For my father's family, Christmas Eve, Heiliger Abend, is the heart of Christmas. It is a magical dark and cold night, where old hymns are sung by memory in German, acapella, by candlelight. My sister and I would look forward to the special appearance of traditional Christmas sweet and savory foods made by my Oma for Christmas Eve snacking. For Heiliger Abend this year, our young family of three is once again together. We will start new traditions as a family, and borrow from the past. Tonight we will be making my Oma's roast meat filled pastries, fleisch pieroshki with pickles. As a nod to our ravenous little eater's current favorite breakfast, will crank up the oven Christmas morning to make a batch of these airy buttermilk popovers with homemade strawberry jam, before an afternoon Christmas feast with our family. We will be thinking of our family and friends far away this Christmas as we celebrate, Merry Christmas! This recipe is inspired by Jenny Rosenstrach and adapted from King Arthur Flour.

Thanks for following along with our new adventures! We recently moved from Pittsburgh to Haiti where we are starting a 5 year volunteer assignment with a non-profit relief and development organization. We will be in transition for the next few months as we complete our in-country orientation, language study, spend time living with host families in both the countryside and capital... and lest we forget, have our first baby somewhere in there as well! Please bear with us as we will not have ready access to internet or a kitchen throughout this time. We will continue to share new recipes that we've prepared in advance, and updates on our new life in Haiti as often as we are able.

This Rustic French Greens & Buttermilk Soup is a simple, green, and earthy foil to the button-busting days of Christmas feasting. This recipe is inspired by a watercress soup Paul came across when we were on a French cooking binge, and we find that it adapts well to any hardy green you have on hand. A surprising hit with guests, this soup has a lovely mellow and subtle sweetness that is truly delicious.

For me, the panna cotta is the answer to my classic conundrum of low-dessert-making-confidence, contrasted with a voracious craving for custardy desserts. Panna cottas are a light-tasting Italian custard dessert made with cream and gelatin. If you are looking for a summer dessert with an outstanding work to reward ration and guaranteed guest appreciation, Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Peaches is your dessert. Simple to make and tasting of sweet peaches and tangy cream, we eat a lot of panna cottas in our household. My goal in Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Peaches was a recipe with a nuanced tangy buttermilk base, and found that I couldn’t resist the classic peaches and cream combination.

Looking for more creamy summer desserts?  Check our funky Basil Yogurt Panna Cotta with blueberries and dead simple Meyer Lemon Posset.

Hello Spring, let’s milkshake! We’re feeling pretty chipper this week with balmy breezes and glimpses of sun, and we thought we'd celebrate the changing of the seasons with Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk Milkshakes. To make these ridiculously good milkshakes, we roasted strawberries to concentrate their rich sweetness, and boosted the flavor with tangy buttermilk. Feeling like spring cooking?  Try our Roasted Asparagus with Lemon, our decadent Hazelnut Tart with Fresh Strawberries, a light Herb Potato Salad or make-ahead Strawberry Rhubarb Baked Oatmeal.

Our Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk Milkshakes recipe is also featured this week by our friends at The Food Tasters!

These Blue Corn Blueberry Griddle Cakes with Lime Butter are a fresh and flavorful take on a breakfast classic and a healthy way to use the ripe blueberries bursting from farm stands and fields. These Griddle Cakes are bursting with blueberry flavor and the subtle earthy sweetness of blue corn. Using a high quality fresh blue cornmeal (we prefer Bob's Red Mill) and a light overnight sourdough technique brings out a gentle nutty sweet corn flavor and a surprisingly crunchy (not gritty) texture. A perfect accompaniment to Blue Corn Blueberry Griddle Cakes is a fresh whipped Lime Butter. The Lime Butter, which is also delicious in its own right, accents the fresh blueberry flavor to take these Blue Corn Blueberry Griddle Cakes to the next level. 

Buckwheat Buttermilk Pancakes are a healthy, delicious, and easy weekend breakfast with warm malty flavors not usually found in your run of the mill pancakes. The whole buckwheat flour gives these pancakes a rich brown flecked color and hearty nuttiness which pairs beautifully with tangy buttermilk and caramelly maple syrup and molasses. The result is a perfect pancake texture, dark earthy flavor,  and enough nutritional goodness to make you feel good about slathering your Buckwheat Buttermilk Pancakes with butter and maple syrup. This recipe is adapted from King Arthur Four's wonderful Whole Grain Baking.

Paul requests buttermilk biscuits for his birthday every single year.  In fact once he even specifically asked that I forgo making any other dish for his birthday meal as he was concerned that ‘other foods’ might detract from his enjoyment of these buttermilk biscuits.  

We do love our buttermilk biscuits and these are a scrumptious version;  the epitome of flaky dough, tangy flavor, delicate crumb and buttery mouth feel.  Behind the exquisite taste and texture of these buttermilk biscuits lies a genius recipe.  This buttermilk biscuit recipe is designed to be successfully turned out by baking pros and baking novices alike.   The ease of making the biscuit dough corresponds to its quick prep process with minimal ingredients, allowing for the biscuit dough to be started and finished before the oven even finishes preheating.   This deceptively quick and easy recipe relies on some very effective food science.  These biscuits get their impressive lift from the combined powers of baking powder and soda, and their consistent flakiness from the small granules of butter evenly distributed through the dough. Melted butter whisked into cold buttermilk creates the perfectly sized grains of butter, which when shocked with high heat create pockets of steam and flaky layers.  Crank up your ovens and don’t delay, these delicious biscuits are within your reach.

As the weather warms up we are putting the grill back to use and bringing back color to our diet.  We opted for a lighter dinner of grilled chicken with lettuce, cucumber, and stunning watermelon radishes from our CSA. The dressing was a creamy herb buttermilk ranch.