Ward Street Bistro

Potato Focaccia

As the weather turns cooler, I'm loving the chance to get back to baking, which I normally limit during the summer (except for pies; pies are always the exception!). And nothin' says lovin' like focaccia in the oven. I make it in a 9x13 pan, which I prefer to a round or larger, thinner rectangular shape. This gives me the flexibility to cut it into squares, which I can split for sandwiches--or cut it into narrow strips (breadstick-like). One of my all-time favorite meals is square lamb-burgers served on homemade focaccia.

I make a potato focaccia because I am particularly found of soft and moist potato yeast breads.

You can go directly to the printable recipe or I'll show you how to make it step-by-step...

Carrots with Olives and Garlic

I'm not sure why it took me so long to post this recipe. If I prioritized writing posts according to recipes we make the most, this might well be in the #1 slot. It's a recipe adaptation from one of my culinary heroes, Patricia Wells. Carrots are braised with olive oil, garlic and olives until everything is butter-tender. You've got the sweet carrots playing of the salty, briny olives plus sweet, tender slivers of garlic. We had these recently nestled up against Linguine with Shrimp Scampi--but they are fantastic with just about any meat or poultry. They are served warm or room temperature, which makes them a great make-ahead option.

You can go directly to the printable recipe or I'll show you how to make them, step-by-step...

Fruit Crispler

What is a crispler? Well, it's kind of a cross between and fruit crisp and a cobbler. The topping is softer, and more biscuit-like than a crisp, but it's not exactly a cobbler either.  I'm showing a peach crispler here, but you can make it with any fruit or berry. This past year, we've made more crisplers than we can count, with whatever fruit is in season.

You can go directly to the printable recipe or I'll show you how to make it, step-by-step...

Gazpacho

In the Pacific Northwest, tomato season is a late-arriving affair with a sometimes iffy harvest. Our lack of sustained hot, sunny days is the primary challenge. Still, towards the end of summer decent local tomatoes can be had. We've been enjoying some beautiful heirloom tomatoes from our local food coop - some of which made it into this gazpacho.

This particular gazpacho leans towards chunky side because I've hand-chopped the ingredients. You can do the chopping in a food processor which is quicker--and it's easier to get a very fine chop if that's your preference. The only downside to a food processor is that sometimes the vegetables seemed a bit bruised and battered in addition to being chopped. But either way is delicious.

You can go directly to the printable recipe or I'll show you how to make it, step-by-step...

Watermelon-Lime Spritzer

Hello summer! For those of you who get a real summer (with hot weather, like, everyday) the 90-degree weather we've had in Seattle the past couple of days will probably garner no sympathy. But since hot weather for us is unusual, almost nobody has air conditioning. Which means there is very little escape from the heat. So it was time to break out an ice-cold watermelon and make my favorite summertime drink: Watermelon-Lime Spritzer.

You can go directly to the printable recipe or I'll show you how to make it, step-by-step...

Angel Food Cake 101

For me, angel food cake is the cake of summer. Light, soft, and fluffy. With fresh summer fruit. Maybe with a drizzle of chocolate sauce. It was my mothers favorite cake and her (August) birthday cake each year. But the grocery-store versions just don't compare to the homemade variety. Which is why I make it from scratch.

The good news is that angel food cake is quick and easy to prepare once you get the hang of it.

You can go directly to the printable recipe or I'll show you how to make it, step-by-step...

Spinach Ricotta Pie

One of the many great things about Seattle is that there are almost no bugs in the summer, making Seattle an ideal locale for picnics. You may think of Seattle as rainy and cloudy but the reality is that we have many beautiful, sunny, not-too-hot summer days.

A picnic favorite that we enjoyed recently is this spinach and ricotta pie. It's easy to fix and travels beautifully. Somehow, a savory pie or quiche makes any picnic seem more festive.

You can go directly to the printable recipe or I'll show you how to make this, step-by-step...

Behind the Apron

Mostly, my goal is to keep this blog 100% focused on recipes and cooking. But, after reading about Behind the Apron, I decided to participate. So, here it goes...

Here Drake and I are enjoying Hawaii - a trip we took with his folks, his brother, and his two kids (who were then 11 and 14 years old). Believe it or not, I was somewhat lukewarm on a trip to Hawaii. I'd never taken a "fun-in-the-sun" vacation, thinking it might be, well, kind of boring. Ha. That attitude lasted about 10 minutes. We had a fabulous time and I can't wait to go back.

Some more randomness, since I've been tagged by Sookie's Kitchen to write 6 random things about myself...

Mushroom and Tomato Risotto

I am very pleased to be doing a second guest post over at one of my favorite cooking sites, startcooking.com. This time I'm featuring a quick & easy risotto - no stirring required - that makes a great weeknight dinner. The key is cooking a flavorful plain risotto on its own and  mixing it into a skillet that contains a desired combination of vegetables, herbs, seafood, sausage...whatever strikes your fancy. I'm demonstrating the recipe with one of my favorite combinations - tomatoes and mushrooms - both of which have had their flavors concentrated before being mixed into the rice.  I hope you'll stop by startcooking.com to check my latest post and of course the wealth of other recipes and information Kathy Maister provides.

P.S. If you're curious on how Kathy does her amazing how-to videos, there is a complete explanation here.

Corn Fritter Casserole

Some time ago, Cooking Light published a lightened version of the classic "Jiffy Mix" corn casserole. If you're not familiar with this side dish it is really tasty. But the original version - which contains Jiffy Mix corn muffin mix, sour cream, eggs, canned corn and a stick of butter - packs on the calories. Fine if you're Paul Deen (her version, BTW, adds cheddar cheese), but not-so-fine for the weight-watching head chef here at the Bistro. (That would be me.)

So, I gave the Cooking Light version a go and Drake loved it. I, however, was a bit bothered about the Jiffy Mix. The mix is is loaded with hydrogenated fats and it uses de-germinated corn meal, which has less flavor (and less fiber) than whole grain. To top it off,  Jiffy Mix is quite sweet, which made the casserole very sweet - tasty - but a bit too sweet to my taste.

So, I re-worked the recipe into a healthier, "from scratch" version that's less sweet than the original and with richer corn flavor. I'm quite happy with my variation, and it passed the hubby test with flying colors. Served along side some BBQ it's a hard-to-beat summer side dish.

You can go directly to the printable recipe or I'll show you how to make it, step-by-step...