One Day You Will be Old Enough to Read Fairy Tales Again

"I look for magic in the ordinary and ordinary in the magic." So says my artistic statement. And I base my work life around that. Whether I'm adapting La Cenerentola (Rossini's opera about Cinderella) or writing about teens during the Vietnam War - that statement resonates through my work. And even more through my daily life. I have a decade birthday coming up. I've always been good with "decade birthdays" but this one has thrown me. There's more vulnerability, less taking anything for granted and many glimpses back to understand now.  

Somewhere in the time-machine meanderings of my mind, I came upon these s'mores cake pops And decided they needed to come to roost on my dining room table. Never mind that there is no cake in them. Never mind that it's been a long time since I embraced s'mores. Never mind that no one at my dining table is younger than 22, this is what I would serve. The cannoli would wait. Although this is a rare occurrence, I must concede that "something cute just struck my fancy." So out of character for me - is this what the new decade-birthday is doing to me? Searching for "cute?"

I am looking back. I am wondering to trust memory. When I write for young people - am I dipping into what I remember as a child? What I wish I remember? Am I writing what I think is their world - but viewed through mine? 

Last week I commented on a blog - a blog that showed a high school commencement and the sweetness therein. The blogger replied with happiness and ...

"... sometimes I wish I could go back to shoes that light up and Winnie-the-Pooh sneakers."

Sometimes I wish that, too. But usually - I don't. Twenty years of Halloweens, road trips  and cuddling with books are little heartbeats that still make me skip and still make me ache. There is the utter sweetness of being and your second chance at glimpsing through the eyes of a child. Because when you were a child and glimpsing - it wasn't easy. And there are the playground lessons. Lesson you cannot protect them from. Lessons that you cannot kiss and put a band-aid on. Lessons you thought you let go of when you were finished with them. Lessons that hurt far more than when you were doing battle. No, I won't go back. I'll stay here and marvel at how far we've come.

I saw these on Pinterest and followed it to The Family Kitchen blog. They suited my mindset. I may have cynicism furrowed on my brows but I still must count each color in the rainbow - not to verify it - but to hold my gaze.

Buy marshmallows, heavy cream, your favorite chocolate bits and graham crackers. Target has the lollipop sticks. Put about 8 graham crackers in a food processor and pulse till you have crumbs. (Yes, you may buy the already crumbled ones.) Put crumbs in shallow dish. Mix 1/2 cup heavy cream with 2 cups of chocolate on top of a gently simmering double boiler. As cream simmers and chocolate starts to melt, remove from heat and stir till smooth.  Put lollipop stick in marshmallow, dip in chocolate mixture and then dip in graham cracker crumbs. Put on baking ban or parchment paper to set.

Behold: Cute!

You may want to halve the mixture. This may not be Italian but you do start to feel like you're feeding Sicily. This makes at least 60 - and more chocolate leftover for dipping strawberries. And even more chocolate leftover to send home with someone skinnier than you.

Nobody passed the dining room table without grabbing one. And we're talking about people with a few more decades on those 20-somethings.  I even found myself saying,

"Aren't they cute?"

While wondering who I was. But you know - they are so ordinary and so magical. They are simple + childhood.

"When I grow up, I want to be a little boy." - Joseph Heller.

Well, I don't want to be a little girl. I don't even want to go back to "if I knew then what I know now." Really, how awkward would that be?

I did not grow up with "Drama Queen," "Daddy's Little Princess" or "Pretty in Pink" bandied about so I cannot explain what I needed to make this drink.

But it is so pretty in pink, isn't it? It came my way via The Inventive Vegetarian who got it from Martha Stewart. It's rhubarb iced tea. Except it has no tea. (Kind of like my cake pops with no cake.)

It's rhubarb, water and sugar.
8 stalks rhubarb
8 cups of water
1/3 cup of sugar

Cut your clean rhubarb stalks into 3 inch pieces (make sure you discard poisonous leaves!). Simmer in 8 cups of water for one hour. Strain liquid. Add sugar - stir till dissolved. Cool. Fill glass with ice and pour "tea" into it. Garnish with mint leaf and serve. I would have added some strawberries - but I used them all dipping them into the extra chocolate.

"One day you will be old enough to read Fairy tales again." - C.S. Lewis

And so I am. And so I do. These are the perfect accompaniments to fairy tales. They are sweetness and light to defend yourself against the sometimes dark and scary places fairy tales can inhabit. I don't believe in sugar-coating fairy tales. But once in a while, I like to sugar-coat my life. Have I finally found balance?

When I was one, I had just begun.
When I was two, I was nearly new.
When I was three I was hardly me.
When I was four, I was not much more.
When I was five, I was just alive.
But now I am six and I'm as clever as clever
So I think I'll be six now and forever.
- A.A. Milne

The first poem I fell in love with. I think I was more than six. But I'm not anymore. I'm not six yet. So don't wish me a happy birthday!

Caramelized Red Onion-Goat Cheese Bruschetta

Our group exploring Gourmet's List of 50 Women Game-Changers in Food has come to Week 49! This week is interesting because the focus is not on a chef - but on a website that has exploded: Foodspotting. Unlike TV chefs, I have heard of Foodspotting. But because I cook a lot at home, I have never used it.

The web-based company's description says, "Foodspotting is a visual local guide that lets you find dishes, not just restaurants, thanks to foodspotters who report sightings of foods they love." Co-founded by two women and a guy: Alexa Andrzejewski, Soraya Durabi and Ted Grubb, the company came about when Alex came home from a trip to Korea and Japan craving dishes she had had overseas but could not find any easy way of finding the dishes locally. Alexa was an experienced mobile and web designer and set out to create a "field guide for foodies." She has succeeded. Time Magazine listed Foodspotting as one of the 50 best websites of 2010. Not bad for a website that was launched in January 2010! This website is changing the way people choose restaurants. And while it will not take down the huge restaurants, the website gives some glitter to the tiny restaurant that is unknown but may have one splendiferous dish.

Just as you can "follow" people on Twitter and pins on Pinterest, so you can follow your favorite foodies on foodspotting. You can become a "foodspotter" and move up in the ranks earning points. There is a hierarchy and from what I can see on the web - people just love it.

I am going to cut to the chase and get to the recipe because life has exploded. Just as I thought my workload would be eased this summer without the Summer Theatre Program, the Minnesota Fringe Festival has shaken me up and turned me around and I am knee deep in weeds as I (ha!) "simplify" the garden and elbow-deep in theatre. If you've ever developed a 210-character blurb designed to be your primary marketing tool, you'll understand how obsessive one can be. I'm not complaining - just crazed! So if this has piqued your interest - FAQ's about foodspotting can be found here. Who knows? Maybe you will be the next grand foodspotter!

Because Foodspotting is not a site for recipes, many of us decided to find local restaurants and their offerings and then try to recreate the dishes at home. Some were lucky enough to get a recipe. Me? I winged it - but they were lovely wings!

I started my Foodspotting journey somewhat tenuously. There were a lot of deep-fried pickles from the Minnesota State Fair before I came upon a dish that gave me a "voila!"

And "voila!" Here it is

From Bar La Grassa in Minneapolis, my interpretation of their Red Onion-Goat Cheese Bruschetta. (Note: this is not the restaurant's recipe and these days they serve a "Charred Red -Onion-Goat -Cheese Bruschetta.) Either way - it's mighty fine! And if a trip to Minneapolis is not in your future, play with this - it's ripe for substitutions, additions and deletions - it's just plain fun. 

Caramelized Red Onion-Goat Cheese Bruschetta - serves 6
6 slices of favorite bread (I used whole grain but Italian, French and Ciabatta work)
1 garlic clove
6 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 large red onions
1 tablespoon brown sugar (can use white)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (can omit or use your favorite vinegar)
6 ounces plain goat cheese
Garnish: Italian Parsley or Thyrme and olives (I used Nicoise, I also like Kalamata in this)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Rub bread with garlic. Brush with olive oil and baker 7-15 minutes (depending on size of bread) until bread is lightly golden. Remove from oven.

In a large skillet or fry pan, heat olive oil on medium high. Add onions and stir - coating all. Add sugar and stir. Add vinegar and stir. Cook on medium high for 3-4 minutes and then turn burner down to low. Cook 40-50 minutes until onions are soft and lightly browned.* Stir every 5-10 minutes

Put caramelized onions on bread, top with 1 ounce of goat cheese. Put under broiler (set on high) until goat cheese starts to melt. Garnish with herbs and sprinkle with olives and serves.

*By all means, caramelize your onions as you wish - some people do this for 20 minutes - if your heat is on low enough you can do this for an hour. This recipe is all "suggestion" to me rather than absolutes.

Also, it is easy to vary amounts for servings and taste. More goat cheese? Less? Your call.

Check out what the other bloggers are doing to honor this week's game-changer and if you want to join in the fun for our last week, e-mail Mary at One Perfect Bite. Mary started this delectable journey.

Val - More Than Burnt Toast, Joanne - Eats Well With Others, Taryn - Have Kitchen Will Feed

Susan - The Spice Garden, Heather - girlichef,

Miranda - Mangoes and Chutney, Jeanette - Healthy Living, 

Mary - One Perfect Bite, Kathleen - Bake Away with Me

Sue - The View from Great Island, Barbara - Movable Feasts

Kathleen - Gonna Want Seconds, 

Linda A - There and Back Again, 

Mireya - My Healthy Eating Habits, Veronica - My Catholic Kitchen

Annie - Most Lovely Things, Alyce - More Time at the Table; Amrita- Beetle's Kitchen Escapades
Jill - Saucy Cooks, Sarah - Everything in the Kitchen Sink

Martha - Simple Nourished Living

Rhubarb Streusel Muffins for Small BItes Sunday

Nothing Italian going on here today. This post is pure Minnesota. Using a plant you could forage in this state. As Italians are great, grand, stupendous foragers - maybe that's where I make my tie to Italy. Or maybe I should be quiet and let the muffin speak.

When I moved to White Bear Lake, the yards had 4 trees, 2 overgrown bushes, an elephant hosta that could eat Manhattan (and could have been the inspiration for Little Shop of Horrors), a sedum plant and this:

I had no idea what it was.

"Rhubarb," replied my husband.

""What's rhubarb?"

In the years... okay decades that followed, I learned about rhubarb. It's the first plant up in Minnesota. You can't kill it. It grows wild by the highways and it's tart. Really tart. And I love it. I pick it before it's large and stringy and make compote for pork and chicken, muffins, strawberry rhubarb pie and - for the first time rhubarb frozen yogurt (coming soon at a blog near you). And it keeps on giving - after cutting 12 stalks today, I will have new shoots in a few days. 3-4 harvests of the stuff.

The leaves are nasty - poisonous - and I shudder to think how people found that out. But those sunset-red stalks work magic with a little sugar.

These streusel rhubarb muffins are a cut above the average muffin recipe. They're from Smitten Kitchen and I love that they are not sweet (when I want a muffin, I want a muffin; when I want cake, I'll bake a cake). Sour cream gives them depth and richness without being cloyingly sweet. And the right amount of sugar keeps your lips from puckering (although, I like to suck on lemons - so what do I know?)

Streusel Rhubarb Muffins - makes 12
(Find Smitten Kitchen's original and healthier recipe here. Deb used whole wheat white flour - I couldn't find my wheat flour; I know - who loses flour in their kitchen?)

It looks like a lot of steps - trust me - you know how I love ease - this is easy.

Streusel
1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon white, granulated sugar
3 tablespoons light or dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter - melted

Muffin
1 large egg
1/4 cup light or dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons white granulated sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter - melted and cooled to room temperature
3/4 cup sour cream (I actually used light sour cream)
1-1/2 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup diced rhubarb cut into 1/2 inch pieces (6-8 stalks - go for thinner stalks and use 8 of them)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 12-muffin pan.

Streusel: In a small dish stir flour, sugars, spices and salt. Stir in melted butter until it looks like crumbs. Set aside.

Muffin: Whisk egg in a large bowl with sugars. Whisk in melted, cooled butter and sour cream. In a small bowl mix flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir into sour cream mixture until combined - can be lumpy. Stir in 1/3 of the streusel mixture (eyeball it).  Fold in rhubarb. With spoon, add mixture to muffin tin. Top each muffin mixture with streusel mixture. Using a spoon, press streusel down into mixture a bit. (I sprayed hands with Pam if you like and press it down).

Bake for 18-24 minutes - until tops are golden brown and tester toothpick comes out clean.

This is a real muffin. Moist, fruity, not too sweet. It doesn't pretend to be something else. It doesn't masquerade. It's not a coffee cake muffin - it is simple fare - heightened with a little spice and sour cream.

I may have been an ignorant New York City girl when I first spied rhubarb. But I'm smarter now. As is our yard. We now have 250 bushes and plants (that one elephant hosta - it's morphed into 30 hostas). So I'm eating muffns (yes plural) as I look at the yardwork that needs to be done and wonder, "What was I thinking?" Must be time for another muffin.

Chocolate Budino from Cat Cora

I don't know if you can tell - but there's chocolate oozing over the top crumbs. There would have been more chocolate seeping onto the plate if I served these right out of the oven (recommended). But I am expedient. When people are over, I do all ahead of time. Except take pictures. There were impatient people waiting for these delectables. I needed to get all the photos done in the time it takes for everyone at the table to make fun of Claudia and her pictures of food.

So, the photos are not splendifrous - I tried. There's irony here but you will see that in a few minutes.

These chocolate pillows are from Cat Cora. Who is Cat Cora? Never heard of her until this week. It's that not-TV-watching thing that snags me again. (All right! I confess, I watched Downton Abbey. Nobody does soap opera better than the Brits.)

Bundino means "pudding" in Italian - and they are almost like a British steamed plum pudding. Except they're not British and they're not steamed. They are irresistible. I baked small ones in muffin tins (everyone's on a diet for swimsuit season). And everyone ate 2 or 3. Small bites, right? It's always fun to fool yourself.

Cat Cora is best known for her featured role in Iron Chef (someday will watch). She's easy to spot - she's the woman. And she is #48 on Gourmet's Female Game-Changers in Food. Born in Mississippi to a Greek-American family of restaurateurs, Cora got the cooking bug early. She may have gone to college for Exercise Physiology and Biology, but after graduating she headed to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY to pursue her love of food.

(Cat Cora 2010, photo from Wikipedia)

Her accomplishments are varied and considerable. She co-founded Chefs for Humanity "a grassroots coalition of chefs and culinary professionals guided by a mission to quickly be able to raise funds for important emergency and humanitarian aid, nutritional education and hunger-related initiatives throughout the world."

On the flip side of the coin, she had a voice role in a video game Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine.  And if the coin had a third side you'd find that she has partnered with Disney producing videos about helping and teaching families to cook together. In 2010, she created webisodes with the Muppets (specifically a spicy Italian Muppet named Angelo) that centered on the joys and health benefits of cooking as a family.

Yes, she has cookbooks, kitchenware and some lovely recipes. Read more about Cat Cora at her website.

More of a molten cake than a pudding, this is simple (my mantra) and is simply velvet night.

Chocolate Budino (makes 12 Budini or one large Budino) Ingredients
1/2 pound bittersweet chocolate cut into small chunks (I used Sharffen-Berger chunks)
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks (which gave me an egg white omelette the next day - points for being thrifty & virtuous)
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
12 tablespoons unsalted butter - softened

Preparation
Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.

Grease or spray a 9-inch cake pan or muffin tin.

Place the chocolate over the top pan of a double boiler set over gently simmering water. Stir till melted.

In a medium bowl whisk together eggs, eggs yolks, sugar and flour until well -incorporated.

When the chocolate has melted, remove pan from heat and add butter, mixing until all is a deep brown and smooth. Add the egg mixture into the chocolate (I did the opposite) mixing well. Pour into prepared pans. If using muffin tins, fill half-way. (Which I did but next time I would fill them 3/4).

Bake 18-20 minutes if using a cake pan and only 11-12 minutes if using a muffin tin. You will see the edges start to pull away from the pan. Remove from oven and cool for ten minutes. To serve, place a pan over the in or cake pan and turn upside down. Quickly turn it back onto your serving platter. It is best served warm but I got the happy sighs when I served it at room temperature.

I served it with double Devonshire clotted cream and berries.

Remember how I complained over not taking good photos?

After the dinner ended, Kirsten came home stressed from work ("stress" being the predominant gene in this family).

"Chocolate! I need chocolate!" She popped a chocolate-muffin-budino is her mouth and then slathered cream on the last two.

She didn't care how it looked.

And then she covered it with raspberries and it looked better than my rendition that I like to think I did with care.

Go figure.

My "Project" continues to grow. I think it's the spot from the Cat in the Hat. And when chocolate is not readily available, this has been a grand week for looking out my window.

Check out what the other bloggers are doing to honor this week's game-changer Cat Cora and if you want to join in the fun, e-mail Mary at One Perfect Bite. Mary started this delectable journey.

Val - More Than Burnt Toast, Joanne - Eats Well With Others, Taryn - Have Kitchen Will Feed

Susan - The Spice Garden, Heather - girlichef,

Miranda - Mangoes and Chutney, Jeanette - Healthy Living, 

Mary - One Perfect Bite, Kathleen - Bake Away with Me

Sue - The View from Great Island, Barbara - Movable Feasts

Kathleen - Gonna Want Seconds, 

Linda A - There and Back Again, 

Mireya - My Healthy Eating Habits, Veronica - My Catholic Kitchen

Annie - Most Lovely Things, Alyce - More Time at the Table; Amrita- Beetle's Kitchen Escapades
Jill - Saucy Cooks, Sarah - Everything in the Kitchen Sink

Martha - Simple Nourished Living

Goat Cheese with Roasted Grapes

"I'm not hungry, I'll just pick." That was my mother's mantra when I was growing up. I embrace this notion - although my "picking" can add up to a substantial meal. My beginnings for Small Bites Sunday is probably genetic.

My mother is ageless. Truly. She doesn't have an assigned age. Or - if she has one - we don't know it. Nor did we know the ages of her sisters. My cousins and I spent a lot of time around each other's kitchen table guessing at the ages of our aunts and respective mother's. What we all know today - is - it doesn't matter.

What mattered was being together around food. Small bites. Big bites. My mother had the Italian touch with pasta, salads and all meals Mediterranean. When I was young, she also started taking home these little cards from the wine store that was the start of the magazine Bon Appetit.  Thinking "this looks good," she experimented with all cuisines. In her Peking duck phase, I would come home from school to find ducks hanging in the back of my basement. I was not amused. Then.

There was the Christmas when she baked 225 cookies to serve 7....

After moving to Minnesota, she would pick up two live lobsters at LaGuardia and bring them back to St. Paul to have a Maine feast with my father. At an early age, she introduced me to lox, artichokes, fondue and halavah. She also (with barely a cent to her name), managed to take me to the old Met for special children performances in opera and to the New York Town hall for ballet created for young people. (And she wonders where my theatre gene came from!)

Thank-you Mom for my love of cheese, care with a meal and those lovely legs that I got from you! This is for you. Happy Mother's Day!

Life is good when simple grapes turn into become tender and cherry-like via the simple task of roasting them.  Robustly sweet, they make the perfect foil for the slight tang in a goat cheese.

I found this on Glow Kitchen's blog. She dressed it up more with honey and her photos really do it justice. I encourage you to view the original recipe here. This is such minimal work for grand results. My kind of cooking.

Roasted Grapes with Goat Cheese - serves 4-6 depending how hungry everyone is!
1-4 oz goat cheese log
2-3 cups red grapes
1 teaspoon sea salt
Herbs to garnish
10-14 pieces crostini or crackers

Take your goat cheese out of the fridge 60-90 minutes ahead of time to soften. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray baking pan (cookie sheet with rims works) with Pam. Once the grapes start to caramelize, they will stick. Scatter grapes on pan. Toss with a little sea salt. Bake for about 25 minutes until grapes reduce, give off some liquid and sweetly start to caramelize. Cool. Serve atop goat cheese atop crostini!

I served this at a meeting for my "Big Project." Meeting ended after 2 hours. Nobody left the dining room table until 5 hours later. I think that constitutes "a hit!"

Happy Mother's Day to all of you generous and caring caregivers out there!