Disclaimer: I am actually not a huge baker. I like to bake, but I seldom do it for many reasons.

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour (I used 3/4 cup King Arthur All Purpose Flour and 3/4 cup KAF 9 Grain Flour)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup raspberries, blueberries, or a mix of both (optional)

Directions:

Beat the eggs and milk until light and foamy, about 3 minutes at high speed of a stand or hand mixer. Stir in the butter.

Whisk the dry ingredients together to evenly distribute the salt, baking powder and sweetener.Gently and quickly mix into the egg and milk mixture. Let the batter rest for at least 15 minutes, while the griddle is heating; it’ll thicken slightly.

Heat a heavy frying pan over medium heat, or set an electric griddle to 350°F. Lightly grease frying pan or griddle (with butter, vegetable oil or non-stick spray) The pan or griddle is ready if a drop of water will skitter across the surface, evaporating immediately.

Drop 1/3 cupfuls of batter onto the lightly greased griddle. Bake on one side until bubbles begin to form and break. If you are using berries, carefully add them now to the pancakes. Turn the pancakes and cook the other side till brown. Turn over only once. Serve immediately, or keep warm in a 200 degree oven until ready to serve.

I finally got my hands onto some good stuff a few weeks ago. It was tall and red and green and full of subtle musty tartness that pleases me to no end. I searched high and low for this good stuff, patiently waiting for the good local version to hit the fruit stands. I live for this time of year.

The moment I found it, I chopped a pound of it into one inch pieces and stuffed them into my largest resealable glass jar. On top, I poured piles of organic sugar. With a little shake, the mixture was ready for the final ingredient.

I gently poured one liter of good vodka into the jar, and gave it all another shake, a bit more vigorous this time. The jar is now promptly stowed away in the back of my pantry. Every few days, I shake shake shake the jar, and dream of the moment when the stewing and shaking and sitting and waiting will pay off.

This cordial-making ritual has become an annual affair. I wish I could sell this stuff to you because it’s just so good. It sits for a month or two, as is, and then after a good strain, sits even longer. I’ve been known to keep it tucked away for up to four more months. Patience does pay off because there’s no other cordial that makes me smile like Rhubarb Liquor!

This stuff is definitely an acquired taste. It isn’t pure candy. It’s totally tart and sweet and mellow and divine. Pictures soon, people! Lest you think I don’t indulge in one of my favorite stalks immediately, take a peek below. Rhubarb preserves graces my morning yogurt, with berries, on a regular basis. It’s my daily reminder of some good stuff stewing in the back of my pantry, waiting to please my guests right around late summer or early fall, depending on how patient I can truly be.

Many say that Boston is not actually a big city, but really a large town.  This is never truer than when a widely-acclaimed new restaurant opens. Especially when it’s from Ken Oringer, of Clio, KO Prime, Toro and La Verdad fame and when the chef is Jamie Bissonette of Toro. Throughout the last year or so, hype has been growing exponentially for their newest restaurant, Coppa, a small enotoca in the South End. Coppa has gained critical acclaim, and fans are particularly excited about the restaurant’s “nose-to-tail” mindset and that all meats are cured on site. Housed in a cozy corner spot on a very neighborhood-y stretch of Shawmut Avenue, Coppa has been packing the house ever since it opened last December.

As a resident of the neighborhood, I walked by from time to time, shaking my head at the masses and retreating comfortably to local nearby favorites. “Typical hype,” I thought. “No big deal… Definitely not worth the multi-hours waits in overcrowded settings or on the frigid patio. Not for a rushed, cramped meal.” But I was wrong.

Last Friday night, after finally eating at Coppa, I was charmed. From the atmosphere to the service to the oh-so-amazing food, they got me. Instead of feeling rushed, the casually dressed and mannered waitress made us feel right at home.  She explained that the menu was made up of small plates, and if we ordered all at once, we would be served as they were ready. She explained that we could slow things down by ordering in a more “course by course” fashion, which is exactly what we did.

We started with a crostini with ricotta and duck prosciutto, which we divided into tiny bites and tried to eat as slowly as possible to fully appreciate each flavor. Next, we moved on to the freshest tasting salad ever consisting of fennel and arugula, with red onions, fiddlehead tomme, and tossed with a lemony vinaigrette.

For dinner, we each had pasta, the calves brain ravioli in brown butter sauce and orecchiette with fennel sausage and broccoli raabe. The generously poured glasses of wine kept us happy and smiling as we savored each taste and carefully curated ingredient. Fantastic coffee closed out the meal and was the perfect ending to what was a nearly perfect meal.

Believe the hype. It was one of the best dining experiences I have had in years.  I can’t wait to go back and try more of their menu. I woke up the next day thinking about all of the different tastes that I experienced at Coppa and started scheming about the recipes I could take from their menu.  While I probably won’t be making calves brains ravioli anytime soon, I was able to throw together a really fresh salad that was inspired by Coppa.

Arugula, Fennel and Parmigiano Reggiano Salad

• 1 small fennel bulb, very thinly sliced (about 1/2 cup)
• 4 cups washed and dried arugula
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shaved fresh Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (use a vegetable peeler)

Quick-Pickled Red Onions:

• 1 small red onion, thinly sliced (or a few thin slices of a bigger onion- you know how much onion you can take!)
• ½ cup vinegar (white, apple cider or even red wine vinegar would work here)
• ¼ cup warm water
• 2 tsp sugar

Vinaigrette:

• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1  teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon  olive oil
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  black pepper

Thinly slice a red onion and stir together the warm water, the vinegar and the sugar. Place the onions in a shallow bowl and pour pickling liquid on top. Put aside while you make the rest of your dinner. The longer this sits, the sweeter and tangy-er the onions will be.

Wash and dry the arugula, place into a medium bowl. Add the thinly sliced fennel bulb. Using a vegetable peeler, shave bits of the parmigiano reggiano onto the salad. Remove the onions from the pickling liquid and dice. Add to the bowl.

In a separate small bowl or a glass measuring cup, mix together the lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper. While whisking, slowly add the olive oil and mix until slightly emulsified. Toss the dressing with the salad just before serving. Enjoy!

I miss Summer. I know I’m not the only one. But while others miss the beach and icy margaritas, I miss visiting the farmers’ market each week. Last year was the first time I signed up for a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Each Monday, I would visit the friendly folks at the Silverbrook Farm tent, where unlike other CSAs, they give you free reign to choose your vegetables. Throughout the Summer and Fall, I experienced the micro-seasonality of a southeastern Massachusetts farm, greedily snatching up bags and bags of amazingly flavorful tomatoes, greens, onions, potatoes, basil, berries, peaches, plums, apples, squash, and eggplant. I couldn’t resist stocking up on Silverbrook’s colorful jams and jellies, some of which I hid away in my pantry so I could have bursts of summer all winter long. I see I’m not the only one who fell for their jam!

While New York City and Rhode Island love winter farmers’ markets, Boston is seriously lacking on that front. When the market closed in November, I sadly headed back to my supermarket with the goal of trying to eat as seasonally and locally as possible. Fast forward to February when my co-worker told me about a winter farmers’ market that she had recently visited. I was so excited by the idea, I peppered her with questions until she agreed to take me along.

Last Saturday morning, we made our way to the town of Wayland to visit the sprawling Russell’s Garden Center. The place was packed! We wandered past Russell’s beautiful greenhouse and through vendors selling hummus, salsa, and dried fruit leather, until we came upon the farm stands. I recognized Red Fire Farm, and soon began to examine their offerings of root vegetables and greenhouse grown spinach, collards and greens. A recipe began to take shape in my head, and I set about gathering rutabagas, turnips and parsnips – vegetables known to me by name, but not as much by taste. I couldn’t wait to get them home and roast them up!

The following is the loose recipe I created for this massive haul of winter vegetables. Feel free to use different vegetables, and to increase the amount of the maple balsamic mixture. I served them over polenta with feta cheese sprinkled on top for a great wintry meal.

Maple Balsamic Roasted Root Vegetables

Ingredients

• 3 rutabagas
• 3 parsnips
• 2 turnips
• 4 large carrots
• 3 radishes
• 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 3 tbsp maple syrup (honey would also go nicely here)
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 glug of soy sauce (optional)
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme, stripped from woody stems
• 2 teaspoons rosemary, stripped from stems and chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

Turn the oven on to 400 degrees. Line two cookie sheets or jelly roll pans with tin foil. Wash and peel the root vegetables and cut into uniform sized pieces. (I usually go for a smaller size so that they don’t take as long to roast.) Place all cut vegetables into a large bowl and set aside.

In a smaller bowl or a glass measuring cup, combine the vinegar, maple syrup and olive oil (and add the soy sauce here, if you are using). Pour the mixture over the vegetables and toss to coat well. Roast the vegetables, tossing once in awhile, for about 30 minutes or until browned and softened.

There is one Saturday remaining (February 27) at the winter farmers’ market at Russell’s Garden Center. Don’t miss your chance!

Photos by Paul Cary Goldberg

One of my favorite things about winter is getting to see more of my farmer friends (and farmer husband). As the fields are put to bed for the winter, there is more time to plan for the future, see friends and family, and create delicious meals. This week, I invited Kim Nolan, a grower at Green Meadows Farm in Hamilton (and the gal in the photo below), for an impromptu weeknight dinner (an invitation that would have been too much to ask during the crush of the growing season).

Kim came over with a special treat: Italian sausage made from Green Meadow’s own pasture-raised pork. It seemed like the perfect occasion to use the last jar of tomatoes from the small stash I was able to put away last September. With Kim’s Italian instinct for sauce, we were able to throw together a quick and tasty Bolognese that oozed hints of Summer flavor.

If you’re reading Eat Boutique, then I’m sure you’ve made a sauce like this before. It’s a favorite weeknight standby for me, as it was for my Mom when I was a just a little girl. It’s a versatile recipe that lends itself to whatever ingredients are in season.

Spaghettini Bolognese

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lb hot Italian pork sausage (see below for places to buy locally-raised pork)
• 2 quarts whole peeled tomatoes
• ½ cup roasted red peppers, chopped
• ¼ cup Italian parsley, chopped
• 1 lb whole wheat spaghettini (Bionaturae is my favorite)
• Your favorite grating cheese

Heat olive oil in a heavy-bottomed over medium heat. Saute the onions until translucent. Add garlic and cook another minute.

Crumble the pork sausage into the onion mixture and stir frequently until nearly cooked through.

Add tomatoes, and roasted red peppers. I like to crush the tomatoes a bit (with my hands – I grew up cooking in a highly tactile kitchen where hands were much more frequently used than kitchen utensils) as I add them to the pot.

Bring to a boil, and then turn down to a simmer. Simmer until most liquid is gone. Toss in parsley at the last minute.

Meanwhile, cook the spaghettini according to package directions. You know what to do next: top pasta with sauce and cheese (lots of cheese if you’re like me) and enjoy!

Places in/north of Boston to purchase locally-raised pork sausage:

• Green Meadows Farm. 656 Asbury Street, South Hamilton, MA. 978-468-2277. Pasture-raised pork, lamb, chicken and turkey distributed through a CSA, and at the farmstand. Call ahead to check retail availability or to get on the CSA waiting list.
• Tendercrop Farm. 108 High Road, Newbury MA. 978-462-6972. Large selection of their own meats (as well as a few cuts that they buy in, so ask the knowledgeable folks behind the counter for clarification). Full service butcher.
• My absolute favorite place to go to pick up an artisan-crafted sausage made with locally made meats was Lionette’s Market at 577 Tremont Street in Boston. However (gasp), I just found out that Jamie Lionette sold the shop to Don Otto and his family, who will continue to sell naturally-raised meat and poultry. Once I can stomach the idea of going into the shop and not seeing Jamie’s smiling face behind the counter, I’ll have to go in and check it out. I’ll keep you posted!

If you’re at all like me, you probably get a craving for a little something in the late afternoon, just a treat to see you through to the end of the day – and to dinner of course! I usually try to restrain myself to a cup of tea, but oh that tea tastes so much better with a sweet, nothing too rich, but just a cookie or biscuit or…lemon rosemary shortbread. Yes, earl grey tea with lemon rosemary shortbread is the perfect afternoon pick-me-up, like a little ray of sunshine in what would otherwise be a bleak February afternoon.

I got inspired to make lemon rosemary shortbread after a good friend (wink wink Maggie) sent me some Lark Fine Foods Salted Rosemary Shortbread over the holidays. It was delicious, sweet but also savory, and I got hooked, so I needed to make my own. I took a basic shortbread recipe, where the star ingredient is butter (try not to think about it), then added sea salt, chopped rosemary, lemon juice and lemon zest. The end result is the perfect teatime snack.

Lemon Rosemary Shortbread

Ingredients

• 3 sticks of unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary

Mix together butter and sugar until combined. Add vanilla, lemon juice and zest.

Mix flour and salt together, then add to the butter and sugar. Add the rosemary. Mix together and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough one-half inch thick and cut cookies. Place on an ungreased baking sheet and cook for 10 to 12 minutes at 350 degrees, until just brown around the edges. Watch them closely, since they can crisp up quickly at the end.

This soup was inspired by a haul from my CSA and truly rocks my world. It may not seem fancy or unusual, but the addition of a goat milk béchamel to thicken the soup imparts the most divine flavor that feels at once healthy and luxurious. I’ve been sharing this recipe with vegetarian (non-vegan) friends who give it rave reviews.

Slow Cooker Cauliflower & Mushroom Soup

Ingredients for Soup Base

• 1 medium onion chopped
• 2 medium carrots chopped
• 4 garlic cloves thinly sliced
• 1 2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced into thin batons
• 1 whole cauliflower sliced into 1/2 inch slices
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 bunch of thyme springs (5-6 springs) tied with kitchen string
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 1/2 tablespoon of black pepper
• 64 ounces of low sodium chicken stock (2 32-ounce cartons)
• 12 ounces of baby bella mushrooms, sliced in half
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped

Ingredients for Béchamel Sauce

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup of goat milk (or cow milk)
• 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon of grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper

In a slow cooker set to high, gently place the following ingredients – onion, carrots, garlic, ginger, cauliflower, bay leaves, thyme bunch, salt, pepper and chicken stock. Let the cooker work its magic for at least 4 hours.

At the 4-hour mark, add in the mushrooms into the slow cooker.

At the same time, make the béchamel sauce: Melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir in the flour until dissolved and cook a couple of minutes until the mixture has turned a light beige in color. Whisk in the goat milk, cheese, nutmeg, salt and white pepper. Continue to stir for about 5 minutes while the mixture thickens.

Remove the thyme bunch and bay leaves from the soup. Stir the béchamel sauce into the soup. (At this point, I poured the contents of my slow cooker into a pot on the stove, set to medium heat, and stirred in the béchamel sauce. My slow cooker was too tiny to hold everything, but yours may be large enough for everything.)

Add the chopped parsley and taste to ensure the seasoning is to your taste. Add additional salt and pepper as needed. Serve in deep bowls with a little toasted bread and a drizzle of your best extra virgin olive oil.

We’re a smoking couple and, by that, I don’t mean that we smoke cigarettes or revel in our looks, I promise. By smoking, I mean that we spend much of the summer, and I do mean *much* of the summer, slowly cooking all sorts of local meats with wet wood in different types of vessels under a low fire.

We have two smokers. Our wood-powered smoker requires constant temperature regulation and thus a regular feed of dry wood (for the fire) and wet wood (for the flavor). The other smoker is gas-driven; we use it when we need to smoke extra large hunks of meat for 24+ hours and prefer to sleep rather than stoke the fire non-stop.

Both smokers have to be used outside and well… It’s cold outside. It’s way too cold to smoke. And nearly impossible to enjoy the case of icy beer one absolutely must enjoy when smoking on a hot summer day. But the hubby really, truly wanted to cook up some pulled pork and had never done it inside, in our oven. So I promised to make the sides and dessert, if he tackled the meat.

After pouring through the barbecue books by his personal masters – Steven Raichlen and Mike Mills – the hubby ventured over to the Food Network for a recipe better suited to the oven. He stumbled upon these Tyler Florence recipes and, with a sneer (because what does Tyler Florence know about barbecue?!), he decided to give them a shot. Frankly, Tyler has 10 Google pages’ worth of barbecue content, so I don’t know what I’m talking about. But it’s still just plain odd to make a Tyler Florence recipe when there’s so many other recipes at your disposal. We gave it a shot anyway. We made both the pulled pork and the cider-vinegar barbecue sauce and here’s what we have to say about them: Yum.

Yum. Yum. Yum. We were impressed. Truly impressed. Tyler hit it out of the park with these easy recipes. And he even neglected to recommend setting a pile of veggies under the pork. A rack of veggies would have made it so the bottom of the pork didn’t burn into a caramelized mess. Thank goodness he left out that step, because there’s nothing better than a sliver of burnt pork or, as some of us call it, burnt ends. Nothing better, people. As far as I’m concerned, when I write my book about the best foods enjoyed burnt, a hunk of black, caramelized, flavorful pork will be on the cover.

The one thing I will recommend is to strain the barbecue sauce. It’s a lumpy mess in the pot – and I’m not sure who to blame for that, Tyler or the hubby – but it’s nothing a quick strain didn’t fix easily. Lots more photos below… including a shot of our complete meal which included a sweet potato gratin (thanks to a great recipe at food52.com). Dessert was a luscious caramel pudding (thanks to Deb at Smitten Kitchen).

This is a bit of a traditional holiday punch with an actual punch. I like to taste the actual liquor in my punch, don’t you? And the bright color is just divine, making it a worthy and special holiday or perhaps superbowl party option.

The base recipe was shared by a dear friend, and I modified it to suit my boozy tastes. (The above photo is an ode to that wonderful dear friend…)

Holiday Punch

Ingredients

• 2 cups pomegranate juice
• 1 cup cranberry juice
• 1 cup orange juice or tangerine juice
• 1/2 cup of dark rum
• 1 bottle of blanc de blancs sparkling wine
• 2 pomegranates, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds

Pour all the liquids into a big punch bowl. Float the fruit slices throughout. Serve generous portions with a slice of the pomegranate. It makes great cocktail conversation, especially for those unfamiliar with the fruit.