crab wontons

what to do with leftovers from a few recent shoots and a pot of oil for frying? goat cheese crab wontons, yum! we try not to fry things very often but this is one recipe that baking just doesn't do justice. everything in moderation, right? wonton wrappers are a great item to have in your freezer for a quick appetizer, garnish or even as a fresh pasta substitute. try baking or frying them with just a little olive oil and sea salt and breaking into pieces for a crunchy salad garnish. or fill them with fresh herbs and cheese, boil and toss with a little marinara for a quick pasta dish. or of course, fried wontons - our take on a traditional chinese take out favorite!

Goat Cheese Crab Wontons

makes 10

1/2 cup cooked crab meat

4 oz goat cheese, crumbled

2 green onions, sliced

1/2 tsp old bay seasoning

10 square wonton wrappers

olive or grape seed oil for frying

in a small bowl, combine crab meat, goat cheese, green onion and old bay. stir with a fork to break up crab and evenly combine. lay out wonton wrappers and fill each with a heaping teaspoon full of filling. brush two of the four edges with water and bring unbrushed edges over filling to seal tightly. repeat with remaining wontons. heat about 1/4-inch deep amount of oil in a skillet over medium high heat. carefully fry wontons for about 4 minutes per side or until golden brown and crispy. drain on a paper towel. serve immediately with a little soy sauce for dipping. enjoy!

gooped

yesterday was a great day for pictures and pancakes...to say the least. we were "gooped" as they say, by being mentioned in the blog and newsletter from goop, by gwyneth paltrow. we were included in her favorite food blogs along with some company that we are flattered to be with. blogs like orangette, matt bites, what katie ate and some great others, were chosen by goop for being some of gwyneth's favorite reads to sit down and have a glass of wine with after the kids are in bed and her feet are up. having a new auidence is always amazing, and this is a great opportunity to write and take pictures for a whole new group. thanks to eliza and gwyneth for loving the blog, we are humbled, and to all the new readers who we will try hard to please. we hope you all enjoy!

now for some more fun, and our favorite part, the food!! now that we have tried to suck you in to the tart world on our last two posts, its time for a little change...but i do mean little, sticking in the dessert department. simplicity is always something we like to stick with whenever we can, and this is a dish that will take just a little time for a tasty result. try this with seasonal fruit or really any fruit you have around the house!

Roasted Fall Fruit

serves 4

2 cups seedless red grapes

4 plums, pitted and quartered

2 bartlett pears, quartered and cored

1 pint vanilla ice cream

2 tbs honey

preheat oven to 450 degrees F. place grapes, plums and pears in a single layer in a shallow sheet pan and roast, tossing the fruit occasionally, until the fruit is soft, about 24 minutes. serve in a bowl with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of honey. enjoy!

fall tart

can you believe that your calendar says it's october already? even though time has flown by, we're so excited for the fall season, our favorite time of year. october is one of our favorite months for the cooler weather, changing leaves and all the wonderful fruits and veggies in season - by far the best season for eating! this tart celebrates the last bit of summer with strawberries and the beginning of fall with figs, all brought together in a wonderful nutty filling.

Fig & Strawberry Tart

(adapted from Martha Stewart Living)

crust:

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/3 to 1/2 cup ice water

filling:

3/4 cup toasted hazelnuts

3/4 cup brown sugar

zest of 1 lemon

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

8 figs, halved

8 strawberries, trimmed & halved

in a food processor, pulse the flours, sugar and salt to combine. add butter and pulse until mixture resembles a coarse meal. slowly add ice water and pulse until mixture just begins to hold together. press dough into a disk and wrap in plastic. refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. roll dough out to 1/8-inch thick on a floured surface to fit the tart pan you are using. fit dough into bottom and up sides of tart pan with a removable bottom and trim excess flush with edges using a knife. refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. preheat oven to 350 degrees F. prick bottom of tart all over with a fork and fill with pie weights or dried beans in foil. bake for 30 minutes. remove weights and bake 5 minutes more. let cool.

to make the filling, pulse hazelnuts in a food processor until finely chopped. add sugar, zest, butter, eggs and vanilla and pulse until mixture is almost smooth. spread filling evenly into tart shell. top with figs and strawberries and bake for 30 minutes. reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees F and bake until set and dark brown, about 30-45 minutes more. enjoy!

apple tart

even though the weather really doesn't feel like fall quite yet, the apples and pumpkins at the market sure make it seem autumnal already! here's a super quick and easy bite to make that takes minimal time and ingredients but is big on flavor and simple beauty. puff pastry is a great thing to have in your freezer at all times (like to make this or this) and is perfect in this recipe for a lovely dessert with ice cream, breakfast treat or a little snack with your afternoon coffee.

Apple Tarts

makes 6-8

2 tart apples, cored

1 lemon, juiced

1 pkg frozen puff pastry, defrosted

4 tbs honey

preheat oven to 400 degrees F. thinly slice apples and toss in lemon juice and a little water to keep from browning. set aside.

roll out puff pastry to about 1/4-inch thick on a board lightly dusted with flour. use round cookie cutters to cut out six to eight 2-inch circles and remove excess dough. transfer to an ungreased baking sheet. drain apples well. arrange slices on each of the circles and drizzle with honey. bake tarts for 12-18 minutes or until golden brown. serve immediately & enjoy!

mad props two

almost forgot to share the second installment of our mad props project! check out the details here and be sure to see the first edition here in case you missed it. this one is all about beautiful seafood.

had some great meals for andrew's birthday this week - happy birthday! lunch at gramercy tavern and dinner at craft were amazing ways to celebrate.

if you're a food blogger or just happen to have a great recipe you'd like to share for a good cause, be sure to check out the readymade community cookbook - we're excited to be a part!

these are two newish cookbooks we've got our eye on purchasing - 'good to the grain' and 'my sweet mexico' - any other recommendations?

catalina

just a quick hello with some lovely images from a small part of our recent CA and AZ vacation - we spent labor day weekend relaxing on a boat just off Catalina island. it was so beautiful and a perfect end to our trip - swimming in the cool ocean, drinking cocktails on the flybridge, paddle boarding between boats and cooking simple meals in the galley.

it's good to be back and we've been busy working hard and playing a little too. we can't wait to share a project with you that we just shot for the winter issue of sweet paul magazine - it's going to be beautiful! also excited to share that the baking cookbook i styled, Fast Breads, is finally out. it was a great project that i had so much fun working on with photographer susie cushner and prop stylist randi brookman harris. we finally got to explore the new mario batali & bastianich collaboration, eataly, an amazing marketplace, wine shop, cafe, and space with seven different restaurants. it's huge and so much fun to wander around for everything italian - and we're sure it'll inspire some beautiful new blog posts in the very near future! we had a quick trip to newport, rhode island and can't say enough about this amazing hotel - what an adorable little town and by far the cutest license plate in the country!

have a happy weekend & we'll be back soon with some edible posts, promise!

mad props one

remember this project we mentioned a few weeks ago? well, here's another shot from our collaboration with prop stylist Sarah Cave - antique strainers. you can read a detailed explanation of the concept here and a description of the first instalment of what we're calling mad props here in the Big Leo den. such a unique and inspiring project to work on together and we're really in love with the results. enjoy & check back soon for the next image in our series!

bitter

here's a quick summer cocktail for you to try this weekend and for the rest of those warm evenings we have left as summer fades to fall. it's a guest recipe from our good jenae in boston - she said the inspiration was the need for a refreshing summer libation after discovering chinotto at a little italian market around the corner. chinotto adds a bitter citrus flavor similar to campari (which is delicious like this!) and is popular in certain regions of italy. this cocktail would definitely be nice on a beach under a colorful umbrella somewhere on the coast of italy! we found a few other cocktail inspirations wandering around the isles here - always one of our favorite places to get lost when we're in town. enjoy!

A Bitter End

makes one

1 1/2 oz vodka

3 oz san pellegrino limonata or sparkling lemonade

1/2 oz chinotto

orange wedge

mix all ingredients in a highball glass filled with ice and garnish with a squeeze of orange.

zucchini muffins

isn't the squash lovely at the greenmarket lately? we recently had lots of leftover zucchini from a shoot and i realized that it's been ages since i baked with zucchini. both of our moms used to make great zucchini bread and we grew up loving it but for this recipe i reached for a book off our much neglected cookbook shelf. this recipes is adapted from apples for jam, a beautiful book full of simple comforting recipes and chapters that are organized by color. we've made a few things that are delicious so far but just love flipping through the pages for inspiring stories and images.

we are taking a little vacation - happy to be in sunny CA & hot AZ with lots of morning walks on the beach, breakfasts here and fish tacos here. we'll try to post some of our eating adventures and travel pics from the road so stay tuned.

Zucchini Muffins

makes 12

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup olive oil

1 tsp vanilla

zest of 1 small lemon

3 eggs

1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

pinch of salt

3 zucchini, coarsely grated

2/3 cup hazelnuts, toasted, skinned & coarsely chopped

preheat oven to 350 degrees F. in a small bowl, beat sugar, olive oil and vanilla until smooth. add lemon zest and stir to combine. add eggs, one at a time and whisk until pale yellow and thick. in a large bowl, combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt. gradually fold together wet ingredients into the dry just until combined. mix in zucchini and hazelnuts and stir. fill a greased muffin tin with batter and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. if making a loaf, bake for 55-60 minutes. enjoy!

project

so every once in a while you need to do something different, something out of the box. in this business, there can be a lot of the same, the same colors, layouts, thoughts and props. don't get us wrong, we love each and every job, and they are all totally different, but sometimes, as in all of life, things start to feel a little the same. that all said, something needed to happen, and quick. we put a team together and started to brainstorm. what came out was a eye opening, adrenaline pounding, fun project that made us rethink what we do in a whole new way. with a little thought from the amazing prop stylist sarah cave, we were off and running. we shot an eight pic series of prop first photos. what we mean by that is sarah, carrie and i went to prop houses all over nyc and searched for the props first and thought of the food and layout second. we searched for the props that get no love, the ones that sit on the back of the shelf, the ugly duckling that needed to see the light of day. we then worked the food with the props and let the layout and the light work its way around that. what we got was an organic feel from a premeditated idea. we will soon have a promo that we will share with a few of the images, but first here is a taste of a shot inspired by coffee and a few props that grabbed our attention on our search. we hope you enjoy, and we will keep you posted on the rest.