flowers

Something cheery for your Saturday.

leunig's bistro

It took eight years of living in Burlington for me to find this out, but Leunig's Bistro may have the best brunch menu in town. (Not to mention minimal wait time for a table — 10 minutes at 11:30 a.m. on a Sunday.) I kept it simple with a mimosa, eggs over easy, toast and herbed home fries. Dave got a peach bellini, as well as the most gorgeous and ample cheese plate you can find for $7.

roasted-beet and goat-cheese salad

Drizzle peeled, diced beets with olive oil and roast at 375 degrees for about 50 minutes, until tender. Toss over a bed of mixed greens and herbs, thinly sliced onion and celery, and herbed goat cheese. Serve with a drizzle of basil olive oil.

deviled eggs

Even though I'm the only one who eats them, it isn't Easter without deviled eggs. Here's my (very) basic recipe.

Deviled Eggs

makes 8

4 eggs

roughly 3 tablespoons mayonnaise

roughly 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

salt

pepper

garlic powder

paprika

Hardboil the eggs: Place the eggs in a medium saucepan and cover completely with water. Bring the water to a full boil, then reduce heat until you've reached a simmer. Let the eggs simmer 10 minutes. Drain the eggs, then soak them in cold water.

When the eggs are cool, remove their shells. Halve each egg lengthwise. Pop out the yolks and put them in a bowl.

Add 2 tablespoons mayonnaise and 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard to the egg yolks, and mash it all together with a fork until mostly smooth. Season to taste with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Taste it; add more mayo and mustard as desired.

Fill the hardboiled egg whites with a generous portion of the egg-yolk mixture. Garnish with a light coating of paprika. Serve cold.

show and tell

So, I really didn't mean to take a blogging break. Honest. I got a new position at work and — bam! — four and a half months disappeared. But I think I'm back now ... or, at least, I'd really like to be. I missed this world of show and tell.

Here's what life has looked like lately.

Celebrating.

Brew day.

Food photography class at Healthy Living.

Eggshell flowerpots.

Cake pops.

Capellini cacio e pepe.

Still obsessed with this breakfast salad.

A rare blue sky.

Asparagus and goat-cheese fritatta.

Caprese skewers.

Mint-frosted brownies.

Valentine's flowers.

Lunch at the Storm Café.

Homemade pizza with prosciutto and arugula.

nutella-stuffed brown butter chocolate-chip cookies

Innocent looking, aren't they?

By all outward appearances, these are just your average chocolate-chip cookies. OK, above-average chocolate-chip cookies — do you see how perfectly thin and golden these are?

Take a bite, though, and you're in for a taste-bud explosion. It's not just the warm Nutella oozing out of the cookie's center. The real piéce de résistance is the brown butter, which makes these richer, more sophisticated and definitely unexpected. Eat these while they're warm and melty. Enough said.

Nutella-Stuffed Brown Butter Chocolate-Chip Cookies

adapted from Ambitious Kitchen — see the original recipe if you want to go all out and add sea salt into the mix

2 sticks butter

2 and 1/4 cups flour

1 and 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 and 1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg and 1 egg yolk

1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 tablespoon plain Greek yogurt

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 jar Nutella, chilled in the fridge (you won't use all of it)

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk constantly as it begins to bubble and foam. As soon as it begins to brown and smell nutty, remove from the heat and transfer to a bowl to prevent burning. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the cooled butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar with an electric mixer. Beat in the egg, egg yolk, vanilla and Greek yogurt until well combined. Stir in the dry ingredients, then fold in the chocolate chips. Chill the batter for two hours or, if pressed for time, put in the freezer for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Remove dough from the fridge.

Measure about 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of the chilled dough and roll it into a ball. Flatten the ball, then spoon a small amount of the chilled Nutella into the center. Fold the edges of the dough around the Nutella and roll back into a ball, adding more dough to cover it, if necessary. Place the ball on the cookie sheet and flatten lightly with the palm of your hand. Repeat for the remaining dough, placing balls about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.

Bake the cookies 9 to 11 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies have just begun to turn golden. Keep the cookies on the sheet at least 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

lake champlain cruise

This is what it looks like when it's raining on the other side of the lake. Magical.