Recipes

Choco-Latte Chip Cookies

August 7, 2013 by mollygilbert520 6 Comments

Cookies help me think. And cookies with milk chocolate chips and espresso in them? Hours of thinking in my future. Look out, people.

You know what I mean, though? Mixing and measuring. Scooping and baking and cooling. Inhaling all of the warm, cookie smells. I feel less tense just thinking about the process. Baking is a relaxing ritual for me, one that lets me either bliss out and think of absolutely nothing when I’ve got too much on my mind, or helps me sharpen up my brain clatter and focus on what’s important.

Today I’m calling upon the focus. The writing-a-speech-for-your-sister’s-wedding-day kind of focus. I’ve got 30 days until game time, but so far no speech. (Help!) Granted, I haven’t actually tried to get anything down on paper yet (don’t tell Emily), but the pressure is on. (Help!) I mean, I’m a writer! This better be good. (Help!!) Maybe you can help? In exchange for cookies?

Go ahead — have a cookie. Then tell me — what should I do? Should I be teary and sincere? Or should I take the funny route? I know it’s a highly personal project, but I need to know — what are your best speech-writing tips?

I (and my sister, probably) thank you in advance. But we probably shouldn’t tell her about this. Okay? Cool. Another cookie for you.

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Red Berries & Cream Popsicles

July 22, 2013 by mollygilbert520 25 Comments

I’ve been hemming and hawing and stopping and starting and generally just freaking out about how to tell you this, but I suppose the best way is just to tell you. So. Yes. I’m writing a book.

A book! Like, with words and pages and everything. …You guys.

It’ll be a cookbook and, if all goes according to plan, it will be hitting the shelves courtesy of Workman Publishing in the Fall of 2014. …YOU GUYS.

More details to come, but for now I’m just feeling so, so lucky for this project – and everything else, too, for that matter. For summertime (even in cold, foggy San Francisco), hikes by the Pacific, trips to the beach, a newly discovered clean and cozy workspace, family time, sweet berries and real cream. And popsicles.

And cookbooks! Gah! I’ve got some work to do. But don’t we all? Come. Let’s have a popsicle.

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Open-Faced Summer Sandwiches

July 12, 2013 by mollygilbert520 11 Comments

Summatime! We’re in the thick of it. It’s a little foggy here in San Francisco, but that doesn’t stop us from taking part in the rituals of the season. We eat peaches. We drink cold wine. We wear maxi dresses with alarming frequency.

No matter where you live, there are certain things that make summer feel more like summer — let’s make a list, shall we?

1. Trips! Road and bike and plane. For me, Summer is trips to Gramma’s house by the beach in Montauk, NY. A long way from California, but well worth it for the chance to eat fried clams, swing in the fraying hammock and watch your niece refuse to show her tiny face in the big girl pool.

2. Books. Maybe it’s because of the trips and the beaches, but I always find more time to read in summer. My two current favorites are: Where’d You Go Bernadette, by Maria Semple, and This Is Where I Leave You, by Jonathan Tropper. Summer reading!

3. Fruit-filled pies, homemade popsicles and real vanilla soft serve with extra sprinkles. I know that this is actually three things and not one, but this is my list and I do what I want. Incidentally, I want ice cream.

4. Camping! …No I’m totally kidding. I haven’t been camping since I was 13. I like s’mores, though.

5. Sandwiches. When the heat of summer beats at your neck (and the sweat starts to drip in places that don’t like to be sweaty), sandwiches become the best kind of meal. They keep your kitchen cool and your face full of summer’s best produce. There’s the classic tomato sandwich, of course, the merits of which have been discussed by many an enthusiastic blogger, but I recently came across this post by Williams Sonoma on the best way to build a sandwich, and my mind started to go places. I realized that, in summertime, there are so many ways a sandwich can go!

It comes down to a few things: Sturdy, toasted bread; good cheese; ripe fruit, and a fancy finish (some flaky salt or pink peppercorns, for example). I decided to go open-faced, and let the summer fruit shine bright.

Strawberry and burrata. Ham, cheddar and plums. Ricotta and raspberry! Sandwiches don’t really need recipes, I know. These little guys are just jumping off points for you and your favorite summer flavors. So this weekend, check out your local farmer’s market, pour yourself a glass of something cold and bubbly and get into summer. With sandwiches.

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July 4th Roundup

July 1, 2013 by mollygilbert520 1 Comment

Amurica! She is beautiful. Land of the free and home of the brave. Also of reality television, corn dogs and marriage for all. YES!

Let’s celebrate it all, and let’s do it in style. Let’s hang out at the beach! We’ll blast Bruce Springsteen on repeat. We’ll drink some (probably imported, shhh) cocktails, and watch for fireworks. We will grill, dammit. Because America.

I’ve got some ideas for jazzing up our 4th of July bbq! Some are side dishes, most are desserts, and all are patriotic (i.e., they go well with burgers and freedom).

Let’s start with pie (America, people). Nothing says “liberty and justice for all” like a freshly baked Jumbleberry Pie! (Except for the Pledge of Allegiance, I mean).

I think I can see some purple mountains majesty in that thing.

Or maybe you’d prefer this Sour Cream & Fresh Strawberry Pie? It was a favorite of Abraham Lincoln! (Unconfirmed).

This Brownie Berry Tart is pretty much as patriotic as Betsy Ross in a pair of cowboy boots. Which is saying something.

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Spicy Tofu Quinoa Salad

June 25, 2013 by mollygilbert520 2 Comments

A week from today I’ll be on a Long Island beach. In a bathing suit. We’re talking two (rather small) pieces. And although it’s a grey and drizzly mess here in San Francisco and what I’d really like to be doing is cozying up to a cup of tea and a bag of cookies, I’m going to take the path of good decisions and eat this quinoa salad instead. There are bathing suits to consider, after all…

Plus I finished all of the cookies yesterday.

As good decisions go, this one isn’t too hard to get behind. Quinoa is everyone’s favorite ancient whole grain — high not only in protein and fiber but also in popularity, you know? A solid start to our salad.

We’ll add some bright, crunchy vegetables and some firm, baked tofu, then dress it all with an Asian-inspired dressing — one that’s easy to throw together and out-of-this-world good. It’s got all of our bases covered — rich with toasted sesame oil, sweet with honey; it gets some spice from our old friend Sriracha, salt from dark soy sauce, and a tangy bite from the addition of rice wine vinegar.

If we can’t have cookies for lunch, this will surely do.

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Raspberry Nectarine Clafoutis

June 21, 2013 by mollygilbert520 2 Comments

I killed so many bugs in the name of this clafoutis. So. Many. Freaking. BUGS.

It all started with a lovely day of stone fruit picking last weekend. Unable (again) to restrain myself, our kitchen counter found itself beneath a good twelve pounds of freshly-picked and amazingly fragrant nectarines and peaches. Gorgeous fruit! Fresh and ripe and beautiful. I’ll make so much pie, I thought, and cobblers and custards and jams! Maybe scones? Parfaits? Who’s to say?! My heart (and my kitchen) was ripe with summer fruit potential.

Except there were bugs. …So many bugs! They came out when I went to wash the great pile of fruit. URGH. They creeped and crawled and CREEPED. They were black and had pincers and were the size of golfballs (the last part might not be true).

I screamed. I swatted. I put on my rubber dishwashing gloves and went at them, dancing and dodging around on my tippy toes, shaking and wriggling and trying not to actually touch the things. I’m not proud. I threw one out the window. I tried to drown some in the sink (don’t tell PETA), but they crawled back up the drain. They had to be smashed. (Keep the change, ya filthy animal.) It was traumatic for me (but probably more so for the bugs) and I’m getting itchy just talking about it.

At any rate, in the now famous Battle Of The Bugs, there were casualties. Mostly of the insect variety, but we lost a lot of good peaches out there. There was plenty of bug-free fruit left, though, and I showed those bugs who’s boss by making clafoutis (actually I did it by smashing them to smithereens, but I’m trying not to come off as a terrible person and also the clafoutis makes for a prettier picture).

So what exactly is a clafoutis, you ask? Well, it’s pronounced CLA-FOO-TEE and it’s a fancy (but non-fancy) French dessert of fruit (traditionally cherries) in a firm, baked custard. It’s sort of a cross between custard and cake (and pancake, odd as that sounds); clafoutis are firm enough to slice up in pieces but smooth, soft and yielding in that cream-and-egg-enforced, custardy sort of way. It’s light and rich and delicious, and delightfully bug-free (I made quite sure of that. But I still feel kind of itchy?)

Let’s fire up the citronella candles (and bring some swatters and maybe a can of RAID — fine, forget the RAID) and eat this al fresco, in fat slices dusted with confectioner’s sugar. We’ll crack some wine — pink sounds good. We’ll pour some out for our bug friends (enemies), gone but not forgotten.

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Summer Corn Salad

June 18, 2013 by mollygilbert520 6 Comments

Because we can’t just eat ice cream and cookies and cake. I guess.

A salad! With fresh from the market loot. California farmers markets are insane (like, in the membrane) this time of year — fresh berries of every kind, ripe peaches, blushing apricots, sweet corn, mountains of summer squashes and herbs and asparagus and plums and cauliflower and lions and tigers and bears, oh my. It’s overwhelmingly good, all of it.

Fresh corn on the cob reminds me of summertime with my Grandpa Arnie — PopPop — on Long Island. I’ve written about him before — about how he could hold his breath underwater for minutes at a time, drink like a fish and golf like a pro, about how he’d pile us grandkids on his “tractor” for joyrides on the lawn, teach us to fly kites on the beach or wear the shortest shorts and the floppiest hat and stand by the grill, tending to his famous barbecued ribs. The ribs were legendary, but PopPop was always most impressed by the requisite side of fresh corn. “Best corn of the season!” he’d proclaim triumphantly, the juicy yellow kernels popping lightly as he took another bite from the cob.

I’m pretty sure every single piece of corn PopPop ever sunk his teeth into was “the best corn of the season.”

PopPop’s been gone for a few summers now, but whenever I see fresh corn at the market I chuckle to myself before declaring it the season’s best, hands down. And this fresh corn salad, brightly colored with early summer’s bounty? …Best of the season. No question.

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Dad’s Day Roundup

June 13, 2013 by mollygilbert520 5 Comments

There are certain things about Dads. Dads are in charge of stuff. Stuff like teaching you to swim without water wings and bike without training wheels, and what it means to have men on the corners with two outs, that kind of stuff. They teach you drive a stick shift and throw a snow ball and whistle and appreciate the importance of a well-timed milkshake. Dads are important.

I’m lucky to have the best kind of Dad — the kind who takes too many pictures at family events, who shares his banana pudding (albeit sort of reluctantly); the kind who “needs my help with the crossword today;” who happily picks up the phone at midnight (when I’ve forgotten about our 3 hour time difference, oops) to chat, and who always makes me feel like I’m smarter than I really am.

With three daughters, all of whom at one point were teenagers, my Dad was probably told that he was “like, totally embarrassing” more times than some other Dads. He probably had to deal with more outfit and accessory issues than most, and possibly more angsty door slams and crossed arms at the dinner table. My dad is a trooper and, whether you yourself are a daughter or a son, I bet your dad is one, too.

(I think I posted this same photograph last year on Father’s Day. It’s just such a gem.)

Let’s celebrate our Pops this Sunday with hugs (or phone calls) and foods he’ll love — ones that will hopefully make him forget about that time you got in a fender bender with his car, or threw a temper tantrum because you wanted the whole bag of gummy bears (I totally never did those things).

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Dorie’s Swedish Visiting Cake With Apricots & Cherries

June 7, 2013 by mollygilbert520 7 Comments

I inherited a cast iron skillet.

Except when I say that I inherited it, I really mean that the previous tenants of my apartment left it here and I found it and now it’s mine. Because finder’s keepers.

…Is that wrong?

I would feel more guilty about having technically stolen this skillet if it weren’t so dang heavy, you know? I mean, the move-outers clearly left it here. No room/strength to lug it out of the place, I guess. Plus it was all cobwebbed and rusty, which is no way to treat a skillet. I had to rescue it. At any rate, I use it now and imagine that it was once my great great grandmother’s who used it to make blintzes and apple cake and dutch babies, and that’s that.

Thievery and nostalgia aside, let’s talk about skillet cake. “Visiting cake,” as the wonderful Dorie Greenspan calls this one. Isn’t the name kind of perfect? Cake and visits should go hand in hand, I think. Anyway, I’m not entirely sure what makes this cake Swedish, but we are all children of the world and this cake is good so let’s just eat it.

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Lemon Cream Ice Cream

May 31, 2013 by mollygilbert520 6 Comments

There are certain things I just know that I like. Red nails. Gramma’s house in Montauk. Pancakes and French pastries with extra syrup and jam. The act of re-reading any and all Harry Potters (except maybe number five — Harry’s angsty teenager act stresses me out in that one). New running sneaks. Getting flowers! Clean sheets. Amazing/terrible pop music. Thanksgiving! Also chocolate.

And now, apparently, lemons? I don’t know. I mean, lemons. I didn’t used to think the sight of a pile of lemons on the counter would excite me, but here I am again, singing the praises of yet another lemon recipe. I’ve made lemon curd (twice, actually – the second time I turned it into lemon yogurt mousse), lemon muffins, um, twice, lemon loaf cake, lemon yogurt cake (one of my first ever blog posts, by the way — how far I’ve come since then), and lemon-scented banana bread. And now ice cream! I am lover of lemons and a maker of lemon cream ice cream. Yes! Loud and proud.

You don’t see a lot of lemon ice cream out there. Lemon sorbet, sure, and the occasional lemon Italian ice (or water ice in Philadelphia), but it’s rare to find smooth, creamy, true ice cream in bright and refreshing lemon. But let me tell you: it exists, and it is fantastic.

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