Since I can remember, the kitchen has been the heart of our family. Most family gatherings include us huddled around the kitchen island, drinking wine and snacking on a charcuterie board. While the internet and social media has opened up the world of recipes, I still love flipping through hard copies of cookbooks. There is something so nostalgic about seeing dog eared pages stained with the remnants of recipes cooked in the past and planning meals for the week ahead. I’m sharing some of my favorite cooks books and picking out my favorite weeknight recipe from each! Enjoy!
The Birchwood Cafe Cookbook
This cookbook is from my favorite restaurant in Minneapolis, Birchwood Cafe. Not only does Birchwood Cafe guide others to live and eat sustainability and joyfully, their food is also amazing. The cookbook is organized by seasons: spring, summer, scorch, autumn, dusk, frost, winter, thaw. It is fun seeing what is included in each section during each season. Our favorite recipe is the Tour de France Turkey Burger.
Turkey Burgers
1 T extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large shallot, chopped
1 stalk of celery, leaves included, chopped
1 ⅓ lb ground turkey
1 tsp ground black turkey
1 tsp salt
Rice bran oil for frying the burgers
Red Grape Rosemary Salsa
4 c red grapes
1 T fresh rosemary leaves
2 cloves garlic
1 small bunch green onions, coarsely chopped (¼ c)
Salt + freshly ground black pepper
Blue Cheese Walnut Spread
½ c crumbled blue cheese
⅓ c walnuts, toasted at 350 degrees for 10 min
¼ c sour cream
¼ c cream cheese
2 T heave cream or half-and-half
Salt + freshly ground black pepper
Roasted Scape Mayo
¼ pound garlic scapes
Rice bran oil
½ c mayonnaise
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4 of your favorite buns
8 thin slices Lonza or crisp bacon
4 oz microgreens
Heat the olive oil in a small skillet set over medium heat. Add the garlic, shallot, and celery, and saute until soft, about 2 min.
Put the ground turkey in a medium bowl, and work in the sauteed vegetables and salt and pepper. Portion out 4 burgers and form them into patties. WIth your thumb, press a dimple into the middle of each patty. Set the patties aside.
For the Red Grape Rosemary Salsa, put the grapes, rosemary, garlic and green onions into a food processor fitted with a settle blade, and pulse several times to coarsely chop. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
For the Blue Cheese Walnut Spread, put the blue cheese, walnuts, sour cream, cream cheese, and cream into a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Proces, adding more cream cheese if needed. Season the spread with salt and pepper, and set it aside.
For the Roasted Scape Mayo, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, toss the garlic scapes with a little oil, and then bread them out on a roasting pan. Roast until tender and beginning to brown, about 5 to 8 minutes. Transfer the scapes to a cutting board and mince them. Put the minced scapes in a small bowl, stir in the mayonnaise, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
To cook the burgers, heat a large skillet or griddle and brush it with rice bran oil. Fry the burgers until they are cooked through, about 5 minutes per side. The meat should register 165 degrees on a meat thermometer.
Spread the bottom half of each bun with Blue Cheese Walnut Spread. Set a cooked burger on top of the spread. Then put Red Grape Rosemary Salsa on top of the turkey burger: followed by the Lonza (or bacon) and microgreens. Spread the top half of the bun with Roasted Scape Mayo, and top off the sandwich. Serve immediately. Provide plenty of napkins–this is a two-fisted affair.
Martha Stewart’s Newlywed Kitchen
We were given the Newlywed Cookbook when we got married. It was so much fun to start making our way through the recipes together! It has helped me become a better cook, a better entertainer and more prepared to cook delicious weeknight dinners for two (which is surprisingly harder than I expected!). One of the recipes I could eat every night is: Orecchiette with Butternut Squash and Sage. It hits all the fall favors and is super easy to pull together.
Orecchiette with Butternut Squash and Sage
Coarse Salt
6 oz orecchiette
1 T extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
½ small butternut squash, halved and peeled, seeds adn pump scooped and reserved, flesh cut into ½ in cubes (2 cups)*
1 ½ T unsalted butter
2 T packed fresh sage leaves
⅔ cup whole-milk ricotta cheese, for serving
- Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. Cook past until al dente according to package instructions. Reserve ½ c pasta water, drain.
- Meanwhile, heat oil in a large straight-sided skillet over medium. Add squash seeds and pulp. Cook, stirring occasionally, until seeds puff and turn golden, about 10 min. Season with salt; transfer to a plate. Add 1 T butter to skillet; melt. Add sage and cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp, about 2 min. Transfer to another plate. Add squash cubes to skillet. Season with salt, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 10 min.
- Stir in pasta, ¼ c reserved pasta water, and remaining ½ T butter. Simmer until thickened slightly, about 2 min. Add more pasta water, a few T at a time, until pasta is evenly coated; season with salt. Divide among bowls and top with squash seeds, sage leaves, and ricotta. Drizzle with oil and serve.
Tina Nordstrom’s Scandinavian Cooking
I’ve got a few different avenues in which Scandinavia has influenced my life. I studied abroad in Copenhagen during undergrad and my paternal grandfather was 100% Swedish. I love the simplicity and focus on the freshnes that comes from the earth. The favorite recipe from this cookbook is a whole roasted chicken. Trust me you can do it! Once you put it in the oven you are pretty much done! We love to serve it with a big green salad and then have leftovers for the week!
Roasted Whole Chicken with Parsnips and Cold Bean Sauce with Lemon
1 whole chicken
8-10 parsnips
1 lemon
1 T water
7 T butter
Salt, freshly ground pepper
1 bunch of fresh rosemary
Cold bean sauce with lemon:
3 T olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
3 ½ T juices from the cooked chicken (optional)
Salt, freshly ground white or black pepper
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees
- Peel the parsnips and cut them into long strips. Wash and slice the non-zested lemon.
- Remove the backbone from the chicken. To do so, lay it on its back and use a knife or poultry shears. Spread (butterfly) the chicken out.
- Put the parsnips and lemon slices in an oven pan and put the butterflied chicken on top. Dollop some butter on both the parsnips and the chicken and sprinkle some rosemary all over. Roast in the oven for about 45 minutes.
- Mix all the ingredients for the sauce with a hand mixer. Season with salt and pepper. Optionally, stir the juices from the chicken into the sauce.
- Serve the chicken hot with the cold bean sauce.
Happy cooking friends!!