easter scenes + a giveaway winner

egg dying at midnight

a fiber-themed easter basket

an egg(boy) hunt

a morning coffee "for here"

lots of ham, lots of kitties

matzoh brei with easter eggs and plenty of parmesan

ashlae's pretzel crusted peanut butter pie, which was gone in an instant

a meat n nuts photo shoot

a walk, a run, a day filled with fun!

 

-yeh!

 

p.s. the winner of last week's giveaway is... jessica clement!

congratulations, jessica! please drop me a line with your mailing address :)

polenta for polenta haters + friday links

scene: the easter bunny and elijah are sitting at a bar, gossiping about all of the cultural mutts that they both have to visit. elijah is filling the easter bunny in on all of the recent news that he learned earlier this week so that when the easter bunny does his rounds, he won't be so out of the loop.

elijah: i saw eggboy eat an entire matzo ball at the seder, so i guess he's not that gluten free anymore? you can probably get away with throwing some hot cross buns into his easter basket.

bunny: i knew he'd come around... what about stoop? 

e: oh, she cut all of her hair off into a pixie so don't you confuse her for her husband or else she'll, i don't know, confit you or something.

b: well, shit. i'll be sure to bring her some extra chocolate crunchy eggs just in case... what about molly?

e: i doubt she's showered since monday, so keep your distance.

end of scene.


ahhh i am so excited for the easter bunny to visit. it's going to be so much fun! i am going to lay in a bed of hot cross buns and eat all of the jelly beans and dye some eggies.

i have another easter side dish for you today, up on betty: it's polenta that will woo any polenta hater (there are somehow many of them in my life, i have no idea why) into a polenta lover. it's packed with a ton of ricotta and springy chives and you will probably (definitely) find yourself standing over the stove, taste testing it just one more time.

go check it out.


friday links

 

when this passover thing is over*, i am making this here nutella babka.

...also all of these nutso amazing hot cross bun variations: the donut, the breakfast sandwich, the earl grey one, and the tangzhong one

*(who am i kidding, i ate the ham and cheese sandwich from this shoot on the second day of passover.)

how to pronounce kouign amann.

stoop's wedding photographer posted some of her photos this week!

i looooove the idea of naturally dyed coconut sprinkles.

tell me: why have i never made chocolate sugar cookies?

cauliflower rice, daikon rice... my short grain rice is forming an inferiority complex.

a beautiful iced cashew mocha accompanied by real good talk.

doesn't a ricotta cake with pistachio marzipan sound really absurdly wonderful?

samoa matzo crunch (!!!!)

i like to think that when i left new york, this lady took my spot. reading about her new life in the city makes me so happy.

 

happy weekend, everybody!!!

-yeh!

grilled green onions with walnut romesco

eggboy and i got real excited for easter last year. we cleared our schedules, planned nice colorful outfits, and even considered going to a church service! (i know! i guess i was curious?) eggboy grew up celebrating easter with a capital "e" and i grew up microwaving peeps and searching for eggs that my good jewish mother hid around the house.

so we had high hopes for the day.

i flat ironed my hair and we set off to eat cute food at a cute restaurant in the presence of other cutely dressed people who were also easter cheery.

and then we stepped out into brooklyn and realized that everyone was hungover and un-smiley and not at all in the spirit. which on any other day i would have embraced because i do like the haze and grogginess of a brooklyn sunday morning. but on this day, eggboy did something that he rarely does, and that is: frown. he missed his family and the celebration and being around other families, and that made me miss my family. and i suppose that was just one beginning of our road back to the midwest. 

in an effort to cheer ourselves up, we had a delicious lunch at what remains one of our favorite places in brooklyn, bklyn larder. we got every single thing we wanted, including their egg tortilla, a hot cross bun, a pistachio cake, and the green vegetable of the day, a spring onion salad with their perfect romesco. i could take a bath in the bklyn larder romesco, i could eat it with a spoon, i could maybe even put it on a banana and enjoy a banana for the first time. 

romesco might be one of my top five favorite sauces and onions might be my new favorite vegetable.

following is a loose recreation of that salad. it uses a gluten-free romesco (more nuts, no bread crumbs) and grilled green onions. i'd highly recommend it as an easy easter side dish that's also vegan and gluten free and kosher for passover, in case you were planning on inviting the town jewish girl to your ham supper.

grilled green onions with walnut romesco

makes about 3 cups of romesco, which is enough to have leftovers or to top up to 10 servings of onions. the amount of onions can vary based on how many servings you'd like to make, but about 4-6 stalks per serving should do the trick.

ingredients

for the romesco:

1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes

2 roasted red peppers

2 cloves garlic

1/2 c toasted walnuts

2 tb white wine vinegar

2 tb olive oil

a good pinch of paprika

salt + pepper, to taste

for the onions:

olive oil

green onions (4-6 stalks per serving), trimmed

salt + pepper, to taste

 

clues

in a blender or food processor, whiz up all of the romesco ingredients. taste and adjust seasonings, if desired. this can be made up to 3 days in advance.

to cook the onions, light a grill or a grill pan and lightly brush the onions with olive oil. grill them over medium high heat until wilted and browned, a few minutes on each side. (i like to squash them down onto the grill pan by plopping a cast iron skillet on top so they get some really nice grill marks, but this is optional.) if you don't have a grill or grill pan, sautéing the onions in olive oil works well too!

sprinkle the onions with salt and pepper and then top with a heavy dose of romesco.

enjoy with an easter bunny!

-yeh!