Greek Yogurt Almond Crust Tart

GREEK YOGURT ALMOND-CRUST TART

As much as I've been enjoying this summer of sunning on the deck, reading books, practicing my French for upcoming travels, running, and even trying to work a bit every day, it's been difficult to get myself back into summer form.  Despite the fact that there regularly seems to be a family or friend event that includes great food (at which I would never say, "No thanks, I'm on a diet," simply due to willpower, or lack thereof), I'm starting to get a creeping feeling that trimming down is getting increasingly harder as I ripen on the tree of life.  Either that or my daily runs simply don't compensate for sitting on my ass with a book the rest of the day, compared to standing and moving pretty much all the time when I teach. 

Whatever the case may be, I've always been a person that needs to put myself in situations where the bad options don't exist.  Because when they do - and as they will when I spend nearly the next month in Europe - I'm going to opt for them. I am human.   So, I decided to bring this Greek Yogurt Tart to a BBQ yesterday hoping it wouldn't disappoint those looking for some gooey cherry pie or something.

I really liked the ways this tart came out, but I love mildly sweet desserts.  It is reminiscent of cheesecake in its texture and tang, but not nearly as rich.  You could even do a graham cracker crust if you truly wanted to imitate a cheesecake, but I love almonds and this crust is also gluten free.  Also, like a cheesecake you could flavor the custard filling with whatever flavor you wanted (consider what fruit you like best with your yogurt).  Either add chunks of fruit right into the custard, or swirl in a good fruit compote/curd.  In fact, if you wanted to use this as a brunch/breakfast recipe, an oatmeal crust would be perfect.  So, it's certainly adaptable to your likes and needs. 

Poached Cod, Fennel, and Citrus Salad

POACHED COD, FENNEL, & CITRUS SALAD

Last week, one of my students said to me: "My greatest fear is that I'll turn 50 and look back and my life and feel like I've done nothing."  I told her that was a really good fear.

Bearing in mind that to a 15-year-old being 50 is, like, way old, I think this way of goal-setting is quite healthy.  We are taught to set goals for the future, but not to set goals about how we desire to perceive our past in the future.  Perhaps we're so future-oriented that we forget that all we have to define our selves is by our past.  If we don't take care of our future past (follow along with me), then we're really just going to hate ourselves.  As much as we'd like to think so, we don't feel accomplished or any feeling of self-worth for what we haven't yet done.  I hate this post because it's reminding me a little bit of that one guy's egotistical Oscar speech...what's his name...Matthew McConaughey (had to Google it), but it's true, and I've been thinking a lot about it.

I guess my big problem is that I never really set any goals - for the future or for the future-looking-back-at-the-past.  Sure, from a young age I wanted to be financially stable and intellectually accomplished, but other than that I was trying to keep my head socially-emotionally out of water.  So now that I've reached the mile-marker age of 30 I don't really know how to measure how well I've done, but I certainly feel like I'm supposed to be measuring something.  Have I reached my intellectual potential?  Have I traveled enough to understand (something)? Am I saving enough money?  Will my friendships be life-long?  Am I a good family member?  Will my students go on to save the world like I hope?  And most importantly, is this it?  Answers range from "kinda-sorta" to "nope."

I approached my brother yesterday about sitting down to look at my financial situation and figure out what to do with the heaps of cash over-paid and under-worked teachers get.  I knew I would have to address the dreaded question: what are your goals?  And he said something like, "Well, you can't assess whether you're achieving the goals you don't have."  I guess that's the "planning" half of financial planning.  So, here I am with no clue whether I've done much with my life at all, and no idea what accomplishments I want to look back on when I'm 50.  

Except for this: I can now look back at my life and say I made the perfect salad.  It's crazy healthy, super easy, but fancy, and is perfectly balanced between sweet and citrusy.  I'm not even going to tell you much more about it.  But, chances are, if you don't make it then your future self will have major regrets. 

Roasted Squash and Pomegranate Farro Salad

When it comes to squash I'm a real idiot.  It's not an ingredient that I was familiar with growing up, so I just know nothing about them.  Sure, I've eaten squash prepared for me before, but they were more or less Halloween decorations until now (they are real pretty).

I was impressed by the variety and extremely low cost of the squash on display at the grocery store across the street, so I bought four types and went about conducting a taste test.  I sliced and roasted a standard green acorn squash, a white acorn squash, a gold acorn squash, and a butternut squash.  What I was going to do with all this roasted squash was a complete mystery, but I figured it would transform into some sort of soup and some sort of salad.  Mostly, I was curious about how different they would actually taste from one another.

Turns out, they all taste (and smell) like squash.  I know that seems silly, but I don't know how else to put it.  However, they did vary in sweetness.  By far the most important distinction was texture.  The green acorn definitely held its firmness much better than the others, so it's perfect for salads.  The others, in their creaminess or pastiness, made their way into a three-squash soup (coming later this week to the blog).  The green acorn was the mid-range of sweetness, which I also found preferable for a salad with other sweet ingredients (like pomegranate seeds). 

So, despite the lack of alarming or remarkable results, all the squash was quite tasty.  I was particularly pleased that the seeds were easy to flavor, toast, and incorporate into this salad.  It's a very balanced dish when the spices of the squash seeds and sweetness of the pomegranate seeds make their way into the same bite.  The seeds are also a nice textural contrast to the soft farro and squash.  The balance of flavors meant that I didn't have to season the final dish at all, so it stayed low-sodium and low-fat.  It's a rather perfect fall salad, so go grab some squash.

Fig and Goat Cheese Flammekuche/Tarte Flambée

I don't often royally screw things up in the kitchen.  Last Sunday, I did.

My first attempt at this flammekueche wound up on fire, on the kitchen floor (and sort of stuck in the crack of the open oven door and the adjacent drawer), while still mostly raw and gooey.  I don't really want to retell the whole tale, so let's just skip to the moral of the story.  

No, first we'll graze over some background.  Flammekueche/Tarte Flambée/Flammkuchen is fantastic not only because it tastes good, but because it hails from one of those twisted regions of the world that totally mess with your sense of cultural order: Alsace.  I've had flammekeuche is both France and Germany, but it hails from the zone that lies between the two.  So it isn't really French or German, but uniquely Alsatian.  In any case, and in either country, flammekuche is a super-thin flatbread topped with crème fraîche, onions, and in some cases other very thinly cut veggies and lardons. 

Hansi is famous for his pro-French depictions of Alsace during the German occupation (1871-1918).

The challenge of a good flammekeuche is getting the crust as thin as possible, but having to maneuver this very thin dough from your rolling surface and onto a very hot baking sheet or pizza stone.  My error was rolling out the dough on parchment paper and loading on the toppings, and then attempting this transfer by sliding it onto the hot pan.  Well, at that point the crust is not sliding anywhere, no matter how much you floured the surface.  Follow my instructions below will save you this tragedy, and you'll see the solution is very simple (breadcrumbs).

The great news is that even if you do totally botch this up, it's easy to make (even the crust takes only 5 minutes) and well worth a second attempt.  Combining figs, caramelized onions, goat cheese, and crispy crust is sort of a no-brainer recipe for awesome, but the end result really exceeded my expectations.  I was particularly happy with how the greek yogurt worked as a crème fraîche alternative to keep this as healthy as possible (assuming you exercise some self control when it comes to goat cheese). 

mango lassi

MANGO LASSI

Well, today wraps up another week abroad traveling through Morocco (shoestring style). This is a place I'll need lots of time to process. Being my first trip to North Africa and the Arab world, Morocco has deepened my respect for Islam and, still, has challenged me culturally more than any other travel experience. I have to say, Ramadan here is quite different from my last summer in Istanbul!

Despite going most of the day without much food - a sort of halfsy Ramadan that visitors have no choice but to embrace - the food has been incredible. I can't wait to go home and make harira, a soup of which each city has its own version. Late Iftar dinners are filled with olives of all sorts, tagines, and pastilla. And, of course, mint tea. Throughout the day vendors will still sell fruits and nuts to us visitors (and the kids who are encouraged to fast for half days), and as I imagined they make some incredible smoothies. So, I prepared this post at home in preparation for a light, summery treat.  I hope it makes you feel exotic.

Looking forward to finding more good flavors to share with you next week in Portugal!

Coffee Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Blueberry Balsamic Reduction

COFFEE rubbed PORK TENDERLOIN // BLUEBERRY BALSAMIC reduction

You might imagine, if you aren't a teacher, that having summers "off" is a pretty great perk of the job.  Well, it is.  

Teachers, like all professionals, need time to plan, rest, and rejuvenate before they perform.  I think every profession includes this mix of planning and performance (i.e. a big presentation in front of potential clients or a lawyer's time in trial), its just that teachers spend the entire school year performing daily and this leaves little time for planning...and almost none for rest and rejuvenation.  So that's what summer is all about - the really creative and innovative curriculum design that we come back excited to use with our students.

Part of that feeling of rejuvenation comes from the freedom to work, or not work and sleep, or not work and read a book, WHENEVER I WANT.  Deadlines are extremely frequent and rigid in the teaching world, including the "stop sleeping at 4:30am" deadline and the "last cup of coffee at 2pm" deadline, so this is a welcome change.  And ultimately that takes me to my favorite part of summer: I CAN DRINK COFFEE WHENEVER I WANT.    I CAN PUT COFFEE IN MY FOOD AND EAT IT FOR DINNER IF I WANT.  

So, I did.

The result was a meal I would definitely make again for a special occasion dinner.  Rubbing pork with coffee grounds and cayenne pepper produced a really rich and smoky crust.  It was delicious, and I would highly recommend saving some for a cold sandwich the next day.  But really, what sort of stole the show for this post was the blueberry balsamic reduction.  It is like WHAT.  I'm still eating it by the spoonful long after the pork was eaten up (but smear some on that sandwich before you do).  Now go have yourself a nice after dinner digestif or espresso!

Strawberry Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake

STRAWBERRY RHUBARB UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE
 

Today was the last day of exams for the school year, giving much reason to celebrate.  Not only does that officially kick off what will be a whirlwind globe-trotting, wedding-attending, street fest-crashing summer, but it also means goodbyes to some students and colleagues that make my job awesome.  This strawberry rhubarb upside-down cake was baked in honor of a colleague, Jenn, to whom I owe much credit for helping me through those first tough years in the classroom.  She's moving to Boston next year, and I know the entire social studies department will miss her very much. 

Whenever I bake for a specific individual I really feel like I need to step up my game.  In this case, especially, since Jenn's a big foodie.  I felt like a recipe that required flipping anything upside down and praying it doesn't break in two or crash to the floor would definitely have a wow factor.  And, generally speaking, I'm horrible at deciding to bake anything that's easily transportable in order to get it into the office.  On a number of occasions Garrett has had to rig up some device made out of shoe boxes, aluminum foil, and wire hangers in order to carry various baked goods across a very large school campus.  Turns out, I was able to easily turn this cake upside down and get into the office precut on a single plate without any tragic events.  Plus, it was a really tasty tangy-sweet-spiced cake that stayed super moist, even when left uncovered all day (although the redness will fade a bit overnight).

There are a few other dinners I made this week that I didn't have the time to photograph, but are definitely blog-worthy.  So, if you came back looking for something healthy, look forward to vegetarian bi bim bop and fish taco salad next week...after Bree's bachelorette party in NYC!

citrus cilantro salmon with mango salsa

CITRUS CILANTRO SALMON 
EN PAPILLOTE 
W/ MANGO SALSA

Teaching in a high school with an enrollment of over 4,000 can sometimes mean that I rarely bump into former students once they leave my classroom for the summer.  This was the case with a student I ran into last week, and I was very happy to get to chat with a young man who is a model of both academic and emotional intelligence (off to Princeton next fall...a real dummy).  Anyways, its always nice to bump into these now-seniors because its a totally different conversational dynamic - I mean, he really earnestly asked how I was doing and what was new in my life.  We had become two adults talking.  So I told him: "Oh, I started a food blog." He responded approvingly, "That's so city.  I mean, its urban-y." 

I just got a real kick out of that response.  I don't tell my students much at all, if anything, about my personal life, but many know that I've been blogging about something.  They've taught me a great deal about how to be a better blogger, and blogging has taught me a great deal about how to be a better teacher.

Since I've started blogging, I have been able to make more meaningful connections with a whole demographic of students who know much more than me about coding and social media.  By troubleshooting my tech dilemmas before class, that role reversal between teacher and student has been important for re-shaping the whole classroom dynamic.   Even when we have to switch back to talking history, I think the atmosphere is much more collaborative having had some real authentic learning exchanges where students are the experts.  When I learn something with my students, I feel more comfortable being transparent about my learning and stumbling with tech tools I hope will help them out.  They really appreciate that they aren't alone in the stumbling process, in general.   So when I totally fail with some technology adaptation I know they aren't judging me as a person, just as when they struggle learning to think and write historically they know I'm not judging them as as people.  We're just learning together and sharing our expertise.
I guess that's really what this social media revolution is all about - everyone being transparent in hopes that their knowledge helps someone else, or someone else will help build up their expertise.  Seems like folks in the foodie world really got that down.  Like many foodies,  I'm super sensitive to design - especially how people interact with objects and spaces, including web space - so I believe educators need to get a lot more savvy with the web and social media if we're ever going to re-market ourselves as relevant, important, professionals.  Given that a restaurant's website will really influence my experience in person, I get that my classroom needs an online presence that argues for an experience students will have in person.  Blogging has really helped me figure all this out.

So in the spirit of learning and transparency, I share with you one of my favorite meals to make when the sun is shining: citrus cilantro salmon en papillote with mango salsa.  Comment and tell me what you think!