A Player and a Baker

I started cooking and baking in my tiny New York City oven, as I lived the life of an actress/teaching artist. Now I do it all over the place. These days I'm living in Miami. Player and a Baker is a place for me to share my adventures, culinary and otherwise.
Green Chile Cheeseburger at Bobcat Bite, near Santa Fe NM

Green Chile Cheeseburger at Bobcat Bite, near Santa Fe NM

Christmas Brunch Sausage Casserole Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffins Texas Grapefruit

Christmas Brunch


Sausage Casserole

Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffins

Texas Grapefruit

Pasta alla Norma Many have made this dish, including my friend Lena and the Amateur Gourmet. I finally gave in, because when your CSA gives you eggplants, you gotta eat ‘em. Cube two eggplants and brown them in batches in extra virgin olive oil. When it’s all brown, throw it all in the pan and add a roughly chopped onion and a sprinkle of dried oregano. Throw in minced garlic and a healthy pinch of dried red chili flakes. Add a can of dices tomatoes and the stems from a bunch of basil, saving the leaves for later. Fill the can with water to get all the tomatoey goodness and add that to the pot. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the eggplant is completely tender. Salt. Throw in the basil leaves along with some parsley, chopped. Serve over pasta (in my case, brown rice pasta) and garnish with extra basil. This stuff is good. I don’t even like eggplant, but it’s abundant in the CSA, and this dish is so good, I almost welcome it.

Pasta alla Norma

Many have made this dish, including my friend Lena and the Amateur Gourmet. I finally gave in, because when your CSA gives you eggplants, you gotta eat ‘em.

Cube two eggplants and brown them in batches in extra virgin olive oil. When it’s all brown, throw it all in the pan and add a roughly chopped onion and a sprinkle of dried oregano. Throw in minced garlic and a healthy pinch of dried red chili flakes. Add a can of dices tomatoes and the stems from a bunch of basil, saving the leaves for later. Fill the can with water to get all the tomatoey goodness and add that to the pot. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the eggplant is completely tender. Salt. Throw in the basil leaves along with some parsley, chopped.

Serve over pasta (in my case, brown rice pasta) and garnish with extra basil. This stuff is good. I don’t even like eggplant, but it’s abundant in the CSA, and this dish is so good, I almost welcome it.

Local Pride

Here in Miami things are different. CSA’s (community supported agriculture) don’t start in the spring with asparagus and garlic scapes. They start in November with eggplants and cucumbers. I recently signed us up for a half share from Teena’s Pride.

I heard about them from a tweet by Slowfood Miami, and had read their name on the menu at Michael’s Genuine Food and Drink, so I knew they would be good. I had no idea how good, though. First, pickup is easy. They deliver to my local Whole Foods, where my box is kept in cold storage until I sign it out. They gave me a lovely insulated tote to re-use every week so they can keep the boxes. Everything is organized and beautiful: no bruised veggies or limp lettuce. In the CSA Gwen and I did years ago, we had to go down a line and pick our own stuff. It was always chaotic and the veggies were either picked over, or if I got there early, not out yet. Things were smushed. More often than not, we ended up with too many limp heads of lettuce and too few potatoes to actually make a meal. Not so with Teena’s Pride. The produce is carefully packed, heavy things on the bottom, light things on top. So far there has been good variety from week to week.

Above, you can see week 2.  I’ve got eggplants, an armenian cucumber, sugar cane, jalapeños, cherry tomatoes, okra, 2 types of sorrel, parsley, basil, and orange mint.

Stay tuned for fun recipes- the best part is that the variety means that I really can create whole meals almost entirely out of CSA ingredients!!

Milking Almonds Inspired by Tasty Kitchen (and I’m feeling frugal) Click the photo for the recipe.

Milking Almonds

Inspired by Tasty Kitchen (and I’m feeling frugal)

Click the photo for the recipe.

Octoberfest Brown sliced smoked bratwurst. Set aside. In the same pan, brown sliced onion, shredded cabbage and thinly sliced apple. Deglaze with beer. I used Shiner Bock which is amazingly available in Miami. Splash in a little apple cider vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with spicy brown mustard and more Shiner.

Octoberfest

Brown sliced smoked bratwurst.

Set aside.

In the same pan, brown sliced onion, shredded cabbage and thinly sliced apple.

Deglaze with beer. I used Shiner Bock which is amazingly available in Miami.

Splash in a little apple cider vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with spicy brown mustard and more Shiner.

The First Lady

In anticipation for the weekend, I’ve collaborated with my friend Kaitlyn Regehr again, this time on a cocktail.  She was inspired by a recent lunch she had with April March

Here’s what Kaitlyn has to say:


April, a 1950’s Burlesque queen and I sat and had lunch together on a hot summer’s day as part of a new documentary project I’m doing. April, who hung around with the likes of Joe Dimaggio (who by the way never spent time with the Kennedys because he blamed them for Marilyn’s death) really offers a window into the glamour and the intermingling of sex, crime and politics of 1950s and 60s America.



At 76 she’s got to be the only grandmother out there who has dated Chicago mobsters, was arrested for belly dancing and lunched with the king of Saudi Arabia. At the end of the day though April is simply lovely. 

And so… I called my good friend and very talented food blogger Meredith Smart (A Player and a Baker) to create a cocktail in honour of Miss March…

************

When Kaitlyn asked me to make up a new recipe for her friend and burlesque legend April March, we knew right away it would be a cocktail.  

Every burlesque legend should have a signature cocktail.  It just makes sense. 

April March is known as the First Lady of Burlesque because, according to her website:

April was deemed The First Lady of Burlesque partly due to her resemblence [sic] to First lady Jacqueline Kennedy, but mainly due to her lady like behavior on and off stage. Never crass or profane, April perfected the “elegant” strip and became known for her class and grace.

I love a classy burlesque legend.  They remind me of my friend Kaitlyn.

Anyway, I decided to go with a riff on the Original First Lady Jackie O’s favorite cocktail: the classic daiquiri.  This has nothing to do with neon frozen drinks.  It is simple, clean and delicious.  The original recipe is light rum, lime juice and simple syrup (a sugar syrup).  

I wanted to keep the simple clean flavors, but amp it up with Ms. March’s favorite fruit: the raspberry.

I also used aged rum rather than light or white rum.  The flavors are more mellow.

The raspberry comes in the form of framboise, a French liqueur.  This one is actually a wine mixed with fresh Washington raspberries, but the flavor is amazing!  If you can’t find framboise, chambord would be just fine.  Don’t use anything from a plastic bottle that glows though.  That would not be classy, and classy is what we are all about today.

And so, with out further ado:

The First Lady

2 ounces (that’s a shot) Aged Rum 

1.5 ounces Framboise or Raspberry Liqueur 

The juice of 1/2 lime

Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice.  Shake.  Do a little dance in honor of the First Lady of Burlesque.  Shake some more, then strain into a chilled martini glass.  Garnish with a single raspberry.  I gave it a little slit with a paring knife so it fit easily on the rim.

Sip, and enjoy.

The Pink House does Savannah proud. If Paula Deen’s is deep-fried Disney, PH is the genuine Southern gem. She-crab soup and BLT salad with fried green tomatoes were incredible, and the service was lovely.

The Pink House does Savannah proud.

If Paula Deen’s is deep-fried Disney, PH is the genuine Southern gem.

She-crab soup and BLT salad with fried green tomatoes were incredible, and the service was lovely.

Now I need a nap.

Now I need a nap.