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It’s school vacation week here in NYC. I had a great idea early yesterday morning, when I was feeling optimistic and ambitious about the week ahead. As I sat on the rug with the baby, I perused some of my cookbooks and decided to make dinner from a different book each night.

And then 10am rolled around, and I was already totally overwhelmed by having to manage two kids at the same time, and it was only day 1 of school vacation. True, I’m a total wuss in the parenting department.

Still, over the course of the day, I did manage to pull together dinner from the Dinner A Love Story cookbook. And that’s as far as I got. Tonight we ate at the coffee shop, again.

But back to yesterday’s pretty successful dinner. I made the turkey burgers from Dinner A Love Story, which Shane said were better than my usual turkey burgers. This is fantastic news since all you do for these better burgers, is add a tablespoon of any kind of barbecue sauce to your ground turkey, and voila.

I also made Dinner A Love Story‘s beluga lentil soup. Except that I couldn’t find beluga lentils and used greek lentils. Also the soup cooked for too long so that it was no longer soup, just lentils. Regardless, I recommend the recipe, it’s really delicious even if you get it wrong.

Of course there was salad, and those new oven fries too. Here are the fries:

• Shane’s Easy Oven Fries •
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Peel as many russet potatoes as you want and cut them into chunks. The chunks should be about 1 inch by 1.5 inches, but you don’t have to be neurotic about it, just make them somewhat consistent. Put the potatoes in a pot of salted water and bring to a boil. Boil for no more than 10 minutes, you can be pretty laid back about this too, 5 minutes is fine too, just don’t let them get mushy. Drain the potatoes and toss with a good amount of vegetable or peanut oil until well coated. Sprinkle with salt. Lay them out on a baking tray, don’t crowd them, and bake, flipping them around from time to time until they are browned all over. Drain on paper towels and serve. 

Note: If you want to get totally decadent with these, use goose fat instead of oil. This is how the recipe originated, but Shane developed this vegetarian version one day when we were out of goose fat.

Rose, Sid and I ventured out into the Arctic tundra tonight, in search of grilled cheeses and hummus plates, and found them just a block away. Despite the snow, the cafe was hoppin.’ We Espresso 77 patrons aren’t daunted by snow!

I intended to make a frittata tonight, something like this one but with zucchini and/or leek instead of broccolini. At 6:30, I happened to notice we were out of eggs. Enter Lidia’s risotto, and bacon because Rose always complains about risotto.

In case you were wondering, this is how blog these days (as you can see, it takes priority over putting away laundry):

Newborn weeks 4-6 sure are rough. Now that baby Sid seems to be past the constantly screaming his head off phase (knock wood), I’ve got a post for you!

This is not the post I’ve been writing in my head, which is a response to Britta’s blogging challenge. That post is coming soon, I promise.

Orecchiette with Wilted Spinach and Smoked Paprika is a dish I’ve never tried before. I think that finding and trying a new recipe with a screaming newborn on hand and no help around, is tantamount to cooking a fancy 5 course meal on a busy weeknight. Or something.

It’s an interesting dish, I would never think to use smoked paprika on pasta, but it works. The recipe makes a lot, I’ll be eating it for lunch for the rest of the week if you’d like to stop by for a sample.

• Orecchiette with Wilted Spinach and Smoked Paprika •
original recipe from food and style via Gojee

sea salt for the pasta water
12 oz (3/4 box) Orecchiette
1/3 cup olive oil plus more for garnish
6 large garlic cloves peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne or to taste (optional)
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
2 cups cooked chickpeas, (canned is fine too)
12 oz baby spinach (use the pre-washed kind that comes in a box to save time)
1/3 cup cooking liquid from chickpeas or pasta water
salt or to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
Aged Manchego or Grana Padano shaved (use vegetable peeler or cheese slicer) 

Bring a pot of salted water to boil. When the water is boiling, add the salt and the pasta. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain well.

While the pasta is cooking, heat a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and garlic. Sauté for 30 seconds until the garlic begins to sizzle, stirring constantly and making sure it doesn’t brown. Remove from heat and set aside.

About 3 minutes before the pasta is ready, reheat the garlic oil over high heat. As soon as the garlic sizzles, add the smoked paprika and chickpeas. Toss well and add half of the spinach. Toss the spinach with two spoons, as if you were tossing a salad, until wilted. Add the balance of the spinach and continue tossing until wilted, about 1 minute. Add the pasta, cooking liquid from chickpeas or pasta water, salt and pepper. Toss quickly and remove from heat.

Spoon pasta into bowls. Garnish with shaved cheese and a drizzle of olive oil.

This is a very tasty and hearty soup. Full of yummy, healthful things, it’s the perfect food to be eating a couple of days before the indulgence of Thanksgiving.

The soup is not vegetarian. It contains pancetta, chicken broth and anchovy paste. However, I think if you used a good vegetable broth or Better Than Bouillon, in place of the chicken broth, you could skip the pancetta and anchovy and still have a delicious soup. I added a large can of chick peas for protein.

• Cabbage & Kale Soup with Farro & Chick Peas •
original recipe from Food & Wine
30 min prep, 1 1/2 hours total

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
One 2-ounce piece pancetta, finely diced
1 medium onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 ounce anchovy paste (4 teaspoons) or 4 anchovy fillets
1 1/4 cup farro
1/2 head Savoy cabbage—tough stems discarded, leaves torn into large pieces
1/2 bunch Tuscan (dinosaur, lacinato) kale, stems discarded
2 quarts chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup water
6 thyme sprigs
1 small rosemary sprig
1 ounce Parmigiano-Reggiano rind plus 3 tablespoons grated cheese
1 large can chick peas, drained & rinsed
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

I love Radicchio Pasta. So good, it can make a convert of someone who isn’t a radicchio fan. Case in point, my husband, who does not like anything bitter, but loves this dish.

The bitterness of the radicchio is mostly cooked out, and then sweetened with cippolini onions, cream and a touch of pork fat.  The dish calls for pancetta, which I eat around, but could easily be left out to make it vegetarian, you’d just want to add a little extra salt.

The roasted veggies we had probably weren’t the most complimentary choice of side for this dish, but that’s called making do with what’s in  your CSA box.

Happy weekend!

When my kid says “Mom, can you please make my favorite chicken for dinner,” my heart melts. The fact that something I make is her favorite, totally makes my day.

Dinner was not unlike this one, Parmesan Chicken Goujons with a nice, hearty, 99% CSA salad. I topped a few adorable baby lettuces with carrots and kohlrabi, roasted with olive oil and fresh thyme, and crumbled chèvre. The dressing was real maple syrup, balsamic and red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Yum!