Being a native New Englander I should be used to these long, grey, cold winters by now having lived through 29 of them. But somehow come February I start wishing the warm sun would hurry up and get here. This is my second winter living full time on Cape Cod, and I am really enjoying it. Its a slower pace, and can be really quiet at times but it gives me a lot of time do things that I probably wouldn't be doing if I still lived in the Boston area.

For instance I just baked my first loaf of bread from scratch the other day. My friend lent me a great book of no knead bread recipes and I'm planning on working my way slowly through the book until I get the hang of it. The book is called "My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method" by Jim Lahey. It was really quite fullfilling when it came out of the oven and I discovered that it came out perfectly, well maybe not perfectly but it was pretty damn good if I do say so myself. So after waiting 18 hours for it to rise, it only took about half an hour to come out of the oven smelling heavenly and delicious. Between my husband and I we ate 3 small baguettes in two days! So, I'm thinking next time I will be giving some away or I'll have to start giving my pants away instead.

We dont' go out that much this time of year so I've been trying to get a little more creative, and wallet friendly, in the kitchen. Last night I made a lemon buerre blanc sauce (first time making anything like it) and poured it over a piece of grilled haddock. I served it with grilled asparagus and cous cous. It was great, I based the sauce on a recipe out of the Joy of Cooking but made a few changes to try and make it a little healthier, although not by much. If you interested check out the recipe below.

I know cooking is not huge in a lot of peoples daily lives and sometimes it seems so time consuming. There are definitely days when I come home and the last thing I want to do is stand in front of the stove. To be fair though I have to say that typically I really do enjoy cooking quite a bit. It's almost therapuetic for me. I love food, cooking, and eating! I could get lost in a good grocery store for hours looking at all the great cheeses, veggies, and treats. Last nights dinner was minimal prep and really once everything is on the stove you don't have to do much at all. So it was pretty simple over all but very tasty. It would be an impressive meal to serve for friends, and they wouldn't have to know you barely did any work!

It's nice to have a few go to easy yet delicious recipes in your repetoire. Especially in a time when a lot of people are cutting back and the restaurant dinners are getting fewer and further between. I think it's really rewarding to serve your friends a good meal that you've created in your kitchen.

You should note that most of my recipes are pretty non structured. Meaning if you want more garlic add more garlic, if you want to use chives instead of capers go ahead. Add veggies to the cous cous, whatever you prefer. You can really be creative with this stuff, thats what makes it easy and keeps it intersting.

Grilled Haddock
1-2 lbs of haddock (you could really use any fish the sauce is versatile)
salt and pepper the fish and coat with a light drizzle of olive oil
Place the haddock on a hot grill pan, cook about 7 minutes on each side (time will vary depending on thickness of filet)

Lemon Buerre Blanc with Capers
2 garlic cloves minced
zest of one small lemon
1/3 cup of white wine
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
3/4 stick of butter
2 tablespoons capers

Add 1 tablespoon of butter to the pan and melt over medium heat. Add the garlic, saute for about 30 seconds to a minute. Add the wine, lemon zest, and rice wine vinegar. Cook over medium heat until reduced by half. Add the remaining butter to the pan. Cook until combined. Add the capers.
Drizzle over the grilled fish.

Cous Cous
1 14 ounce can of reduced sodium chicken stock
1 1/4 cups cous cous
3 cloves minced garlic
1/4 cup white onion diced

Coat a sauce pan with olive oil and add the onion and garlic to the pan. Cook over medium heat until the onion is translucent. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Add the cous cous, remove from heat and cover. Let stand for about 5 minutes. Stir and serve.

Grilled Asparagus
1 bunch of asparagus
olive oil
salt and pepper

Place asparagus on a hot grill pan and drizzle with olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Roll the asparagus around a bit to get them coated with the oil. Cook about 7-10 minutes until they are softened a bit and have nice dark grill marks.