Roasted Potato Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

As I mentioned a

few days ago

, last Sunday we had a little party for my mom's 60th birthday. Lara and I were in charge of the food, and we decided on a salad bar with all the fixings. On top of the do-it-yourself bar, we wanted a few pre-made salads as well. After scouring the internet, we finally settled on two recipes. A pasta salad as well as this roasted potato salad. I don't make potato salads often, so I was excited for the opportunity to give this recipe a try. I am a huge mustard fan, so the idea of a mustard vinaigrette on my potato salad sounded wonderful. 

At the farmers market the day before the party, I found the most beautiful display of baby potatoes; yellow, red and purple. They were absolutely gorgeous, just the thing for this wonderful salad. It's a simple salad, but full of freshness from the basil and scallions, and wonderful variations in texture from the creamy potatoes to the raw walnuts. Topped with the delicious mustardy vinaigrette, this was my definition of a perfect potato salad.

Here are a few pictures from the rest of the party. Lots of toppings options to let everyone make their own salad. We had chicken, ham, chickpeas, mushrooms and lost of different vegetables, grilled corn, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, onions, tomatoes, etc. A few cheese options and two dressings, a homemade ranch, and a lemony vinaigrette, topped it all off. There was a bread basket with whipped honey butter, a fruit salad, and of course, dessert! Check out

this

post to read about the absolutely fantastic cupcakes! All in all it was a great party, and a wonderful way to celebrate the best mom on her extra special day! 

A look at the salad bar options

The Van Zee girls, all looking good!

Pasta salad, potato salad, fruit salad and the bread bowl!

Roasted Potato Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

Adapted from 

Food52

Ingredients

Salad

• 4 pounds mixed marble potatoes, or other small potatoes
• 1 cup walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
• 1 bunch basil, leaves torn into bite-sized pieces
• 1 bunch scallions, white and green parts thinly sliced crosswise

Vinaigrette

• 2 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons roasted walnut oil (is probably fantastic, but I didn't have any!)
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 425° F and line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.

Wash and dry potatoes, then spread evenly between baking sheets. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to evenly coat potatoes. Sprinkle with freshly-ground black pepper and sea salt, then roast, shaking the pans occasionally, until potatoes are tender and browning (about 45 minutes, depending on the size of your potatoes).

Meanwhile, prepare vinaigrette. Place garlic cloves on a cutting board, sprinkle with a generous couple pinches of sea salt, and chop and mash with the side of your knife until the clove breaks down into a salty paste.

Add garlic paste to a small bowl along with mustards, lemon juice, and vinegar. Whisk to emulsify. Add olive and walnut oils and whisk vigorously to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning with additional sea salt and pepper.

When potatoes are done, transfer to a large bowl. Add scallions and dressing, and toss to coat. Using the back of a mixing spoon or the end of a wooden spatula, roughly smash some of the potatoes to break the skins. You’re not making mashed potatoes, but breaking the potatoes down will allow them to soak up more of the vinaigrette.

Allow dressed potatoes to sit at room temperature for about 45 minutes to one hour. Just before serving, stir in walnuts and basil.

Peaches and Cream Cupcakes

It's an extra special birthday today, my mom turns 60!! I can hardly believe it! In honor of this special occasion, Lara, my dad and I threw a little shindig for her this past Sunday. Family members and friends came over for a salad bar party. It was pretty delicious if I do say so. Today I want to share the best part of the party - the cake of course! Since it's August, and my mom absolutely LOVES peaches, I decided to make a peaches and cream cupcake for her. While I love having the opportunity to make a cake, at a party like this I decided cupcakes would be easier to serve, and would be easier for everyone to eat. 

These cupcakes turned out light and fluffy, filled with sweet and delicious peaches, topped with the perfect frosting, an airy whipped mascarpone and cream frosting. It doesn't get much better than this for an August birthday. I highly recommend both the cake and the frosting. I may never go back to buttercream again!

This cupcake recipe is definitely a keeper. It was simple, and baked up 24 perfect cupcakes. I've been looking for a go-to vanilla cupcake and I think this is it. To turn it into a peach cupcake all I did was dice up a few peaches from the farmers market, let them drain in a colander for a few minutes, tossed them with a little flour and threw them into the batter at the very end. It worked out great. Because peaches have such a gentle flavor, the cupcakes aren't overly "peachy", but they lend a hint of fruitiness to the cake, and you get a sweet surprise every few bites.

I've been wanting to try a mascarpone frosting for some time now and I decided that this was the perfect opportunity. There was no doubt that I would love this frosting, and I was not disappointed! This was the easiest, most delicious frosting I have ever tried. It took all of 2 minutes to whip together, didn't involved any sticky and messy powdered sugar, and tastes absolutely divine! I may never make another white frosting again. The only downside to it is you have to refrigerate it once made, since all that is in it is cream and mascarpone! But that's okay, it's a compromise worth making!

Happy Birthday Mom!! Lookin pretty good! Love you!

Peach Cupcakes
Adapted from Baking A Moment
Ingredients

• 3 cups (14 ounces) all purpose flour
• 1¾ cups (12.25 ounces) granulated sugar
• 2½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened, cut into small cubes
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup (8 ounces) milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Drop or two of almond extract (optional)
• 2-3 peaches, cut into small pieces and placed in a colander to drain

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl and stir to combine.

Add the butter and mix on low speed, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs (2-3 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, and scrape the bottom of the bowl to make sure all the ingredients are well-combined.

Combine the milk, vanilla extract and almond extract (if using) in a measuring cup. Beat half this mixture into the flour/butter/eggs. Beat on medium speed for 1½ minutes, scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, add the remaining milk mixture, and beat for another 30 seconds.

Toss drained peach pieces with a small amount of flour. Gently mix into the batter until well combined.

Fill paper liners ⅔ full with batter, and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Cool completely before topping with mascarpone frosting (recipe below). 

Yields: 24 cupcakes

Mascarpone Frosting

From

Epicurious

Ingredients

• 2 8-ounce containers mascarpone cheese
• 2 cups chilled heavy whipping cream
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions

Beat all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fit with the whisk attachment just to soft peaks. You need to beat it enough so that it is firm enough to pipe onto the cupcakes, but don't overbeat or mixture will curdle. 

Big Cluster Cinnamon Almond Granola

I was talking to my grandma a few weeks ago about making granola and how much I love doing it. It's so much better and ridiculously cheaper than buying it, and it's not at all difficult to do. Plus, you can customize it to your exact specifications! My grandma is gluten intolerant, and so granola is a good option for her to have on hand for breakfast, or a snack, or whatever. After our conversation I decided to make her a batch to show her what homemade granola can be like. 

I chose this recipe because it was very simple. Since I don't know exactly how she likes her granola I decided to keep it basic and pretty classic. Oats, almonds and brown sugar, some cinnamon and vanilla, all kept nice and crunchy with a bit of oil. It turned out a beautiful, toasty granola that formed big, crunchy clusters. Super tasty, and perfect for anything you might imagine. 

I eat a ton of granola. Yogurt and some kind of fruit, topped with granola almost every morning. I never get tired of it. I also just snack on it out of hand throughout the day. It's a great quick snack that you can eat as much or as little of as you want. There are lots of other options though; top some sweetened fruit with it and bake until bubbly, top ice cream with a little extra crunch, throw it on a salad as an alternative to croutons. Just be creative, and I'm sure you'll come up with many more options that suit your life!

Big Cluster Cinnamon Almond Granola

Adapted from

The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee

by 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (3.5 ounces) brown sugar
• 1/4 cup (30 grams) water
• 3 cups (250 grams) old fashioned rolled oats
• 2 ounces almonds, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 2 1/2-3 tablespoons (35 grams) canola or vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Directions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. In a small saucepan, combine the brown sugar and water. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture comes to a boil. Let cool. 

In a large bowl, combine the oats, almonds, cinnamon, and salt and mix well. 

Add the oil and vanilla extract to the brown sugar mixture and stir until thoroughly combined. Pour over the oat mixture. Mix well with a large spoon or rubber spatula until thoroughly combined and uniform in texture. 

Transfer granola to a rimmed baking sheet and pat down into a thick, even layer. 

Bake for 75 minutes. Remove oven and use a large metal spatula to flip the granola, keeping it in as large of chunks as possible. Return the granola to the oven and bake for about 60 minutes more until completely dry and no longer at all soft when you take a bite. Let cool before serving. 

Store in a tightly sealed container at room temperature. 

Caponata

I buy almost all of my produce at the farmers market during the summer. I love my Saturday mornings at the market, walking up and down the long row of produce, flowers, baked goods, meats and cheeses and anything else that might be there, deciding what I must have for the coming week. However, I was at the grocery store to pick up a few things the other day and I made the requisite trip through the produce section, just in case. There I found a single eggplant, forlornly sitting on the "seconds" shelf. One pretty nice sized eggplant for sale for 60 cents. I couldn't just leave it there, it looked absolutely fine still, nice and firm with no obvious bad spots at all. So into my cart it went. I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but I knew I could figure that out quite quickly once I got home. 

After a quick search online, it became obvious to me what I should make, caponata. This is not something I had made before, but I had a couple of recipes pinned, and had just watched an episode of the Barefoot Contessa where she served caponata on an antipasto platter. So after I looked through a couple of recipes, I went to work creating my very own caponata using the ingredients I had in the fridge. In the end it turned out absolutely delicious! While I don't know what a good Italian would say about my caponata, in the end I don't really care. I loved it, and when cooking for yourself that's really all that matters. 

I wasn't sure what caponata was exactly when I decided to make it, so I did a little online research. It is apparently a sweet and sour Sicilian eggplant dish typically served as an appetizer or side, but can make a wonderful vegetarian main dish as well. (If I'm getting any of this wrong, please let me know!) Along with what is in my version, most of the recipes I looked at had celery and capers, neither of which I had, so I went without. I also threw in some cilantro which I'm sure is not Italian at all, but I had some in the fridge and I love it so in it went. If I'd had parsley I would have added that, but not this time! I'm sure I missed other "essential" elements of a traditional caponata as well, but again I don't really care as long as my tastebuds are satisfied!

Caponata

From Jana

Ingredients

• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 eggplant (about 1 pound) cut into 1/2 inch dice
• 1/2 sweet bell pepper cut into 1/2 inch dice
• 1/2 red onion cut into 1/4 inch dice
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 6-8 olives, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1-2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1-2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• Salt, to taste
• Cilantro, to finish

Directions

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium low heat. Add the eggplant, bell pepper, and red onion. Saute for 8-10 minutes, until everything is starting to wilt an brown just a little. 

Add the garlic and cook for about 1 minute until fragrant. Then add the tomato paste and let it caramelize for 1-2 minutes before stirring into the vegetable mixture. Add the olives and stir again. 

Pour in the chicken stock and cider vinegar and stir it all to combine. Taste the mixture and then add the sugar, cayenne and salt to taste. Let the caponata bubble away over medium low heat until thickened and everything is cooked through. 

At the end of cooking add in the cilantro for a fresh finish. 

Tangy Coleslaw with Red Onion and Parsley

One of my favorite farmers market purchases during the summer is a nice big head of cabbage. They are usually so big and beautiful, and so inexpensive. Yesterday I saw a nice sized head of cabbage for $1! That feels almost free to me. I am a big cabbage fan so I frequently end up buying a head every couple of weeks through the summer. There is so much you can do with cabbage. I love roasting it with a little olive oil, vinegar and salt. So easy and so delicious and you can eat it hot out of the oven or store it in the fridge and eat it cold throughout the week. 

As much as I love roasted cabbage, during the summer you just have to make a nice big batch of coleslaw every now and then. I love coleslaw, and there are so many different variations that you can play around with. This recipe for tangy coleslaw is a delicious option. It is a little creamy thanks to the Greek yogurt, yet nice and tangy from the cider vinegar. A hint of mustard and some honey for sweetness round out the flavors nicely. I finished it with some minced red onion and chopped parsley for freshness and a little color. Remember this recipe next time you see a nice head of cabbage for sale, you won't regret it!

I don't like my coleslaw to be swimming in dressing, but if you like yours a little saucier, I'd go ahead and double the dressing. How much dressing you need will also depend on the size of your cabbage. Although you can eat this coleslaw immediately after eating it, it only improves with time, so if you have the time, let it sit in the fridge for a few hours, or overnight, to let the flavors meld and it will be even better!

Tangy Coleslaw with Red Onion and Parsley

From Jana

Ingredients

• 1/4 head green cabbage, finely shredded or chopped
• 2 tablespoons minced red onion
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1-2 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
• 1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon honey
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• salt to taste

Directions

Put your shredded or chopped cabbage in a large bowl. Add the minced red onion and the chopped parsley. Stir to combine. 

In a small bowl, whisk together the cider vinegar, Greek yogurt, dijon mustard, honey, olive oil and salt. 

Pour dressing over cabbage. Toss to combine well. If needed, make a little more dressing and add that to the coleslaw. You can eat immediately, but I've found that the flavors just improve as it sits so if you have time let it rest in the fridge a few hours before serving. 

Chewy Peanut Butter Oat Bars

Looking for a sweet and chewy, snack bar that is filling, substantial, and keeps for a long time? I have just the recipe for you! Personally, I love having healthier snacks on hand that I can grab in the morning to keep with me while I'm at the hospital in case I get hungry throughout the day. These bars fit the bill. What's also great about them is the ingredient list is short and simple. There are so many energy and health bar recipes out there with five million ingredients in them, half of which I don't have. For this recipe all you need is dried fruit (dates or prunes), a nut butter and oats. A pinch of salt and some water round them out nicely. So easy to throw together and so tasty to eat!

You will need a fairly powerful food processor to blend all of the ingredients together until they form a nice sticky paste. Then into a pan and finally into the oven to set up just a bit. I cut my bars into small bites that were the perfect snack to nibble on in the middle of the afternoon when dinner still seemed very far away. I kept them in the fridge, but I would think they would last out on the counter for quite a while as well, none of the ingredients in it are very perishable. And if you're feeling indulgent, I think a drizzle of chocolate overtop would be the perfect way to really make this recipe extra special. 

Chewy Peanut Butter Oat Bars
Adapted from Sugarcrafter
Ingredients

• 2 cups (12 ounces) prunes (or a combo of prunes and dates)
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup (128 ounces) peanut butter
• 2 cups (160 grams) old fashioned oats
• pinch salt

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line a 9 by 9-inch baking pan with parchment paper, and set aside. In a large food processor, pulse the prunes until roughly chopped. Add the water and peanut butter, and blend until well pureed. The mixture will be very sticky. Add the oats to the food processor, and pulse until well combined with the prune and date mixture. 

Spread the mixture in an even layer in the prepared baking pan. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into bars. 

Calorie count: cut into 25 bars, 90 calories per bar

Festive Lemon Berry Bars

Happy Fourth a few days late! I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was incredibly relaxing and lazy, exactly what I was hoping for! One of the few things I did accomplish during this wonderful weekend was baking up a batch of these festive and delicious lemon berry bars. I wanted an easy and quick dessert that was summery and fitting for the 4th of July. These bars fit the bill perfectly, filled with colorful red and blue berries and topped with a simple white glaze. The hint of lemon from some fresh lemon juice and zest was the perfect way to brighten them up for the middle of summer. Light and refreshing, these bars will be wonderful all season long!

The original recipe for these bars called for just blueberries, but I wanted to make them more festive for the holiday so I threw in the strawberries too because I had them on hand. Raspberries would have also been really good. I think pretty much any berry would do very nicely in these bars, so don't feel constrained to just blueberries and/or strawberries. 

When I first pulled the bars out of the oven they looked kind of funny. Since there is no leavening in them, they didn't really rise much, and the top was covered in bubbles which you can kind of see in the pictures. I wasn't sure what they would look like in the end, but once I cut them, and especially after adding the glaze they looked really nice, and quite delicious. So if they turn out a little funny looking at first, have no fear! Just cut them up once cool and add a nice hefty dose of glaze and all should be well!

Festive Lemon Berry Bars

Adapted from 

Sweet Pea's Kitchen

Ingredients

For the Bars:

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon finely grated zest 
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 1/2 cup strawberries, cut into small pieces

For the Glaze:

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon of water or fresh lemon juice 

Directions

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8” x 8” pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar, and lemon zest at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down sides and bottom of bowl with rubber spatula. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, about 20 seconds. Add lemon juice and vanilla and mix to combine. Add flour and salt, mixing until incorporated. Fold in blueberries and strawberries.

Spoon batter into prepared pan and smooth top.

Bake until skewer inserted into brownies comes out clean, 25-30 minutes. Cool in pan on wire rack to room temperature.

To make the lemon glaze, in a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar and water or lemon juice. Spread over bars and let firm up, about 10 minutes.

Soft Sandwich Sourdough

I decided to try out a new sourdough sandwich loaf recently, just for something new. I don't like getting stuck in a rut, so I did some browsing of recipes I had pinned as well as exploring the internet for anything new that I might want to try. I finally settled on this soft sandwich sourdough. It has enough butter and sugar to make it a little special without being overly rich and heavy, a good compromise. This was the first time I've made a truly sourdough bread, one without any added commercial yeast. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, I was hoping my starter was healthy and vigorous enough to provide the rise needed to make a nice and light loaf. No need to worry! There recipe turned out two beautiful loaves, absolutely perfect for whatever sandwich you are craving. Not overly sour tasting, but soft and full of flavor. A definite keeper! 

Without the addition of any commercial yeast, this recipe definitely took longer to rise than most "normal" bread recipes. But that is okay with me. It just needed a little more time and it rose beautifully. The final loaves are extra tall, but they were just the right size for me to make a very nice sandwich on. 

One other unique part of this recipe is that it calls for you to bake it about halfway until the crust is completely set, and then you remove the loaves from the bread pans and continue the baking process directly on a baking stone to finish. I've never done this before but it seemed to work quite well, helping the crust brown evenly all over.

Soft Sandwich Sourdough
Adapted From Wild Yeast
Ingredients

• 622 g flour (I used about 1/2 all purpose, 1/2 whole wheat)
• 200 g water
• 16.2 g salt
• 65 g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 31 g honey
• 120 g milk, scalded and cooled
• 411 g mature 100%-hydration sourdough starter

Directions
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine all of the ingredients except about 10% of the water. Mix in low speed until the ingredients are incorporated, adjusting the water as needed to achieve a medium dough consistency (you may need additional water). Continue mixing to in medium speed to a medium-high level of gluten development.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled container. Cover and ferment for 3 hours, with folds* after the first 1 and 2 hours.

Turn the dough into a lightly floured counter. Divide it in half. Preshape each piece into a cylinder and let rest, covered, for about 25 minutes. Generously butter two 8.5 x 4.5-inch loaf pans. Shape the dough tightly into blunt batards and place them, seam-side-down, into the prepared pans. Proof, covered, for 3 hours, or until the top of the dough has risen to about 1.5 inches above the edge of the pan.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven, with baking stone, to 425F. You will also need steam* during the initial phase of baking, so prepare for this now.

Once the loaves are in the oven, reduce the temperature to 400F. Bake for 15 minutes with steam, and another 10 minutes without steam. Then remove the loaves from the pans, place them directly on the stone, and bake for another 20 minutes or so, until the crust is a deep golden brown. Cool completely on a wire rack before cutting.

*For more information about folding and steaming check out the original recipe on Wild Yeast

Nutrition: Approximate calorie count, 1/12 of a loaf is 143 calories