header Kristen in London

fam­i­ly days…

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My moth­er’s birth­day is leg­endary, these last few years, as we return home for the sum­mers to Con­necti­cut from our schoolyear months in Lon­don.  She makes the long trek from Indi­ana, with my dad and broth­er, every August, to take up res­i­dence with my sis­ter and her fam­i­ly, who live prov­i­den­tial­ly close, a short car jour­ney away.  Such a far cry from the many hours’ time dif­fer­ence, not to men­tion the enor­mous pond that sep­a­rate us, for so many months of the year.  For a few short days, we are all togeth­er!  My dad’s twin­kling eye, my broth­er’s end­less appetite, and my moth­er’s gen­tle humor and pride in us all seem to bub­ble inside me like a shak­en-up seltzer bot­tle, so much to absorb and enjoy, such a short time.

And that means John’s mom, too, who brings her own mag­ic to the occa­sions… cam­era at the ready, always pre­pared to pull up and enjoy what­ev­er some­one else is pas­sion­ate about at that moment.  John’s iPad?  Now she has one, a gift from him, and they share the joy.  Avery’s love of Cold­play?  She will watch end­less music videos.  My piles of gar­lic and pep­pers and bot­tles of olive oil?  She takes up a knife and makes short work of what­ev­er needs to be done.  Kit­tens to be admired?  That’s easy.

She is the ulti­mate recorder of all that hap­pens to us, and thank­ful­ly gives me end­less stacks of pho­to albums so I can keep us all between the pages, to be remembered…

Last night was crab cakes, OMG, at my sis­ter’s house (see the recipe in my beloved index!) to wel­come the weary trav­el­ers from Indi­ana… and lemon bars, made amaz­ing­ly by me, with Rose­mary’s help, as the birth­day cake.  And would you believe, I can screw up even a per­fect Ina Garten recipe?  And yet… read­ers, they were deli­cious.  I actu­al­ly acci­den­tal­ly dou­bled the amount of flour in the crust, but I can say, hand on heart, it did­n’t mat­ter.  They were per­fect.  So think seri­ous­ly about screw­ing it up yourself!

Ina Garten’s Lemon Bars

(makes 24 bars)

  • 1/2 pound unsalt­ed but­ter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup gran­u­lat­ed sugar
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/8 tea­spoon kosher salt
  • 6 extra-large eggs at room temperature
  • 3 cups gran­u­lat­ed sugar
  • 2 table­spoons grat­ed lemon zest (4 to 6 lemons)
  • 1 cup fresh­ly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 cup flour
  • Con­fec­tion­ers’ sug­ar, for dusting

For the crust, cream the but­ter and sug­ar until light in the bowl of an elec­tric mix­er fit­ted with the pad­dle attach­ment. Com­bine the flour and salt and, with the mix­er on low, add to the but­ter until just mixed. Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and gath­er into a ball. Flat­ten the dough with floured hands and press it into a 9 by 13 by 2‑inch bak­ing sheet, build­ing up a 1/2‑inch edge on all sides. Chill.

Bake the crust for 15 to 20 min­utes, until very light­ly browned. Let cool on a wire rack. Leave the oven on.

For the fill­ing, whisk togeth­er the eggs, sug­ar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour. Pour over the crust and bake for 30 to 35 min­utes, until the fill­ing is set. Let cool to room temperature.

Cut into tri­an­gles and dust with con­fec­tion­ers’ sugar.

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

So TART!  Love­ly.  Per­fect for a birth­day evening.

We’ve been hav­ing adven­tures!  The kit­tens have been tak­en to the dread­ed vet for their spay­ing and vac­ci­na­tions, nail clip­ping and (I sus­pect) teeth whiten­ing, since they look like Scar­lett Johans­son when they smile.  And tonight the whole fam­i­ly gath­ered around for burg­ers and ribs on the grill, and the most won­der­ful grilled veg­eta­bles.  Take a look at their before and after photographs…

For the mari­nade you want:

3 tbsps each: sesame oil, olive oil

Fox Point Seasoning

Sim­ply rub this all over:

egg­plant, sweet pep­pers, zuc­chi­ni, hot peppers

Grill on a medi­um heat for 15–20 min­utes, turn­ing twice… so sim­ple.  These veg­eta­bles are vel­vety, fresh, they retain all their col­or and per­son­al­i­ty, and are so per­fect a foil for a rich, cheesey burg­er.  Summer.

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

And my tel­ly pro­gramme has aired!  John has been the ulti­mate clever bun­ny and post­ed just the bits where I fea­ture, and with­out the name of the pro­gramme itself, and you can find it here.  Enjoy, until some­one decides I’ve vio­lat­ed some­thing and takes it down!  I had an amaz­ing­ly delight­ful time film­ing, and sim­ply ignore the side pony­tail… it was a week-long aber­ra­tion and just hap­pened to occur dur­ing the one day OF MY LIFE when I was on tel­ly.  I think it makes me look about twelve.  Ah, well, I liked being twelve, so expe­ri­enc­ing it twice can’t be too terrible.

I must col­lapse.  Tomor­row will be an entire day of cook­ing, because Sun­day, heav­en help me, 35 or so peo­ple will descend on my house to cel­e­brate its 200th anniver­sary!  My moth­er will be cel­e­brat­ing her birth­day too, but I’m too nice a daugh­ter to pub­lish her age on my blog, or for that mat­ter, in frost­ing.  And my dear­est friend Becky and two of her three girls will be here with us, house­guests from North Car­oli­na… there’s been an orgy of new sheets and pil­low­case-buy­ing, and tomor­row will be house­clean­ing too, to make every­thing gor­geous for my dar­lings.  I’ll fill you in on the fes­tiv­i­ties when I’ve recov­ered, which could be.. awhile.

7 Responses

  1. Shelley says:
    August 15, 2010 at 3:18 am

    A won­der­ful post…Mothers, fam­i­ly, you on the tel­ly and kit­ties with Scar­lett Johans­son smiles. 

    Life should always be this sweet.

  2. kristen says:
    August 15, 2010 at 4:01 am

    Shel­ley, I could­n’t agree more… and tomor­row, you’ll be here! Hap­py days!

  3. min says:
    August 15, 2010 at 11:24 pm

    Wow, it was great to watch the clip. Con­grat­u­la­tions! Your soup looked great and so did you. Do you plan on incor­po­rat­ing any of the changes sug­gest­ed by the judges for the next round?
    Min

  4. Renee Snyder says:
    August 16, 2010 at 2:58 am

    Watched the video. One word.…YIPPEE! Great job and you looked great, side pony­tail included. 

    Pick a day to come vis­it. Just let me know when. Maybe I’ll make dunkey stew.

  5. Kristen says:
    August 17, 2010 at 2:33 am

    So glad you go to see it! You know, Dunkey Stew was my sec­ond choice for what to cook, but they already had SO many recipes for it… I will let you know when we can come… right now house FULL of guests and more expect­ed… I promise no side pony­tail when I see you. Oth­er­wise you might put a sad­dle on me.

  6. Bee says:
    August 25, 2010 at 12:40 pm

    My daugh­ter and I watched the video — EXCIT­ING. So glad that you won! When do you have the next com­pe­ti­tion? Also, are you going to change the seasoning/acidity of the recipe as the judges advised?

  7. kristen says:
    August 30, 2010 at 1:33 am

    Well, Bee, rats to that com­pe­ti­tion, because the pro­duc­ers elim­i­nat­ed half of us Lon­don win­ners behind the scenes for the region­als. But that was good because I would have had to come back from CT. And let me tell you, a lit­tle lemon juice MADE that soup!

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