Carrot Avocado Salad

There is this amazing salad back in LA at a place called Huckleberry. It's wildly overpriced but absolutely awesome food. They make a salty caramel square that I would literally walk across the country for. Not on hot coals or anything, but I mean that is an insane and very long walk. But I digress.

This salad is super simple and smacks you in the face with the question "Why the hell didn't I think of this before??"

The ingredients are ridiculously simple. Carrots. Avocado. Cumin. Oil. Lemon. 

Bang. Done. And the results? ridiculously delicious. So delicious you're gonna be like, Whaaaaat? This is a frickin' SALAD? Esé? Ce n'est pas vrai!

MAIS C'EST Frickin' VRAI. The real kicker is that when you eat it at H-berry's, you realize if you had made it at home it would cost you about 1/25th of what you spend there. I mean...dosage-wise. Because a dollar buys a bunch of carrots y'all.

And I will poetically tie this into the fact that I am so mad blissful happy to be in Montreal right now, where all the simple ingredients of this city (the cultural variety, the spring blooming, the beautiful birds of paradise that bust out in their finest feathers) have been tossed together and result in our nightly 8pm casserole banging/music making protesting and general community building. It's awesome. totes. And I'm like "This is a frickin' game-changer?" Mais, peut-être, c'est frickin' vrai.  

Huckleberry Carrot-Avocado Salad (With a Chesley Twist)

1 bunch of carrots (10-12)

2 ripe avocados

4 tbsp parmesan, grates

olive oil

half a lemon, juiced

cumin seeds, cracked but not powder

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 F. Peel the carrots and slice them in long and medium thick slices, sideways. Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, cracked cumin seeds and parm. Lay on a baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes, tossing the carrots every 15 minutes at least. take out of the oven and immediately put in diced avocado and squeeze the lemon in to taste. toss it well and then let the salad cool in the fridge. Serve with a bit of fresh parsley.

Handmade Pasta with Mint-Lemon Pesto

It's been a pretty inspiring time in Montreal. After 3 months of student protests, the whole city is beginning to take part in creative action on the streets. The escalation is certainly shared with the student movement, but leapt forward when the recent law 78 was passed by Charest just a week or so ago. This law was an attempt to end the student marches quickly, but violates basic civil liberties by making it illegal to assemble more than 50 people without permits, wear masks and generally gives the already corrupt Police Force in Montreal impunity to use violence against civilians. Now the streets are full of Montrealaise, banging on casserole dishes in unison.

I think Charest couldn't have picked a worse time to pass this law. Montreal is known to come out of hiding in May, in full force, with all the delicious sunlight and greenery after the long and icy winter freeze. So now, as the city really unthaws, there is this fabulous energy as the joy of spring and the impact of the protests collide. It's been explosiiiive y'all!! I feel super lucky to be here right now. Also, people in Montreal are just fabulous looking. Damn.

So with that in mind, Leah and I had a couple of little projects that we finally enacted! 

One: Pasta Making. Two: Littérature pour tous!

I couldn't get over how actually easy and amazing pasta making is. And it truly does make all the difference. We used an old Italian cookbook of Leah's, mixed AP flour with buckwheat and let'er rip. The results were super tender and flavorful, so much better than the store-bought stuff. And we used some fresh mint from my garden to make a lemon-mint pesto. 

I had been slightly skeptical of how the mint-lemon pesto would turn out, but this again was amazing. Such a perfect fresh summer dish. I caramelized some zucchini and fennel and threw that in as well. All together, this made one fine meal. 

Home-made Pasta with Mint and lemon pesto

3 cups flour

3 eggs

a few handfuls of mint

one lemon

parmesan cheese

See, I wasn't kidding with how easy this is. For the pasta, you make a small mountain on your counter and create a well with your fist. pour the eggs and a splash of water in and begin incorporating the flour in with a fork, slowly and maintaining the volcano shape. Slowly it will start sticking together and as it thickens, you can start kneading it. Once the surface of the dough is glossy, you can wrap it and let is rest at room temperature for 30 minutes to a few hours. 

Roll it out and slice it how you will. Then let it dry again for at least 2 hours. This pasta literally takes about 4 minutes to cook. 

The pesto is just the mint, a tbsp or so of lemon juice and some zest. Add some spices as you will. pulse it up and put it on and EAT IT. yum.

Lemon Lavender Bars

This weekend was filled with firsts. It was the first time I cooked with lavender, a plant I attempted and failed to grow last summer, but which I have always had the hankering to use in baked goods.

It was the first time I shot-gunned a beer, though it kind of just felt like "another way to drink beer," that is out of the side of it. Probably means I was doing it wrong.

It was the first time I tried to make my own business cards using a home-made lino-cut stamp and a newly donated (to me) typewriter. The typewriter needs a new ribbon and also my paper is a little too thick, but I loooooove typewritten font. mmmm.

Cookies and Magic

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

Infinity.

OK, so I realize I'm completely misinterpreting that poem, because I KNOW I'm not supposed to just name a number and that I need to enumerate the many facets of my love. But Infinity, in this context, is all the possible facets I can think of to love these cookies. Because I love them, infinitely. 

Thank you, David Lebovitz, for existing. Your recipes are charming as is your general demeanor. I cannot get enough of your sweet sweet life in Paris. Sugar and France never went together so well.

In addition, I love the little miracles in life that make you think that maybe magic does exist. This video is from a little boulangerie I love. Where they normally store their freezable croque-monsieurs, this little mystery...it's levitating y'all!

Salted Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (unnnnnnnnnnnnnnn)

Salted Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes two dozen cookies

For those of you who wish to use unsalted butter, 4 ounces (8 tablespoons, or 115g) of butter has about 1/4 to 3/4 teaspoon of salt in it. (For those with a better aptitude for math than me, this might be of interest.)

For the rest of us, you could simply swap out unsalted butter and add another 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

4 ounces (115g) salted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup packed (110g) dark or light brown sugar
1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup (180g) flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt or kosher salt
1 1/3 cups (200g) coarsely chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
1 cup toasted nuts, coarsely chopped

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or by hand, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar just until smooth and creamy.

2. Beat in the egg and the vanilla.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

4. Stir the flour mixture into the beaten butter until combined, then mix in the chopped chocolate (including any chocolate dust) and the chopped nuts.

5. Cover and chill the batter until firm. (It’s preferable to let it rest overnight.)

6. To bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

7. Form the cookie dough into rounds about the size of a large unshelled walnut. Place the mounds evenly spaced apart on the baking sheets, and press down the tops to flatten them so they are no longer domed and the dough is even.

8. Bake the cookies for ten minutes, rotating the baking sheet midway during baking, until the cookies look about set, but are not browned.

9. Remove from the oven and quickly tap the top of each with a spatula, then return to the oven for two to five more minutes, until the tops of the cookies are light golden brown.

Remove from oven and let cookies cool.

Storage: The cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to five days in an airtight container. The dough can be refrigerated for up to one week or frozen for one or two months.