little bee atelier on-line store now open

The Homespun Craft Fair at Art Intersection this weekend was a success.  My friend Guiseppina Cirincione, along with the folks at Art Intersection, hosted and curated the craft fair at this new gallery space in Gilbert, Arizona.  The other artisans were incredibly talented and it was so wonderful to see the love and creativity they put into their work.  We had a very nice turn out, especially considering it was a rainy day.  Thanks to my friends who came to see my booth and support the launch of little bee atelier.

Our on-line store is now opening for business.  You can visit us at www.littlebeeatelier.com.

www.littlebeeatelier.com

little bee atelier will be at the Homespun Craft Fair at Art Intersection Saturday, November 5th

The little bee atelier will launch its first fall line at the Homespun Craft Fair at Art Intersection Gallery in Gilbert, Arizona on Saturday, November 5th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  

Details:

Saturday, 5 November, 10am to 4pm   www.artintersection.com

207 N Gilbert Rd Suite 201, Gilbert AZ 85234    Tel:  480-361-1118     Email: info@artintersection.com

Admission is free to the public

As part of their Art & Giving programming block, Art Intersection is supporting local handmade DIY endeavors by opening up their gallery for a one-day sale at their first annual craft fair. Get a head start on gift shopping for friends and family by supporting Arizona’s local artisans. Handmade books, letterpress cards, jewelry, handbags, candles, children’s items and much more will be available at affordable prices.

Additional activities include-
Hands on art activities throughout the day
Raffle to support the Art Intersection Scholarship Fund

Celebratory Bouquets of Asparagus

I am celebrating a win in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today with bouquets of fresh asparagus. 

Steam asparagus briefly so that stalks remain bright green and firm.  Let them cool.

While asparagus is cooling make a Balsamic Dijon vinaigrette: one teaspoon of Djion mustard, mixed with one tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and 1/4 cup of olive oil until emulsified. 

Wrap thin slices of lox around several stalks of asparagus and dress with the vinaigrette. 

Chin Chin!  Here is to Richard, our appellate team and our amazing CHU! 

Penne with Chicken, Arugula & Fresh Herbs

Serves 6 people.   
   
One of my favorite impromptu dishes is to mix greens with pasta.  This is a healthy, simple dish that is easy and quick to make. 

Ingredients

1 pound penne pasta (I like De Cecco)
2 whole boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 cups whole baby arugula leaves
1 cup fresh basil prepared chiffonade
½ cup fresh flat leaf parsley chopped

Vinaigrette

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar (aged and sweet if possible)
2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil (the best you can afford)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
sea salt and fresh ground white pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Rinse and dry the chicken breasts.  Rub with olive oil and season with sea salt and fresh ground white pepper.  Cook in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  Do no overcook.  Center of breasts should be slightly pink.  Remove from oven and set aside. 

While the chicken is cooking, you can do the preparation for the remainder of the dish. 

Rinse and dry fresh basil and remove stems.  Stack the leaves and then roll them into a cigar and slice into thin strips.  This process is called chiffonade.  Cutting the basil in this fashion prevents you from bruising the delicate leaves. 

Rinse and dry fresh parsley and remove stems.  No short cuts!!  Believe me, if you think no one will notice a few stems once they are all chopped, you are wrong.  They are bitter and will stick out of your guests teeth, to their horror and your embarrassment.

In a small bowl stir mustard with balsamic vinegar until it is emulsified, then add the olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.  I like to add half of the prepared basil and parsley so that it can infuse the vinaigrette while you wait for the chicken and pasta to cook. 

Boil large pot of water for pasta.  Once it reaches a rolling boil, add a generous handful of sea salt and then add the pasta and stir.  Cook for about 8 minutes for al dente.  I prefer my pasta to be cooked slightly more than al dente so I cook my pasta for about 10 minutes.  Strain through a colander, and then pour the pasta into a large serving dish.  Immediately coat with the vinaigrette so that it can soak into the hot pasta and give it more flavor. 

The pasta is the featured ingredient of this dish so don’t be tempted to make more of the vinaigrette.  There is enough in this recipe to properly coat a pound of pasta.  

Slice the chicken breasts into medium to thin strips and add to the pasta.  Add the arugula and remaining fresh herbs, and toss with the pasta and chicken. 

      
                       


                                               

Tuscan Kale Salad

Serves 4 people    



Kale is a form of cabbage within the species Brassica Oleracea and is a cousin to broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts. It is one of the most nutritious foods you can eat and has powerful antioxidant properties.  It is also considered to be an anti-inflammatory.  How wonderful that something so delicious is also so good for you!

Ingredients

2 bunches of organic Lacinato Kale (the dark curly variety)
½ c. fresh lemon juice
½ c. extra-virgin olive oil
1 minced garlic clove
pinch of red pepper flakes
fleur de sel or sea salt and fresh ground white pepper to taste
shaved Pecorino Toscano (or Pecorino Romano if Toscano is not available)
2 thick slices of artisan bread with the crusts trimmed off

Wash the kale leaves well and dry on a clean dish towel.
                                               
Trim crust from bread and then crumble bread slices onto a cookie sheet so that you have small crumbs of bread.  Bake at 400 degrees for 5 minutes or until browned but not burned.  Set on stove top to cool. 

With a reamer, extract the juice of one or two lemons into a glass measuring cup until you have ½ cup.  With your fingers or a small fork, remove seeds and large pulp.  Add ½ cup of the best extra-virgin olive oil you have available to you, along with the minced garlic, red pepper flakes, and salt and white pepper to taste.  Whip with a small whisk or a fork. 

Thoroughly dry kale leaves, then slice ends off with a chef’s knife.  Thinly slice kale leaves with chef’s knife and put in your serving bowl.

Just prior to serving, dress and toss kale with lemon vinaigrette.  Garnish with the freshly toasted bread crumbs.  With a regular vegetable peeler, shave large thin slices of Pecorino onto kale. 

Enjoy your delicious, refreshing and exceptionally healthy salad!

Chicken Breasts with Cremini Mushrooms & Tomato

Serves 2 people (or one person, a dog and a kitten)
                       
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.       

1 supreme (a complete boneless skinless chicken breast)
1/4 pound sliced cremini mushrooms
4 whole garlic cloves
3 fresh heirloom tomatoes cut into quarters
1 Tbsp. unsalted French butter
1 Tbsp. olive oil
kosher or sea salt and fresh ground white pepper to taste

Place supreme into a small ceramic casserole and toss in the quartered fresh tomatoes.  Add salt and pepper to the uncooked chicken and tomatoes.  Salt will draw the liquid out of the mushrooms while cooking and can cause them to steam rather than to sautee so I add the salt to the uncooked chicken instead.  Sautee the sliced mushrooms and whole garlic cloves in the butter and olive oil for a few minutes, until the garlic and mushrooms just start to soften.  Remove from heat.

Pour the sauteed mushrooms and garlic over the chicken and tomatoes and bake for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees.  Split portions between two plates and finish with a sprinkling of fleur de sel.     

If you do not like garlic, you can sautee sliced shallots with the mushrooms instead.  The shallots are also delicious and even more French, especially if you add cream, stock and a little port or madeira, which incidentally becomes <<Supremes de Volaille aux Champignons>>.  Oh-la-la!

Introducing . . . Henry!

The newest addition to our family is a tiny Bengal kitten whom we have named Henry Louis.  Henry is 3 months old and a whopping 2 pounds!  He and Enzo have become fast friends.

Beyond the Pale of Knit & Purl

Knit 1, purl 1.  Knit 2, purl 2.  Purl 2, knit 1, purl 2 . . . .  after a while you just want to bust a move and break out of the monotony of knit and purl.  I ventured beyond the pale to try two new stitches and love both of them: lattice stitch and honeycomb stitch.  The two projects above were trial runs made with Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton in Poppy.  The top one is a scarf in honeycomb stitch that I made for my friend Teresa in Los Angeles.  The bottom one is a baby blanket for my friends Rodney and Carolyn in Atlanta who just had baby twins, Vera and Beck.  I think that both projects will become a staple at the little bee marketplace and will be available this fall. 

baby kitty blanket for henry

Henry is coming home on Saturday!  We are very excited.  Enzo is beside himself knowing he will finally have a companion. Thinking that Henry will probably feel a little lost without his mama and siblings for the first few days, I knitted a baby-kitty-sized blanket for him to snuggle up in.  Okay, yes, I know, it will more likely become a scratching pad or be dragged through the house like a dead animal, but that's okay. . . whatever Henry wants . . . .

Tian for Two

A tian is a layered baked vegetable dish that is versatile, light and delicious.  It is best when made with seasonally fresh vegetables and white wine. 

After returning home from a long day at the office, followed by a tennis match, I improvised dinner with what I could find in the kitchen:  Yukon Gold potatoes, Italian zucchini and grape tomatoes.  I sliced the potatoes and zucchini into even rounds, coated them with olive oil, fleur de sel, white pepper and herbes de provence, then tossed it all together with grape tomatoes and layered it in a baking dish. 

For an ideal tian:

Use fresh leeks, a little garlic, zucchini, fresh plum tomatoes with the seeds removed, and small eggplants.  Chop leeks and garlic and quickly sautee in a little olive oil.  Layer bottom of baking dish with sauteed leeks and garlic.  Slice the vegetables into even rounds and decoratively layer in a baking dish.  Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of your favorite white wine and add bits of cold butter and fresh thyme sprigs.  Season with sea salt and white pepper.  Bake at 375 degree for about 35-40 minutes.  Yummy!

Working with Silk

With the weather getting warmer, I am venturing from wool to lighter blends with cotton, linen and silk.  Loving Malabrigo Yarn as I do, I tried their Silky Merino, a 50/50 blend of delicate lustrous silk and their famously ultra-soft baby merino.  The result is light, shimmery, and ethereal.

Malabrigo makes this yarn in sublime colors like Narciso, Wisteria, Rupestre, Azul Azul, Loro Barranquero, & Evening Violet.   All yarn is kettle-dyed in small batches.

If you love Malabrigo as much as I do, you too can stare for hours at the new colors of Silky Merino online at this address:

http://www.malabrigoyarn.com/sub_yarn.php?id_sub_yarn=15

Real Men Eat Quiche--just ask Enzo!

Bacon & Cream Open-faced Tart [Quiche Lorraine]
Serves 4-6 people.

Quiche Lorraine is probably the best known French Tart.  It is a simple recipe that can be made relatively quickly, and can be served as a first or second course for a dinner party or as the main course for a casual lunch or dinner.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Use a false-bottomed springform pan for this recipe and a food processor to make the pastry dough. 

Pastry Dough [Pate Brisee]       

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
6 ounces cold butter, cut into small cubes
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening
2-4 tablespoons iced water   

Put the flour and salt in the food processor, add the butter cubes and shortening, and pulse 5 or 6 times until the mixture forms pea-sized pearls.  Slowly add the iced water and pulse again until the dough is just fully incorporated.  Do not over mix. 

Scrape the dough out onto a marble slab or counter top sprinkled with a little flour.  With the heel of your hand do the final blending, or fraisage, by pushing the dough away from you into 6 inch smears.  Collect the dough and quickly knead it, forming it into a ball, then tightly wrap it in plastic wrap and chill it for 1 hour or overnight.

Once the dough is chilled, roll it out on a floured surface by placing the rolling pin in the center of the dough and rolling away from you, turning the dough 1/4 turn after each roll.  Make sure there is enough flour under the dough to keep it moving on your work surface.  Roll dough into 1/8 inch thick circle that is about 2 inches larger in circumference than your baking pan. 

Place your rolling pin in the center of the dough circle and fold the dough in half over the rolling pin to make it easier to lift into your spring from pan.  Gently unfold the dough into your pan, lightly forming it into the pan without stretching it.  Roll the top edge over and lightly score with the back of a knife for a decorative top.  If there are any holes in the dough, be sure to fill them in with extra dough pieces so that the egg custard will not seep through the crust when cooking.

Put a buttered sheet of foil into the pan and weigh down with another pan or dry beans so that the crust will form properly.  Blind bake for 9 minutes at 400 degrees.

Egg Custard

Whip four extra-large eggs in a mixing bowl with 2 cups of half cream and half milk.  Season with kosher or sea salt, freshly ground white pepper, and freshly grated nutmeg. 

Cut 6 slices of bacon into lardons and cook until browned.  Once cooked, place on a towel to absorb the fat and then add to the custard mixture. 

Once the crust has finished blind baking, remove the foil and beans and fill the mold with the custard.  Cook in the middle rack of the oven for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees, until the custard puffs up and browns. 

Let the quiche cool for about 20 minutes, then open up springform ring and slide quiche from the false bottom onto your serving dish. 

Sun & Sea

Little Bee Classic Scarves in Cadmium and Blue Surf merino wool.  Available for purchase fall 2011.