pastry bag and pipe decoratively over cupcakes.

Have fun with these recipes and let me know if you try them!