divine sticky personages

Smoked Mushroom, Tomato, & Onion Pizza

2011-08-18T13:51:00.000-07:00

Another Staycation meal that we had the luxury of time to produce:

Smoked mushrooms=big revelation. They are so delicious & meaty. I've described it before, but we basically smoke everything we put on the grill due to the fact that Mark has filled a disposable pan with smoke chips. Put a lid on it, poke holes in the top, & you're ready to smoke whatever you're cooking on the grill. It creates delicious results.

These mushrooms especially benefited from that cooking process. They absorbed all of that smoke, making them taste extra meaty.

Is it just me or does this blog seem kinda dirty? I don't know, I think it might be the slightly dirty birthday card I got from my sister-in-law earlier. Man, she's funny. Made my whole day.

Anyway, pizza is a serious issue in my house. After a couple of botched jobs, I nearly revoked Mark's pizza-making privileges. Turns out, he was using yeast that had died.

So...you can find several ways to test your yeast online. Make sure it's still alive, y'all. Otherwise, don't waste your toppings. & these toppings were primo.

We seasoned the mushrooms (creminis) with salt, pepper, and olive oil. We did the same to some sliced heirloom tomatoes.

We also made a packet of chopped onions wrapped in aluminum foil. They were cooked on the grill as well.

And, as it was Staycation, we splurged on some extra cheeses at Trader Joe's.

That's romano, fontina, & some really nice parm (in addition to the mozz, of course). We rationalized that we weren't spending money on a trip, so why not spend it on cheese? I'm serious with the cheese, y'all. When we were DINKS (double income, no kids), I spent $40 a week on cheese at Whole Foods. If we're ever flush with extra money in the future, God help me, the surplus will go toward cheese. It's the finest luxury.

This coming from a girl who hated cheese growing up. I'd actually make my mama order pizza without cheese. Oh, how the mighty fall. I started dabbling in college & as the story often goes, now I can't stop at "pizza" cheese.

The crust of this pizza was really good. We used this well-articulated recipe from one of my favorite blogs.

The sauce was my homemade marinara, made loosely from this recipe.

I make big batches of this stuff using the big cans of tomatoes from Sam's. That's another post entirely, folks.

Mark likes to paint on his Staycation. It's become a yearly thing.

My favorite meal

2011-08-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite meal ever:

Bloody filet, baked potato with basil garlic compound butter, & boursin creamed spinach. Cheese pizza is a close second in the all-time favorite meal category. However, this has become the "celebration/holiday" meal at the French-Barrett household. This is our Christmas dinner of choice.

Mark & I are now spoiled with filets. At Trader Joe's, you can get a pound of beef tenderloin for about $10. Then you can chop it up into 4 thick filets. As a result, I no longer eat steak in restaurants unless someone else is paying. Sirloin, my former favorite, is just far too tough after you've had steak like this.

I will say that I come from a long list of women who like their meat cremated. With that said, I did not ever enjoy steak until I had it bloody.

Preparing this steak is a very simple process. Take out your cast iron skillet, get it screaming hot, salt & pepper your filets (they need no other seasoning, really), then put them in for a good 2-3 minutes each side, then finish them in the oven.

We cheat and use a meat thermometer that dings when they reach a perfect 140 degrees. Be careful not to over do it as the meat still continues to cook once you take it out of the oven, especially if you leave it in the skillet. Let the beef rest at least five minutes before cutting it or else you'll loose some juiciness (that's a technical term).

Meanwhile, I've baked the potatoes directly on an oven rack at 400 for about an hour.

Now, on to the spinach. That beautiful, magnificent spinach could happily make my last meal. The boursin cheese is a really treat, but it only costs $3 at TJ's. It's $6 at Kroger! So, if you're making this meal, source your ingredients from Trader Joe's. You're begging to be punished if you go elsewhere.

Boursin Creamed Spinach
(adapted from "Cuisine at Home")
(makes about 2 cups)

Ingredients:

For the Spinach Filling:
1/2 cup diced onion (sometimes I use shallots, they're sweeter & milder than onion. They literally melt into the sauce)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 package (5.2 ounces) Boursin Garlic & Fine Herbs cheese
1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry of excess moisture
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon minced lemon zest
Salt, white pepper, cayenne pepper, and ground nutmeg to taste

For the Crumb Topping:
2/3 cup coarse fresh bread crumbs (made from 2 slices firm white bread) (I always use panko)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Coat a shallow 2-cup baking dish with nonstick spray; set aside.

Saute onion in 1 tablespoon butter in a saucepan over medium heat until soft, 5 minutes.
Add flour and stir to coat onion. Cook about 1 minute.
Gradually whisk milk and cream into onion mixture, stirring constantly to prevent lumps. Simmer sauce for 1 minute.
Stir in Boursin, a little at a time, until cheese is melted and sauce is smooth. Remove saucepan from heat.
Add spinach, Parmesan, zest, and seasonings. Transfer spinach mixture to prepared baking dish.

Combine crumbs, 1 tablespoon butter, oil, salt and pepper. Top spinach with crumbs, pressing them to adhere. (Dish may be covered and chilled at this point to be baked later.)
Place dish on a baking sheet; bake until crumbs are golden and sauce is bubbly, 20-25 minutes.

Use an old towel to squeeze the moisture out of the spinach. I have a towel in my kitchen that is set aside for spinach squeezing alone. If you're going to have cooked spinach, frozen really is the best deal. It's one of my favorite frozen products, actually. I add it to all sorts of stuff, pasta sauce especially.

Sometimes I leave off the crumb topping, but if you're making this for someone truly special, add it. The crunch of the panko is quite nice. I've also made this with regular cream cheese & added in garlic & herbs. However, your best bet is with the boursin. It's a really nice treat.

Honey Bourbon Caramel Peach Pie

2011-08-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

I'm spending these last weeks of summer trying to gobble up all the farmer's market produce I can get my hands on. It's a great time of year to buy peaches here in Nashville. They're so juicy & flavorful that you really don't need to dress them up. Eating them over the sink is one of my favorite ways to enjoy them. Or slice them & serve over ice cream. However, for our staycation this year, we wanted to try out a pie. It involved Bourbon Caramel. Need I say more?

This pie tasted great & it wasn't really that hard to execute. As the recipe indicates, the pie crust can be made a day in advance & I took advantage of that fact. What really blew me away with this recipe was the caramel. It was so easy & so delicious that I consider it dangerous.

I will be making my own caramel topping for ice cream from now on.

I'm not really one for desserts & I wish I had more accolades for this pie. It was delicious, but I have what I call a "food-labor block," which means if I work hard at perfecting something, it doesn't really taste that great to me. In fact, such meals or projects often have no taste. They're unremarkable to me because I've produced them. It's horrible, except for the fact that others enjoy the results of such experiments. & if there are leftovers, I usually enjoy them much more than the original meal.

Mark Barrett seemed to think this was the best peach pie he'd ever consumed. Who am I to dispute that fact?

On to the caramel:

You start out with the sugar, bourbon, and honey in a medium-sized sauce pot. You let the sugar dissolve & get browned just a little, then you take it off the heat & stir in the butter.

As you stir, the caramel gets thicker until it looks like this:

Then you drizzle that luscious caramel all over your spiced peaches (note: I didn't peel or process my peaches in boiling water. They were just fine without that business).

Then pour the peach caramel mixture into your pie crust.

Cover it with your second crust:

Mark had some extra time, so he spelled out our last name on the pie. He's cute like that.

Pie crust is not hard at all. Do not be intimidated. We make ours in the food processor, which makes things easier. You know it's ready to be rolled out when the butter is pea-sized. When you roll it out, make sure you have enough flour on your board. Otherwise, your crust will fall apart & you'll have to re-roll it which could result in a tough crust.

Overall, this pie wasn't too much trouble & it tasted divine, especially with some Blue Bell vanilla ice cream. I'm not much for desserts, as I've said, but a fruity dessert is the exception. That's why I'm having blackberry cobbler instead of birthday cake this year. It's my birthday week, y'all. I'm officially old. I'll be 29 on Saturday. Mark will be 28 on Sunday.

Honey Caramel Peach Pie
Adapted from Gourmet, July 2009
Recipe from Sassy Radish

Any kind of mild honey will work beautifully here. It will cook into a rich caramel, which coats the peaches and deepens their sweetness.

Pie Filling Ingredients:
3 lb ripe peaches
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided

Honey Bourbon Caramel Ingredients:
1/4 cup mild honey
2 tbsp bourbon
2 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

All-butter pastry dough (recipe below)

1 tablespoon whole milk

Pie Preparation:

1. Cut an X in bottom of each peach, then blanch peaches in batches in boiling water 15 seconds. Transfer with a slotted spoon to an ice bath to stop cooking. Peel peaches and cut into 1-inch-thick wedges. [My note: I skipped this step, I was really short on time, and I just sliced the peaches, skin and all - the result, heavenly. I don't think the book club ladies minded at all!]

2. Toss peaches well with cornstarch, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl.

3. Put a foil-lined large baking sheet in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.

4. Bring 1/2 cup sugar, honey, and bourbon and water to a boil in a 1 1/2- to 2-qt heavy saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved, then wash down any sugar crystals from side of pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water. Boil without stirring, swirling pan occasionally so caramel colors evenly, until dark amber, about 5 minutes.

5.Remove from heat and add butter, swirling pan until butter is melted. Pour over fruit and toss (caramel may harden slightly but will melt in oven).

6. Roll out 1 piece of dough (keep remaining piece chilled) into a 13-inch round on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin. Fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim excess dough, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Chill shell while rolling out remaining dough.

7. Roll out remaining piece of dough into an 11-inch round on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin.

8. Transfer filling to pie shell, mounding it. Cover pie with pastry round. Trim with kitchen shears, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Press edges together, then crimp decoratively. Brush top all over with some of milk, then sprinkle with remaining Tbsp sugar. Cut 3 steam vents in top crust with a paring knife.

9. Bake pie on hot baking sheet 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F. Continue to bake until crust is golden-brown and filling is bubbling, about 50 minutes more. Cool pie to room temperature, 3 to 4 hours.

All-Butter Pastry Dough
Makes enough for a double-crust 9-inch pie

Crust Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/3 cup plus 1 to 4 Tbsp ice water

Crust Preparation:

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl (or pulse in a food processor). Blend in butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender (or pulse) just until most of mixture resembles coarse meal with some roughly pea-size butter lumps. Drizzle 1/3 cup ice water over mixture and gently stir with a fork (or pulse) until incorporated.

2. Squeeze a small handful of dough: If it doesn’t hold together, add more ice water 1 Tbsp at a time, stirring (or pulsing) until just incorporated, then test again. Do not overwork dough, or pastry will be tough.

3. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 8 portions. With heel of your hand, smear each portion once or twice in a forward motion to help distribute fat. Gather dough together, with a pastry scraper if you have one, and press into a ball. Divide in half and form into 2 disks. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and chill until firm, at least 1 hour.

Notes:

Dough can be chilled up to 1 day. Let stand at room temperature 20 minutes before rolling out.

Recipe can be halved if making a single-crust pie. Use a rounded 1/4 tsp salt and start with 3 Tbsp water.

Basil-Garlic Butter

2011-07-07T16:52:00.001-07:00

This butter is ethereal. I ain't kiddin' ya & I don't use that word lightly. Oh, & it's easy.

I have quite a bit of basil growing in my backyard thanks to one very dear former student of mine who helped me pick out some very (as it turned out to be) prolific plants.

Well, if you have basil, you're in business this summer. I've made 2 batches of this butter & I have 2 sticks softening on the counter for even more for this weekend's cookout.

Just imagine with me the uses. It'll improve the taste of a number of items: baked potatoes, grilled corn, bread, of course, the back of your hand, etc.

Here's how it goes:
1. Take one stick of softened (to room temp, just leave it out overnight) butter & mix it with 1 packed tablespoon of freshly chopped basil & 3 freshly minced garlic cloves (I'm not proud to say it, but I have used the jarred variety on one occasion & no one went home crying. That batch received the highest praise, actually, though I think it's because I shared it with more people, hehe. Just imagine how much better it'd be with roasted garlic, if you have that kind of time on your hands or the foresight to plan ahead).

I use unsalted butter, so I add salt to taste at the end, but if you're one of those crazy folks out there that buys the salted variety, you might want to taste before you season.

& if you don't see fit to buy real butter, as my silver fox foodie crush says in "Kitchen Confidential," I cannot help you in any way.

Kale & Napa Cabbage with Smoked Chicken (& bbq sauce)

2011-06-06T12:13:00.000-07:00

& I'm back...again. I can't promise I will not abandon this blog again. It seems to be a trend, but I like to look back on it as a personal record of our food habits & experiments.

I'm on summer vacation after completing my first three months of employment as a high school English teacher. It was an intense undertaking, but through it, I felt a self-actualization & fulfillment that I haven't felt in any other job or would imagine finding in any other job. I can honestly say that it is my calling.

Am I good at it? Not yet, but I want so badly to be good at it & I've proven that I have the work ethic, so I think it's a good fit. One day I will be a good teacher.

But school's out, y'all, & for some unknown reason, I was not rehired. So, I've done nothing school related for the last few weeks. It feels strange to get back into the routine I used to know so well.

When I began teaching, Mark took over all the domestic duties. I really would not have made it without him. He got up at 6:30 every morning (even though he doesn't have to be at work until around 9) & made me oatmeal. Not just any oatmeal, this oatmeal. He packed me salads every day for lunch & made us crock pot meals for dinner. Sure, we ate a lot of take-out here and there, but we were supporting local business, hehe.

Anyway, now I'm back to the meal planning & dish washing & it's a strange feeling indeed. Sometimes, maybe, I think I'm called to do this work. Then I look at my baseboards & know I wasn't meant to be a housewife.

Enough of the commentary, on to the food.

This is something I envisioned based on what I order at Calypso Cafe, another local place we've hit up quite frequently for take out in the last couple of months. I always get their chicken (either in sandwich form or as "skinless half white with 2 sides") with their delicious bbq sauce. My two sides are always the callaloo (greens stewed with tomatoes) and the bean & corn salad. When I get it, I inevitably end up mixing my greens with the bbq sauce.

So, when my favorite co-op emailed saying that they had my favorite type of kale (lacinato, otherwise known as dinosaur), I thought of an idea to put it to good use. I'd try to recreate that light, sweet bbq sauce & cook the greens in that.

But no, I couldn't recreate the sauce to my liking. However, there was an easy solution at hand: I'd purchase the sauce in pints from Calypso. It was really worth it & it was as cheap as making it at home. $4 for a pint is not bad at all. I'm going to continue my experiments to reproduce it at home, but until I find a recipe I'm satisfied with, I'll stick to buying theirs.

So here is how I made this dish:

I heated some oil in a pan, added a diced yellow onion.
I let it brown. I added some garlic & cooked it for a minute. Then I added 2 cups of our homemade chicken stock & the chopped kale & chopped napa cabbage. I put a lid on it & let it cook down.

In a separate skillet, I cooked 3 pieces of thick, hardwood smoked bacon from Trader Joe's (The bacon was good in the greens, but I won't find myself buying this stuff again. I prefer the leaner, center cut stuff for all other applications). When the bacon was done, I transferred it to a paper towel-lined plate. I poured the remaining bacon grease in with the greens, of course. After the bacon was cool enough to handle, I chopped it into small pieces and added that to the pot o' greens. I let the greens cook for about an hour or so on low heat, checking to make sure they had enough liquid. If not, I added more chicken broth. I also added a couple of glugs of Valentina's, one of our favorite hot sauces. I didn't add too much more beyond salt and pepper, if my memory serves me correctly.

Meanwhile, Mark coated the chicken with salt, pepper, and olive oil & put it on the grill. He's fashioned a DIY smoker out of a disposable cake pan & lid. Basically, you just fill the pan with whatever type of wood chips you like & poke holes in the top. Then you just place it on the grill.

The faux smoker yields excellent results. It ups the flavor of everything we cook on the grill, even hot dogs. & Mark comes in smelling all smokey & delicious, which makes me want to be near him all that much more.

When both the chicken & the greens were cooked to my liking, I scooped out some of the greens in a bowl, layered the chicken on top, and drizzled on some of the bbq sauce.

I'd decided not to cook the greens in the sauce as they seemed to be flavorful enough on their own & I dropped one of my purchased pints of sauce. Oh, the dangers of playing refrigerator Tetris.

This meal was very nice & echoed the Calypso experience fairly well.

I love a big pot of greens!

Tonight we're using the leftover bbq sauce on some tortilla pizzas. Info on that later.

Pumpkin Cake with Whipped Cream & Pecan Praline

2010-11-28T14:45:00.000-08:00

This cake was epic. It was a heart attack on a plate. A real treat. Not intended for everyday use.

But if you ever have an occasion that calls for it, this cake is more than justified in its richness.

A little more than a month ago (I'm not ashamed to say), I got out all of my food magazines for the months of November & December. I surrounded myself with them in the bed one Sunday afternoon & (like the pretentious foodie that I am) made a list of things I'd like to share with my loved ones over the holidays. This cake was one of them. It just looked so regal & impressive...and it was.

I made this cake on a Friday while waiting to hear back from a job interview...at my ideal public middle school, the school I student taught in, the only school I'd ever send my children, the best middle school in Nashville,in my opinion. I was beside myself. At times, I felt like Marsha Brady in that episode where she's waiting for a boy to call & calls the telephone operator to make sure her phone is actually working.

Well, I thought making this cake, my first ever cake from scratch, would make for a fine distraction. I won't lie to you. It was a lot of work & a lot of mess. Not to mention that I got two injuries in the process & two sinks full of dishes before I'd even thought of starting on dinner. But alas, I'd say it was well worth it.

Anything flour-based usually is deferred to my husband to make. It's his area of interest. I hate dealing with the stuff. It's so messy & impossible sometimes. I've never succeeded in making a cake from scratch. The past two attempts yielded disgusting and weird results. I'd never made pralines or had any luck with making candy in the past. In fact, my last experience was an inedible, grainy almond brittle. What a waste as nuts are so expensive.

But my pralines turned out well, except that they were a little too thick. I didn't smash them down good enough. They were fantastic, though. You really don't have to put anything in the skillet with the sugar. It takes a while, but it will eventually melt.

I burned myself while pouring the pralines onto the parchment paper, but I didn't let it stop me. You do have to act fast or you'll end up with a big blob of praline.

I also cut my thumb pretty badly zesting the orange. I haven't cut myself in the kitchen in a long time & I wasn't very happy that I'd been so sloppy, but baking intimidates me so much. It freaks me out. I'm so afraid I don't have it in me to be so precise.

Surprisingly, my cake turned out really well. It was really moist & delicious. I took it to Parsons and shared it with my friend Amanda, her baby, Patsy, and my sweet husband. Then I took it to feed other family members & friends, because one should never find themselves alone with this massive clump of goodness.

Pumpkin Cake with Whipped Cream & Pecan Praline
from Rachel Ray

3 cups granulated sugar
2 cups pecans (about 8 ounces)
2½ cups flour
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups packed brown sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup milk
Grated zest of 1 orange
One 15-ounce can pure pumpkin puree
3 cups heavy cream, chilled
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Note:
The cake layers can be wrapped and stored at room temperature up to one day ahead of frosting.

Directions:

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Butter two 8-by-2-inch round cake pans. Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper and butter the parchment. Flour the pans.
In a large skillet, melt 2 cups granulated sugar over medium-high heat until light amber, about 7 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, add the pecans and quickly stir to coat. Transfer the pecans to the prepared baking sheet and, using a metal spatula, spread in a single layer to cool completely. Place the praline in a sturdy resealable plastic bag and crush into pieces; set aside.
Preheat the oven to 350°. In a bowl, sift together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar and the remaining 1 cup granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating until combined. Beat in the flour mixture in 3 parts alternately with the milk and orange zest on low speed until just combined. Add the pumpkin puree and beat until just combined.
Divide the batter evenly between the 2 prepared pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Transfer the cake layers to a rack to cool, about 10 minutes. Remove the cakes from the pans, invert and peel off the parchment paper. Let the cakes cool completely on the rack, about 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the frosting. Using a standing mixer with a whisk attachment, whip the cream on medium speed until soft peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes. On low speed, gradually beat in the remaining 1-1/2 cups brown sugar and the vanilla until stiff peaks form. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
Assemble the cake: Halve each cake layer horizontally with a serrated knife. Place 1 cake layer on a platter. Spread the whipped cream frosting on top about 1/4 inch thick; sprinkle with about 1/2 cup crushed pecan praline. Repeat with three more layers, saving enough frosting for the cake sides and reserving the last layer of praline. Spread the remaining frosting evenly on the sides of the cake and sprinkle the reserved pecan praline on top. Refrigerate the cake for at least 1 hour before serving.

Enjoy it with a relaxed cat.

Golden Chicken, Corn, & Orzo Soup

2010-11-21T07:58:00.000-08:00

This soup was positively delicious, but the recipe was flawed...or maybe I only like to eat one kind of chicken soup. I added a bevy of spices in addition to the ones called for which made it sort of a Southwestern affair. I used homemade chicken broth which might not have been as flavorful as it needed to be. I was recently talking shop with a cousin and she said she "fortifies" her broth with a stick of butter. I did no such thing and therefore my broth might not have been altogether tasty.

A word about broths: I pride myself on the fact that I never ever buy the canned stuff (Well, I don't buy chicken broth. Beef broth is another story, but I don't use it that often and I have something in the works to that end anyway). I've become a fan of buying whole chickens and dispatching them myself. Err, I have Mark do that usually, but I think I could totally handle it these days. He'd feel useless if I stripped him of his "meat tech" title, though, so I let him have at it. Meat & handling meat turns Mark into a different person. His face just glows. I know how sick and sad this all sounds, but it is so very true. I felt I'd discovered something truly grand when I first put a big piece of meat in front of him. All was good in the world.

Anyway, back to the broth talk. When we cut up our whole chickens, all the "refuse" goes into a gallon-sized zip top bag. The backbone & marrow are supposedly really flavorful. I keep it in the freezer until I have a lazy Sunday or Tuesday (the life of a substitute teacher can be very glamorous, indeed). When I'm ready to make the broth, I pour the contents of the bag into my 5-quart dutch oven & add a quartered onion, a carrot or two, celery (if I happen to have it), several cloves of garlic, peppercorns, dried oregano, cumin & coriander seeds.

We also have a bag of veggie scraps: fennel fronds, onion skin (if it's organic. LRK says it's culinary gold), stems from greens, etc. If you invest in organic produce, you really should be saving your scraps. They make a delicious broth. You use the same method to produce a veggie broth.

If this idea interests you, here's a more thorough explanation by one of my favorite local food bloggers.

I have used her exact method before & perhaps I need to return to it. I got lazy when I made this particular batch of broth, so I didn't saute the veggies or anything. You could also roast them, which is more hands off, but produces flavorful results. Oh, and the addition of Madiera is nice. I don't keep it around, so I'll add white wine or vermouth. Marsala wine is also good.

Okay, so soup. We were talking about soup originally. This soup was really nice. We found ourselves adding lots of lemon juice at the table. This brightened it and made it super fabulous. Again, it was probably my faulty broth, but we found ourselves adding lots of salt. The lemon juice had a similar effect with less guilt.

Here's the recipe & I'll try to update our changes.

Golden Chicken, Corn & Orzo Soup

Adapted from Fine Cooking

2 Tbs. olive oil (I used 2 T. of butter, because you know I can't help myself)
2 large ribs celery, finely diced

2 smallish carrots, cut into coins
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 pinch saffron threads (I didn’t have saffron, so I used paprika. They’re the same color, so they must have the same flavor, right?)
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
2 qt. homemade or low-salt chicken broth
2 cups finely diced or shredded cooked chicken (such as leftover roast chicken) (We used 2 chicken breasts that were trimmed & smoked on our grill by the meat tech. He'll have to share his tips with you, because, man, it was really good. He gets more flavor out of those paltry things that taste so much like sawdust sometimes. He put together a super cheap, diy smoker situation for our little gas grill. However, grill season is over, so perhaps it must wait.)
1/2 cup orzo (I think that cheese torts would be good too)
1 cup frozen corn
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
3 Tbs. fresh lemon juice; more to taste
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Tip: You might wonder why the orzo is cooked separately. There are two reasons. If you boiled the orzo directly in the soup, the starch from the pasta would cloud the soup broth, and the orzo would also suck up too much of the soup broth as it cooked. Boiling the pasta separately solves both of these problems. (This is what FC has to say & I kinda agree, but I don't think boiling the pasta in the soup would be so bad either. I tend to like thicker soups. I guess that makes them stews or something, but whatev. However, I do think keeping the pasta separate would be a good thing if you weren't going to eat all this soup right away. We had several servings of leftovers and our pasta never got too soggy, but I worry that if this soup hangs around for more than 2 days, you'd probably want to keep the pasta separate.)

Bring a medium saucepan of well-salted water to a boil over high heat. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the celery, onion, saffron, and thyme. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables start to soften, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the broth and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer, add the chicken and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes. While the soup simmers, cook the orzo in the boiling salted water until tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain.

Add the drained orzo, corn, and parsley to the soup and cook just until the corn is heated through, about 2 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and season to taste with salt, pepper, and more lemon juice, if needed.

nutrition information (per serving):
Size: based on six servings; Calories (kcal): 250; Fat (g): 10; Fat Calories (kcal): 90; Saturated Fat (g): 2; Protein (g): 22; Monounsaturated Fat (g): 6; Carbohydrates (g): 19; Polyunsaturated Fat (g): 2; Sodium (mg): 440; Cholesterol (mg): 40; Fiber (g): 2;

So, I ended up adding Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, oregano, shoot, I don't know what all. After my first initial tastes, it was just so limp. & I started craving Patsy's chicken soup. Patsy's chicken soup recipe will have to make an appearance here at some point. It's spoiled me for all other chicken soups. Patsy is the mom of one of my oldest & best friends, Amanda. She & Amanda are the reasons I love food as much as I do (you know I didn't gain an appreciation for anything but restaurant leftovers living at Peggy French's house).

Anyway, her chicken soup recipe is a lot less fussy & much tastier, so next time, my friends. We'll pick up this chicken soup convo when I have a decent recipe to offer.

The Only Mac & Cheese Recipe that You'll Ever Need

2010-11-19T14:41:00.000-08:00

Speaking of religious experiences, I’ve got Oprah’s “Favorite Things” episode on mute. It’s been on for about 4 minutes & people are already on their knees crying.

Well, I can’t give you a diamond-encrusted watch, but I can make your holidays just a little better by bestowing on you this magnificent macaroni & cheese recipe. It’s that good, I tell you. It’s the only recipe for mac I’ll ever use again. I’m not even gonna look at other recipes, I promise.

The recipe that I started with is from the Everyday Food cookbook (the first one). I’ve made the recipe several times, but each time I made it, I was looking for something more. I found myself having to doctor up the leftovers with hot sauce, etc.

Be advised, however, that this mac & cheese is not the custardy, soupy kind you find at some places. That particular brand of mac is quite disgusting to me. You know how I hate eggs, so I’m finicky when it comes to custard. This version might seem dry to some of you. I wouldn’t take mine any other way, but if you are so inclined, you could add more milk or even some eggs (a 14 oz. can of tomatoes maybe) to your mix just before you mix in the pasta & bake it. However, to me, this recipe is perfect as written.

Shane is jockeying between the dishes of the night
French-Barrett Mac & Cheese
Adapted from Everyday Food

Serves 8
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 pound elbow pasta, cooked and drained
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion, chopped (I used a medium-sized onion)
• 1/4 cup (spooned and leveled) all-purpose flour
• 4 cups milk
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, (optional)
• 4 ¼ c. of cheese (I used a mix of 3 c. white Cabot cheddar, 1 c. mozz, and about a ¼ cup romano which has a lot of character. I highly recommend it.)
• ¼ or ½ c. panko
• 8 sundried tomatoes, drained of excess oil & chopped
1 heaping T. Dijon mustard

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook pasta, and drain; reserve. Meanwhile, in a 5-quart heavy pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Whisk in flour to coat onion. In a slow steady stream, whisk in milk until there are no lumps.

2. Cook, whisking often, until mixture is thick and bubbly and coats the back of a wooden spoon, 6 to 8 minutes (mine took about 15 minutes to get to a good consistency). Stir in cayenne, if using & mustard, and the cheese mixture. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. As cheese mixture melts, stir in chopped sundried tomatoes. (If you wanted to add spinach or any other veggies, this would be the time to do it.

3. Toss pasta with cheese mixture. Spoon some out into a ramekin & taste for seasoning (& to make sure it’s not poison, hehe. This is always my excuse for sampling.). Transfer to a 9-by-13-inch baking dish or individual dishes. Set aside.

4. Toss panko together with remaining 1/4 cup cheese mixture, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Top pasta with breadcrumb mixture. Bake until top is golden, about 30 minutes

Be sure to sample the sauce/mac before you transfer it to the baking dish. I added quite a bit more salt & some more seasonings. Just keep adding things until it tastes right for you. I’ll try to remember to pay closer attention next time I make it & I’ll update this with the additional stuff I added.

We took this mac to Shane & Sarah’s Southern-themed potluck on a Saturday night. We had about half a pan left. By Sunday night, the pan was empty, in the sink, ready to be washed. So much for eating this through the week. Truth be told, we did get a few lunches out of it, but dang, it went fast. It was truly the best mac ever. I’m taking it to my family Thanksgiving feast next week.

I haven’t ruled out the idea of making some for this weekend. Sarah’s coming over. She’d asked me for the recipe & I feel like I should give her a tutorial, hehe.

Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic

2010-11-14T14:09:00.001-08:00

Well, according to this blog it has been almost a year since I last cared about food. That’s simply not true. So much has gone down (pun intended) that I should have documented here. I started a butter business, for example. That was really fun…while it lasted. My dreams were shattered by the U.S. Department of Ag, but who hasn’t had that happened to them, right?

Here's the evidence:

I still have some hope for my little butter idea, but it’s not for right now.

As I look through my photo uploads, I’m overwhelmed with the amount of dishes I need to write about. Food is really one of the most compelling aspects of my life. I wish it could work out that somehow it would parlay itself into a career. Teaching English just isn’t working out, if you haven’t heard. I blame the economy.

Enough with the heavy stuff, dear reader: what I mean to say is that there will now be talk of food here at this domain.

First up, Ina’s Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic.

I’d written this dish into the meal plan as a special treat for having Randy & Sam over for dinner mid-week (the weekends fill up so fast!). However, I got a call for a job interview the next day & decided it was just too much to pull off on a weeknight when I needed to prepare my talking points for 7^th grade reading strategies that night.

Two nights later, on Friday, when I was waiting to hear back from the interview, I decided I needed lots of projects to keep me busy that day so I wasn’t just waiting by the phone. Prepping for this dinner was one of them, but it surprisingly didn’t require too much work.

As a result I ended up making a cake from scratch that day & you’ll hear all about that soon enough.

Mark had already cut the chicken into 8ths with our snazzy new poultry sheers. All I had to do was prep the sides. And it turned out like this:

Ina's Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

3 whole heads garlic, about 40 cloves
2 (3 1/2-pound) chickens, cut into eighths
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons good olive oil
3 tablespoons Cognac, divided (Ina + Hennessy = a visual I love)
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (I used a pinch of dried)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons heavy cream

Directions

Separate the cloves of garlic and drop them into a pot of boiling water for 60 seconds. Drain the garlic and peel. Set aside. (I did this way earlier in the day)

Dry the chicken with paper towels. Season liberally with salt and pepper on both sides. Heat the butter and oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. In batches, saute the chicken in the fat, skin side down first, until nicely browned, about 3 to 5 minutes on each side. Turn with tongs or a spatula; you don't want to pierce the skin with a fork. If the fat is burning, turn the heat down to medium. When a batch is done, transfer it to a plate and continue to saute all the chicken in batches.

Remove the last chicken to the plate and add all of the garlic to the pot. Lower the heat and saute for 5 to 10 minutes, turning often, until evenly browned. Add 2 tablespoons of the Cognac and the wine, return to a boil, and scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Return the chicken to the pot with the juices and sprinkle with the thyme leaves. Cover and simmer over the lowest heat for about 30 minutes, until all the chicken is done.

Remove the chicken to a platter and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup of the sauce and the flour and then whisk it back into the sauce in the pot. Raise the heat, add the remaining tablespoon of Cognac and the cream, and boil for 3 minutes. Add salt and pepper, to taste; it should be very flavorful because chicken tends to be bland. Pour the sauce and the garlic over the chicken and serve hot.

We amended our recipe because we only had a 5 lb. chicken. We multiplied everything by 2/3rds & approximated the amounts accordingly.

All I've got to say is "Hennessy Gravy!" (It doesn't really taste like alcohol, but it sure is nice)

Since you're cooking the garlic, it becomes sweet and very mild.

The mashed potatoes were simple and accommodating: just potatoes with 2% milk, butter, salt, and pepper.

The asparagus was tossed with olive oil, salt, and pepper, & roasted in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes. Then I added some parm/romano and let it cook in the oven on low (200 degrees) until everything else was done. It might have gotten a little over cooked, but it was still good (I should have turned the oven down sooner).

So that's it: food that incites a religious experience.

Snowed In

2010-02-01T12:24:00.001-08:00

Hey kids, I guess I'm back. I had thought I was going to end this blog and go on to start a creative nonfiction type, journally blog, but, alas, I've done little writing to be proud of...it'll come, I'm sure. For now, I should tell you about this soup. It's one of the best, simplest things we've made in so long.

As I'd given up on the food blog, we've stopped taking pictures of our meals, so you'll have to forgive the lack of a visual. We made this soup simply because we were snowed in and needed to use mostly pantry/stashed/horded items to put it together. I made several tweaks/clarifications to the recipe which I'll explain.

Ancho Chicken Tortilla Soup

* 6 (6-inch) flour tortillas (we used 2 8-inch tortillas cut into strips)
* Cooking spray
* 2 large ancho chiles, seeded and stemmed (dried ancho chiles...I don't know why this recipe doesn't specify that)
* 1 quart chicken stock (we used some yummy homemade stock that we made for cheap, explanation later)
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 2 ears corn on the cob, husked, kernels removed or 1 cup frozen kernels, defrosted (We used Trader Joe's extra sweet organic kernels)
* 1 large red onion, chopped
* 1 jalapeno chile, seeded and chopped or thinly sliced (I only seeded half)
* 1 red chile pepper, seeded and chopped or thinly sliced (We used 2 poblano peppers. I was worried about my sensitive little husband)
* 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1/3 palmful
* 1 1/2 teaspoons smoked sweet paprika, half a palmful
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, eyeball it in your palm
* 1 (28-ounce) can fire roasted diced or crushed tomatoes (I didn't have fire roasted)
* 1 tablespoon honey
* 1 rotisserie chicken, skinned and shredded (We defrosted 1 lb. chicken tenders and sauteed them in the dutch oven before we started the soup. We set them aside, added them later in the process)
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 to 2 cups water (we didn't use any water)
* 2 limes
* 2 ripe Hass avocados, halved
* Sour cream, for garnish
* Cilantro leaves, for garnish

I wish recipes told you how many pots/pans you'll need within the recipe. For that reason, I'm gonna start prefacing my recipes with that information. You'll need (1) 1.5 quart sauce pan, a cookie sheet, and (1) 5 q. dutch oven or other such soup pot.

Directions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Slice the tortillas into 1/2-inch strips and scatter on large baking sheet. Spray with cooking spray and bake until golden and crisp. Remove from the oven and reserve.

While the tortillas crisp, add the ancho chiles and the chicken stock to a large pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the chiles are tender. Remove from the heat to cool. (this would take forever. Just boil them for as long as you can. It's okay if they don't puree entirely)

While the anchos simmer, heat a medium soup pot with vegetable oil over high heat. Add the corn and saute until charred at the edges, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce the heat a little, add the onions, jalapeno, red chile pepper and garlic. Season with cumin, smoked paprika and cinnamon. Saute for 5 minutes, then stir in the tomatoes. Puree the anchos and the stock in a food processor (be very careful. I had to do this in batches even though my FP bowl wasn't full. When the liquid is hot, it can be a real mess to use the FP. I'd use an immersion blender if you have one), then add it to the soup pot. Stir in the honey and the shredded chicken and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Thin the soup with 1 or 2 cups of water and simmer over low heat to combine flavors, about 5 minutes (like I said, we didn't add any water).

Zest and juice 1 lime and add to the soup pot. Seed and dice the avocados and add to a small bowl. Dress with the juice of the remaining lime. (we used bottled lime juice. I know it's bad, but I don't have a palate to speak of.)

Pile some crispy tortilla strips into each soup bowl. Top with diced avocado and ladle the soup over the avocado. Garnish with sour cream and whole or chopped cilantro leaves. (We didn't do this, we simply spooned the soup into bowls, topped it with some tortilla strips, avocado, and cilantro).

We also made a queso dip as we were snowed in and wanted to maximize our melted cheese intake. We used another Rachel Ray recipe, which was pretty good.

1/2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, a drizzle
1/2 pound Spanish or Mexican chorizo (We used Soyrizo from Trader Joe's)
1/2 pound mushroom caps, quartered
1 cup diced Mexican melting cheese or Monterey Jack or Pepper Jack cheese(We used a mix of Cabot Sharp cheddar & Mozz)
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 bag corn tortillas or blue corn tortillas, any variety

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat the extra-virgin olive oil in small skillet over medium-high heat. Dice the Spanish chorizo and add to the pan to render the fat. If using fresh Mexican chorizo, remove the casing and crumble while it's browning. Add the mushrooms to the skillet and cook with the sausage until just tender, 6 to 7 minutes. Transfer the sausage mixture to a small casserole or baking dish and top with the cheese. Bake until bubbly. Remove from the oven and top with the scallions. Serve with chips for dipping.

I don't think Mark added the oil b.c. the soyrizo is usually full of it. I have to tell you, we love the soyrizo. I'm not much for the fake meat, I'd rather just have extra veg, but this fake meat is great.

We miss the great queso we used to get at Los Rosales. Mark says this is very much like it. I only had a little bit, so I wouldn't know.

For leftovers, I have been having a spoonful of queso in my soup.

*chicken broth, yo. You can easily make your own chicken broth for cheap. We get the rotisserie chickens from Kroger about once every three weeks. I put the carcass in a gallon-sized freezer bag and put it away until a lazy Sunday afternoon when I make stock. I use this idea. You can use whatever veg you have around.

Pre-Thanksgiving Celebration

2009-11-24T13:55:00.000-08:00

This picture isn't the best. You can't really tell what anything is and the portion-size on that white stuff looks way too big. Actually, this plate is comprised of 3 turkey cranberry raviolis, sauteed kale, roasted squash puree, and store-bought whole berry cranberry sauce (for some reason I always like it better than any homemade version I've ever tried).

I made this ravioli two years ago for a pre-Thanksgiving feast we had then. To be honest with you, it was so good that after my first bite I exclaimed, "This is just as good as when I learned to masturbate." That's very crude, I know, but masturbation is healthy, do it before you marry too early or sleep with a loser, I'd say.

I had a similar experience the first time I had butter on a baked potato although I would describe that as a religious experience.

The ravioli gravy turned out a lot better this time, I thought. It thickened up a lot better. The trick is being a really vigilant stirrer. Don't leave it unattended for the entire duration of making the gravy. Stir constantly...which is easy for us because Mark loves to stir so much so that I make fun of him for it. He's a compulsive stirrer.

Turkey & Cranberry Ravioli
from Giada at Food Network

Serves 6
Ravioli:

* 1 lb pound ground turkey, preferably dark meat (I used an 85/15 ratio)
* 1/2 c. tablespoons cranberry sauce
* 1/2 c. tablespoons grated Romano
* 6 tablespoons bread crumbs
* 6 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves
* 1 egg
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 80 store-bought wonton wrappers

Gravy:

* 1.5 sticks butter
* 4 shallots, chopped
* 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
* 1 c. chicken broth
* 1/2 c. tablespoons heavy cream
* 1 tablespoon chopped parsley leaves
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

To make the ravioli: in a medium bowl, stir together the turkey, cranberry sauce, cheese, bread crumbs, parsley, egg, salt, and pepper. Place 10 wonton wrappers on a work surface. Brush lightly with water using a pastry brush. Place 1 tablespoon of the turkey mixture on each of the wonton wrappers. Top with another wonton wrapper. Push out any air bubbles and press the edges tightly to seal. (I don't recall this being a big deal last time, but Mark had a lot of trouble with these this time. He did a lot of shouting. The comments on the recipe suggest alternatives such as making the meat mixture into a loaf and cover it with the gravy or turn the meat mixture into meatballs and serve with pasta and sauce. I like the lightness of the wonton wrappers. We're going to remake this for Mark's parents later this week and we plan to make the meat mixture into meatballs and serve it with the gravy on top of fresh pasta).

To make the gravy: in a medium, heavy skillet, heat the butter over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the flour and stir until cooked, about 1 minute. Slowly add the chicken broth, stirring quickly to avoid lumps. Add the cream, parley, salt, and pepper and cook, without boiling, for 2 minutes, stirring often.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the ravioli and cook until tender but still firm to the bite and the turkey is cooked, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes. Drain the ravioli into the gravy and stir to coat. Serve immediately in individual dishes, drizzled with the remaining gravy.

The kale was a simple saute. I heated some olive oil, added in some leftover chopped onion (about 1/4 c.), 3 chopped garlic cloves, 2 tsp. red pepper flakes and some S & P. Then I added the kale until the skillet was full, put the lid on and let it wilt down, then added more until the kale was all in the skillet. I used one bunch. The best tip I know when preparing any type of sauteed greens is to just chop them really small. That makes the finished product have a glorious texture. I take the spines out of my kale/greens and put them in a freezer bag for future veggie stock endeavors. Otherwise, you just chop them very finely and they can go into the pot with the greens. I used some chicken stock and a tiny bit of cream to add liquid if the skillet got too dry.

Many hours before the meal was to be served, I prepped the squashes. I cut the ends off of a medium-sized butternut squash then cut it in half. I cut an acorn squash in half, placed both squashes in a big, rimmed casserole dish and sprinkled them with S & P, drizzled them with olive oil, and roasted them for an hour at 400 degrees. Afterward, I checked for doneness by poking them with a fork. The acorn squash was done, so I took it out, but the butternut still had a ways to go. I roasted it until it was done, about 45 minutes more.

After the squashes were cooled, I spooned out their flesh (I love the sound of that statement) and set it aside. In a small saucepan I sauteed 4 strips of chopped bacon until they were done. Because I was using center-cut bacon, the rendered fat was not significant. I added the squash flesh, mashed it with a potato masher, added chicken broth until it was the desired consistency, then added 1 tsp. of cayenne pepper. That's it, kids. Check for S & P and you're good.

We had several folks over that night. Claudia brought a delightful feta-cream cheese dip that I wish I'd eaten more of, Shane & Sarah brought some of my favorite chocolates which came in handy, because we were too lazy/full to finish our cookies for dessert. Randy picked up the slack in the gravy-making when Mark left his post. Other than Claudia wishing a palsy upon me, the night went pretty well. Little Margot got to meet our friends and was adored by all.

My friends Jeff & Susan were expected to be there, but were not because I called the wrong Susan in my phone, leaving all the pertinent info on her voicemail. The right Jeff & Susan thought I left them hanging, I'm sure. The Susan I called sent me a bewildered email on Monday morning.

This is Margot with a lamb friend:

She has a cold and some eye issues right now, but she's on the mend.

I'm kinda ashamed to say it, but we've been bitten early and put up our tree.

Gnocchi is too fat to climb in it like a squirrel this year, thank goodness.

Two Soups

2009-11-16T16:55:00.000-08:00

Lately I'm only interested in making soup. The act of eating soup is one of my favorites (I can tell you honestly that I like it more than pasta, though it may not seem that way) and the ones I am most attracted to are usually easy and quick. Though I'm an avid menu planner, some nights I'm just all out of ideas. I know I'm at my best when I devise a lovely soup out of my pantry rather than going for the ever-so-easy frozen pizza pitfall (we usually dress them up a bit with spices and whatever veg we have hanging around, but a $5 frozen cheese pizza is hard to beat at times).

I'm fond of topping soups with a salad of sorts which isn't always necessary, as was the case with this wonderful Roasted Tomato Soup from our lady Ina:

It required nothing. We had it with big crusty pieces of bread, but they weren't required. If I were going all out, I think it'd be great topped with shavings of parm or romano (or both), fresh arugula, and avocado, but it was wonderful all on its own...robust and hearty. I made sure not to puree it completely, leaving it nice and chunky.

3 pounds ripe plum tomatoes, cut in half
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons good olive oil (I only used enough to lightly drizzle the maters)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 (28-ounce) canned plum tomatoes, with their juice
4 cups fresh basil leaves, packed (I used dried, like 2 tablespoons. I don't know what it is with me, but basil has just been turning me off lately)
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (used 1 teaspoon dried)
1 quart chicken stock or water (I used chicken stock)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Toss together the tomatoes, 1/4 cup olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread the tomatoes in 1 layer on a baking sheet and roast for 45 minutes.

In an 8-quart stockpot over medium heat, saute the onions and garlic with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the butter, and red pepper flakes for 10 minutes, until the onions start to brown. Add the canned tomatoes, basil, thyme, and chicken stock. Add the oven-roasted tomatoes, including the liquid on the baking sheet. Bring to a boil and simmer uncovered for 40 minutes. Pass through a food mill fitted with the coarsest blade. Taste for seasonings. Serve hot or cold.

I have no idea why Ina calls for all of that olive oil. She tends to be a little on the crazy side when it comes to adding fat/expense to recipes. It always seems like she's cooking her last meal or something. Heck, I may order the deep fried Chicken Crispers at Chili's, but I don't act like that at home (disregard upcoming fried chicken post, please). I don't see the need.

Regardless, I made this soup a couple of weeks ago when tomatoes still seemed decent around these parts, but as it turned out, mine were kinda flavorless, even after the roasting. I maybe should have roasted them longer or added some sugar to them before roasting to accentuate their natural sweetness. I ended up adding about a tablespoon of sugar to the soup after I pureed it. Roma tomatoes usually look okay year-round, so I think you could make this at any time if you just added a little sweetness to them...honey, agave, sugar, whatever floats your boat.

The soup was incredibly rich and really good on the reheat (as is the case with most soups).

The next soup was recommended by my good friend, Amanda.
Tortellini Tomato Spinach Soup
from RecipeZaar

SERVES 4 -6 (change servings and units)
Ingredients
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1/2 cup minced onion (about 1/2 small onion)
* 1 garlic clove, minced
* 4-6 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
* 1 (14 ounce) can whole tomatoes, coarsely chopped
* 1 (9 ounce) package fresh tortellini or dried tortellini
* kosher salt
* cracked black pepper
* 10 ounces fresh spinach or frozen spinach, defrosted and chopped
* 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions

1. In a soup pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat.

2. Saute the onion and garlic, stirring often until onions are translucent, about 5 to 7 minutes.

3. Add broth and tomatoes, turn heat up to high, and bring to a boil.

4. Add the tortellini and cook according to package instructions.

5. When tortellini is almost done, add spinach and taste, adjusting seasonings with salt and pepper.

6. Serve immediately.

7. Garnish each serving with a sprinkling of Parmesan.

I used fresh spinach and veg broth. I also added in some roasted quartered button *mushrooms I had leftover from a salad earlier in the week. They added a nice meatiness.

I have to emphasize that you should be very careful to not add the tortellini in until you are ready to eat. I buy the frozen kind and it cooks in less than two minutes. If you let it sit in the broth too long, they get bloated and fall apart. If you aren't feeding a crowd and expect to have leftovers (the 2 of us ate on this at least 3 times each), I would recommend cooking the torts in a separate pot according to package instructions. Once al dente, drain them and reserve separately from the soup. To serve, spoon some torts (this also helps you to limit your fat intake as well, as you only get as few or as many torts as you'd like) in your bowl and ladle the soup on top.

*The mushrooms were tossed with olive oil and shoyu (could use soy sauce) and roasted for 40 minutes in a roasted a 375 degree oven (stir twice during duration).

Stuffed Poblanos

2009-11-10T12:18:00.000-08:00

That Ezra Poundcake, she's always ahead of the game. I was just about to post about these peppers which we've been making for over a year, and she goes and does a good job of it. We make these peppers quite often, most recently a couple of weeks ago when we decided to be work-week vegetarians. They're simple and usually only require us to pick up the peppers as everything else is stocked in our pantry (Our well-stocked pantry is my crowning glory. I'm very proud of it.). And those peppers, they can be procured a few steps from my house. I do not have to drive for this recipe! It trumps frozen or pick-up pizza.

Stuffed Poblanos from Everyday Food

ingredients

Serves 4

1 can (28 ounces) whole tomatoes in puree
1 jalapeno chile (ribs and seeds removed, for less heat), minced
2 small onions, chopped
3 garlic cloves (2 whole, 1 minced)
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 can (19 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup shredded pepper Jack cheese (we use cabot cheddar)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
4 large poblano chiles, halved lengthwise (stems left intact), ribs and seeds removed

directions

Preheat oven to 425. In a blender, combine tomatoes in puree, jalapeno, half the onions, and 2 whole garlic cloves; puree. Season with salt. Pour sauce into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish; set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine beans, cornmeal, 1/2 cup cheese, remaining onions, minced garlic, cumin, and 3/4 cup water; season with salt and pepper.
Dividing evenly, stuff poblano halves with bean mixture; place on top of sauce in baking dish. Sprinkle poblanos with remaining 1/2 cup cheese; cover baking dish tightly with aluminum foil.
Bake until poblanos are tender, about 45 minutes. Uncover, and continue to cook until sauce is thickened slightly and cheese is browned, 10 to 15 minutes more. Let cool 10 minutes.

I'm lazy as all get-out and I don't have good, fast, efffective knife skills, so I usually chop the onions and garlic in the food processor before I start this recipe. Also, I grate the cheese in the food processor before I start this recipe, without cleaning out the bowl, really. I mean, it's all going to the same place and it saves me time. Even though I don't have to wash dishes by hand anymore, I still try to conserve dishes.

We don't repeat many recipes in this house, but this one, as I said before, is made every couple of months. I tend to cook it less by about 10 minutes or so because I like the peppers to still be crunchy and not so soft. I agree with old Ezra in that the recipe could be tweaked to your interests, but I don't mess with what ain't broken. This is one of our favorites as it is.

Turnip Green and Roasted Acorn Squash "Empanadas"

2009-10-21T21:23:00.000-07:00

Mark Post!

Hello Friends - Yes, sometimes the mood strikes me and I dare to experiment in the kitchen.

On this occasion we were watching Top Chef and I was kind of bored. Wendy had an idea the other day to stuff steamed Kale leaves with spiced sweet potatoes and black beans, and with that fresh in my mind I entered the kitchen to look around for some unused goodies.

We had some acorn squash which we've had for a while. I got the idea to roast it and decided to roast some garlic while I was at it. I cut the squash in half, spooned out the seeds and "stringy-ness" within, and placed them in a little teflon coated roasting pan. They went into the oven at 450 degrees for an hour. In a smaller oven-safe dish I put 3 garlic cloves.

While those roasted away I looked for some green to use in the fridge. I didn't find kale, but I did find some turnip greens. I set up a soup pot and steamer basket, then steamed the leaves one at a time until they were tender enough to use as wraps, but not so steamed as to be mushy and unusable. I set the leaves aside on a paper towel, stacked up and drying.

To add some bulk to my recipe I pulled out the single remaining poblano pepper leftover from this weekend's stuffed peppers. I also grabbed a large onion, halved it, and then proceeded to chop both into tiny squares, about a half centimeter wide. I put some olive oil in a skillet and let them sweat for a while before cranking the heat all the way up to put a slight char on them.

By the time I finished my leisurely steaming and sauteing, which included long stretches of Top Chef watching, the roasted squash and garlic was ready to come out of the oven. I let them cool for 5 minutes, then while they were still a bit hot to handle I used tongs and my fingers to peel off the skin and also removed the overly browned spots on the inside of the squash. I cut them in half once more and then added them to a large mixing bowl with the roasted garlic. I got out my potato-masher, added a dollop of ghee from the fridge, and then mashed away until I had pulpy goodness.

Then it was seasoning time. I learn the most from watching Wendy do her thing, and she recently added some crushed cloves to some chili, which I thought was really interesting when mixed with the kind of cumin, chili powder flavors we typically use. So I put in a "shake" of cloves, cumin, and also cheyenne pepper. After folding in the seasoning, it was time to finish up my mix by stirring in the onion and poblano.

I then had my mix and my leaves. All that was left was the plating. I decided to set down my greens with the spine face down on the plate, then laid out the filling, pinching it into a tight column before folding in the "tail"and folding the sides up into a turnip green "Empanada" of sorts.

The final product was beautiful, surprisingly tasty with a complex flavor, some nice crunch because of the spine and pepper/onion mix, and a low but lasting heat from the poblano and cheyenne pepper.

The cloves actually read well, which was a refreshing surprise.

wf note: These were really good. I love it when my little darling gets inspired to get in the kitchen. I try to stay out of it for the most part because I tend to be a little overbearing when I'm head chef. I'll answer simple questions if he has them, but I try to physically stay out of the kitchen because I tend to get a little Kate Gosslin sometimes. He did really well and this was a nice healthy snack for our Top Chef viewing.

Our week of vegetarianism is going pretty well except for one slip-up that was totally uncalled for, but we both consented to it. We enable each other, me and this boy. However, come tomorrow afternoon, I'll be shoving bacon in my mouth by the handfuls. Not really. Surprisingly, I haven't had any cravings or anything, but I will be glad to be eating someone else's food. We're going to Basil, my favorite restaurant in Nashville as of late. We went there last weekend with the sibs and I realized that I couldn't remember our last trip to a restaurant, minus some CADs we had gift cards for. We have literally cooked all of our meals for months except for a couple of take-out nights from Baja Burrito. Between the two of us, we couldn't remember our last meal out at a "sit down" restaurant--other than when I was in Rome, GA for a conference with Liz. I get so tired of my own food I've been skipping meals lately (which can't be too bad as could stand to lose some weight).

Best Burger Endeavor Ever

2009-10-19T12:51:00.000-07:00

I know there's no burger in that photo. Somehow we didn't get any pics of the actual burgers, but they were sort of second fiddle anyway. We just mixed the meat with our favorite tamarind glaze and grilled them.

What was really lovely about these burgers was that everything was completely homemade. The August/September issue of Saveur, which was devoted to all things burger, inspired us. Mark made their recipe for Sesame Seed Buns, which were easy as
1.
2.
3.

They were so divine that I had to eat one hot out of the oven before the burgers were ready. The recipe from Saveur can be found here.

The night before I made these delicious pickles that were so easy and delectable I don't think I'll buy pickles again.

I'm now daydreaming about all the other things I must pickle: okra, banana peppers, jalapenos, etc.

I got the recipe from one of my favorite blogs The Chubby Vegetarian.
I'm going to post it here, because you really have to try this. It is soooooo easy and cheap.
The Chubby Vegetarian's Refrigerator Pickles

2-3 cups white vinegar

2-3 pickling cucumbers

palmful dried dill

palmful of whole coriander seeds

3 whole cloves garlic

1/4 cup salt

1/8 cup sugar

Thinly slice cucumbers. I use the slicer blade on my food processor which works perfectly for this. Arrange cucumber slices in a glass container that is just big enough to hold them. You don't want a lot of extra space. In a pot over high heat add the vinegar and the rest of the ingredients. You will only need enough vinegar to cover the sliced cucumbers. Cook vinegar mixture until all of the salt and sugar has dissolved and it has started to boil. Pour the hot vinegar over the raw cucumber slices, allow it to cool on the countertop, cover, and stick it in the fridge. They will be ready the next day and will keep for about a month.

I sliced mine with my mandolin, which made them paper thin and see-through. They were super good for snacking. I took them to our picnic with Dylan and Bethany and they were a real hit. I love the coriander seeds (I got these super cheap at the Indian Market).

I also made homemade ketchup, which has been on my "to make" list for over a year now. It was also easy and delicious but takes a little while (2 hours), so plan accordingly.

Chipotle ketchup
Recipe from The Homesick Texan (who wrote a lovely piece about Food/Memory for Saveur--that's how I found her blog)

Ingredients:
1 medium-sized sweet onion, diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
28-ounce can of whole tomatoes
½ cup of apple cider vinegar
¼ cup brown sugar (I would cut back on the sugar next time. It was a little too sweet)
1 teaspoon molasses
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon celery seeds
3 chipotle peppers in adobo (Oh my! I used 1 because Mark's a baby, but I'd think 3 would be too much for me)
Salt to taste

Method:
On medium low heat, cook the diced onion in the olive oil in a medium-sized pot just until the onions start to brown a bit on the ends.

Add the tomatoes and their juice to the pot, crushing the tomatoes with the back of a spoon.

Stir in the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil and then simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally.

After an hour, puree the mixture, and then continue to cook on low heat until it reaches your desired thickness.

We used the leftovers to top our meatloaf. It gave it a nice crust and a "kick"--I hate when people say that, but here I am, saying it too.

These were, by far, the best burgers we've ever made, even if the mustard and mayo were a big fail. The mustard recipe was a good one, but you have to start 3 days in advance and I hadn't read that part. Mark's mayo didn't emulsify and was a thin, eggy mess. But really, the ketchup and the veggies were all we needed. I will make that mustard, though! I love mustard so much that I've considered a mustard-related tattoo, but then, I'm not a tattoo person. Richard Blias has a wonderful article about my beloved, hardworking condiment here. My favorite quote:
"And as condiments go, it’s the R rated version to ketchup’s PG rating. The beer to soda pop. For that matter, alternative music to pop music…sex to making out. And the reasons why are pretty simple from a pure flavor standpoint."

Soba Noodles with Tofu

2009-10-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

The tofu kind of looks like croutons, but it's not.

I realized this was the first time I've ever prepared tofu. I used the Liz Thompson method of freezing the tofu, thawing it in the fridge, then slicing it into 4 slabs and sandwiching it between two plates lined with dish towels. I then place about 4 Norton Anthologies on top and maybe a Bible. I left it to drain for about twenty minutes while I prepared the broth.

The recipe called for several cups of water, but I used broth. The broth was infused with ginger, scallions, and garlic. The original recipe calls for removing these, but I did not. If I made this recipe again, I would definitely do this. The ginger was a little intense and I couldn't tell if I liked it or not.

Here are the ingredients:

Soba Noodles with Tofu in Ginger Broth (adapted from Body and Soul)
Serves 4 (I don't know what they consider a serving to be because it took us several days to eat all this)

- 8 Scallions (1 bunch approx.). Separate the green and white parts and loosely chop both.
- 2-3 ounces fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 1/4 – 1/2 Teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 8 ounces of soba noodles
- 1 package (14 ounces) extra-firm tofu
- 1 head baby bok choy, roughly chopped (I used two)
- 4 ounces snap peas (about 1.5 cups) trimmed and halved (I didn't measure mine, just used the package that I had)
- 1 red serrano pepper or red pepper, thinly sliced (I used one of my frozen Thai chilies)
- 1 Tablespoon soy sauce (I used shoyu)
- Salt and pepper (I didn't add any, actually)
- Canola or Veg oil for cooking the tofu (I used olive oil)
- Toasted sesame seeds for garnish (original recipe calls for black sesame seeds)
I also added a red bell pepper because I thought it needed a use.
1. Make the broth, add the scallions, ginger, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Let simmer for 20 minutes. Discard solids.
2. While the broth is simmering, prepare the tofu and sesame seeds:
For the tofu: Cut thoroughly drained tofu into small chunks. Heat about 4 Tablespoons of oil (just enough to cover the bottom of a nonstick pan) over high heat. Once it’s hot add your tofu. Let it cook for a few minutes on each side.

Remove the tofu to a paper towel to drain off some of the extra oil.
3. Toast the sesame seeds by adding them to a dry skillet and put them over medium heat. This should only take a minute.
4. After the broth has simmered and the solids have been discarded, add the soy sauce and soba noodles. Cook the noodles as per the package instructions, about 5 minutes. Add the rest of the veggies and cook about 2-3 minutes.
5. Ladle into bowls and top with tofu and toasted sesame seeds.
This was quite nice and perfect for the chilly nights we've been having. I think it'd even be great without the tofu.
Enjoy in the company of a sleepy-eyed cat:

A Weekend in Mid-September

2009-10-11T14:41:00.000-07:00

As mentioned earlier, we have been hosting dinner parties at our place every couple of weeks. Unfortunately, we were without a camera for all of them except for the last, which took place at the end of September. Fewer folks were in attendance, as Sam & Randy were preparing for Sam's 9 month departure for France. Poor Shane & Sarah were sick babies. Kyle & Courtney have to work many weekend nights, but though there were fewer folks, we still had a great time...and didn't mind eating their portion of the food.

Mark attempts to eat two funnel cakes

Taking a cue from my good friend Amanda, I deemed the theme "Yo' Mama" allowing everyone to interpret it in any way they choose: a dish made by their mamas, a dish that reminds them of they mamas, or they could simply dress like they mamas (I hoped for more of this, quite frankly...oh, and also any kind of chip-crusted casserole for novelty's sake). I didn't take any pictures of the food I made because we've all seen it before: Miss Anna Laura's Meatloaf, Turnip Greens with Bacon, and Mashed Taters. I also made a veggie soup as an option for any potential vegetarians in the audience. I choose meatloaf because it's the first thing I remember helping my mom to cook. She didn't really like to cook, but there were a few of her dishes that I absolutely love and feel really nostalgic about. Meat loaf is one of them, though I was rather put off when I found out there were eggs in it! I ate it much more gingerly after that.

Turnip Greens always remind me of my great-grandmother Mama Della (pronounced "Deller") and grandmother Peg. Mama Della certainly knew her way around the kitchen and spoiled me with chocolate gravy and biscuits in the mornings after I had spent the night at her house. (I would often refuse her offers to cook me dinner and opt for a Gregg's Pizza (still some of the best pizza ever as far as I'm concerned--a place I'm also very nostalgic about), the pizza shop within walking distance, or Kid Cuisines. I regret the Kid Cuisine business, but I was a baby then, with undeveloped taste buds. Thinking of those undercooked mushy brownies kind of grosses me out right now. Either the dessert compartment would get completely under or over cooked--there was no in between). Peg, on the other hand, was a lot like my mom and only cooked out of necessity--which wasn't as often for her.

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about my Mama Della as this August marked the 15 year anniversary of her death and it coincides with my sister and her family moving into her house. I'm working on a related blog post for the other, less food driven blog. We'll see if it ever will see the light of day.

But, back to Yo' Mama: I did make a hearty veggie soup that turned out pretty well. I had a lot of odds and ends from the CSA that were lingering and needed using up. I started by roasted some leeks, carrots, onion, various squashes, potatoes, garlic cloves, and tomatoes in salt, pepper, and olive oil.

Then I grilled some mushrooms, peppers, and some corn (not pictured, obviously):

They were also seasoned lightly with salt, pepper, and olive oil.

I did all this roasting and grilling the day before. On the day of, I made decisions about texture. I wanted to keep the corn and mushrooms whole, while the rest was to be pureed smooth. So, I dumped the other stuff in a soup pot with a quart of veggie stock, a 28 oz. can of whole tomatoes, a bay leaf or two, red pepper flakes, dried oregano (still the stuff from Lazzaroli's from Feb.), and dried thyme. I let that heat up and simmer for about 10 minutes. I pureed it with my immersion/stick blender. The roasted potato lightened the color, making it look and taste creamier (a good trick, as potatoes, though they have their faults, aren't as devious as cream). Afterward, I added the grilled corn and mushrooms.

I then had to decide if I wanted to add a noodle/pasta and what kind of bean, if any, I wanted to include. I made my decisions based on appearances: tri-color orzo and white beans, added after the soup was pureed. I used canned white beans and the best thing you can do for a canned bean, as you may know, is drain it into a colander and rinse it, giving it a few minutes in the sink before you add it into anything. This can cut the sodium by nearly half, or so I'm told.

After the orzo and white beans were added, I let it simmer for about 1o minutes, then tasted and adjusted the seasoning. There's no telling what I added, but if you've got good sense and a spice cabinet, I'm sure it won't be hard to figure out. Just do what you like.

So that was the soup. I didn't take a picture because it looked like pink in a bowl & who needs that? But trust me, it was good. Enjoyed by all, actually:

Jeff & Susan think it over

What about dessert?
Mark & Jeff had devised an unstoppable plan for funnel cakes in a phone conversation the night before. I tried to talk them out of it then and there, but they would not have it. Funnel cakes would be made.

& sugared

despite the lovely cakes Jeff & Susan had brought:

By the end of it all, we were sugar drunk, babbling incoherently. Brandon Socrates Amstrong was in attendance, a lovely lad I hadn't seen in more than a year

and it was a great crowd: Jeff, Susan, Brandon, Mark, and myself. Our discussions meandered from topic to topic. Raw meat, family bed, paint selections, nothing went untouched, not even the semicolon.

The Harbrace was consulted and, as it turns out, many of us harbor misconceptions about the semicolon.

It was a riveting night, kids.

Momos

2009-10-06T17:50:00.000-07:00

We were lucky enough to visit our dear friends Parker & Rachel in Washington, D.C. at the end of July. Parker is one of Mark's childhood friends and has always been close with his family, so much so that we joke that he or we are "Adjunct Family." Fran, his mom, is originally from Paris, TN, so we immediately bonded over the West TN connection. Fran Cohen is one of the most amazing cooks I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. The smell of her kitchen should be bottled and sold. I've always made special exception to eat anything I was offered by Fran Cohen, even lamb, which the idea of usually doesn't sit well with me. Heck, I'd go as far as to say that I'd eat a mayo-laden salad if she served it to me. I don't question Fran's food.

Fran would probably never offer me a mayo-laden dish as Parker has many, potentially life-threatening allergies: eggs, dairy, mushrooms, seafood, and nuts...I don't think I'm leaving any of them out. This, obviously, isn't great for Parker as he has to go to great lengths to explain his allergies to waiters/waitresses in restaurants. As I eschew eggs, dairy, and seafood (I have really tried to like it!), I am extremely empathetic to Parker's situation. I know first hand how blatantly uninformed and unapologetic some waiters/waitresses can be. Of course, Parker's situation is more serious, but geez, not everyone wants their food covered in white dairy. It's a treacherous, Ranch-obsessed world we're living it, don't blame me for asking about your "special sauce"!

Okay, that might be a bit of a mini-rant, but I've just had horrible experiences trying to avoid over-the-top dairy in my lifetime.

Anyway, we had a lovely time with Parker and Rachel in D.C. They put us up, drove us around, and made sure we hit up the best restaurants in D.C. That should be a post of its own and I might get around to that. I had one of the best meals of my life at Oyamel...appropriately enjoyed just before we visited the Holocaust museum (I figured I'd never want to eat again after that experience).

I don't think we experienced a bad meal in D.C. Rachel, like Fran, is an extremely knowledgeable and accomplished foodie. We spent our final night in town talking and preparing food. She's the only gal I know, other than me of course, who gets excited thinking about the possibility of making her own tomato paste. Hopefully we'll one day live in the same city and we'll spend many hours in the kitchen being food nerds together.

We talked about Rachel doing some guest posts here, Parker-friendly, sometimes vegan versions of the recipes I post.

Anyway, thanks to the Cohen's, we were introduced to Momos. They served as a bookend meal for the trip. On our first night in town, we went to a Nepalese restaurant where we tried several different types of momos that they picked out for us. My favorite of which was a beef filled momo served in a spicy tomato sauce. Rachel recreated the meal for us on Saturday night.

This recipe is her own creation and it is divine:
Momo dipping sauce
Recipe by Rachel Cohen

¼ c. olive oil (or less, depending on taste)
½ a large onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 ½ tsp. tumeric
½ tsp. cumin
½ tsp. ground cardamom
1 15oz. can tomatoes, undrained
½ c. cilantro, chopped

Heat a large saucepan over medium heat, then add the olive oil and onion. Cook the onion until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for two minutes. Ad the tumeric, cumin, and cardamom and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the can of tomatoes along with their juices. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to medium-low and cook for 15-20 minutes, until the liquid is mostly reduced. Add the cilantro and cook for two minutes. Remove from heat and allow sauce to cool. Pour cooled sauce into a food processor and process until mostly smooth.

For the filling, she used this recipe:
Meat Momo Filling
from Taste of Nepal by Jyoti Pathak

2 ½ lbs ground beef, lamb, or whatever you prefer
1 c. cilantro, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped (about 1 c.)
4-5 scallions (both white and green parts), finely chopped
3 fresh chilies, chopped (seeds removed if you don’t do spicy)
2 T. vegetable oil (use only if the meat is very lean)
4 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 ½ tsp. garam masala
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
½ tsp. ground tumeric

Note: please, in order to avoid injury, use gloves when chopping the chilies. Just buy a box of disposable gloves and don’t sass. I’ve found that washing my hands afterward is never enough. Their are always some lingering burning juices! Though it makes for funny stories when someone touches a sensitive area with pepper hands, the pain is very intense. Don’t inflict it on loved one…or even enemies for that matter, I guess.

Tip: chop the chilies last, keeping the gloves on for mixing the meat. This way you don’t have to take your rings off, etc.

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients and ½ c. of water. Cover the bowl and let it rest for 10 minutes, at room temperature, allowing the flavors to blend.

Rachel will now explain how to put it all together…

Assembling the momos: We use dumpling wrappers made from flour and water that we find at an Asian grocery near our apartment. You might be able to find egg roll wrappers at your grocery store, which I think might work—we don’t use them because Parker is allergic to eggs. (wf note: I use "gyoza wrappers" found in the frozen section of my Asian market. I buy a couple of packages and keep them in the freezer. The same is true for the chilies, put them in a zip lock in the freezer and take them out as you need them. My Asian market sells a massive amount of chilies for really cheap in the fresh produce section. Also, it'd be good to keep your garam masala in the freezer as well, as you probably don't use it very often).

Holding a wrapper in one hand, place about 1 tablespoon of filling in the center and use the other hand to gather the edges and seal the stuffing inside by squeezing the edges tightly (wf note: I fill a small bowl of water and keep it beside my “assembly” area. I dip my finger in and cover the outside border of the wrappers—I’ve found this helps to seal them). Take care not to stuff it too full, or it will leak. Keep the filled momos and the unfilled wrappers covered with a damp cloth or paper towel.

Spray a steamer tray with cooking spray. Fill the base of the steamer with 3 to 4 inches of water and bring it to a full boil over medium-high heat. Place the momos in the steamer basket (don’t let them touch or they’ll stick together and fall apart when you try to separate them), set over water, cover and steam for 10 minutes. I have found that using a rubber or silicone spatula to gently lift the momos from the basket seems to work well to keep them from tearing apart when you transfer them to a plate.

These momos are excellent. We got home from D.C. late Sunday; Monday night we had momos for dinner. We've made this dish 3 times since and that's saying a lot given that we hardly do repeats in our house. The recipe above makes a ton of momos. The other night we scaled it down and only used 1 lb. of ground beef (our preference) and had enough for dinner and lunch the next day.

Momos are great dinner party food. A month or so ago we hosted a really successful get-together that couldn't have been easier. I simply made the fillings: a meat and a veggie, and everyone wrapped the momos together. I wish I had pictures, but that was during the interim of no camera. Kids got creative with their wrapping skills. We had team veg on one table and team meat on the other. It was real sweet.

The veg filling went like this:
Tarkaari Ko Momo
Mixed Vegetable Filling
Also from Taste of Nepal by Jyoti Pathak

2 tab. Vegetable oil
1 c. onion (1 medium)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tab. Ginger, minced
1 ½ tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
½ tsp. ground tumeric
1/8 tsp. black pepper
½ head cabbage, shredded (2 c.)
2 c. fresh spinach, coarsely chopped (I used swiss chard)
1 med. Carrot, shredded (1 c.)
1 c. cauliflower florets, cut into ½ in. pieces (I used more chard and cabbage just because they needed to be used)
1 medium potato, peeled, boiled, and finely chopped (1 c.) (I think sweet potato would be great)
1 tsp. salt

1. Heat oil over med-high heat. When oil is hot, add onion and garlic, cook 3-4 minutes.
2. Add ginger, coriander, cumin, cayenne, tumeric, and black pepper. Stir for 30 seconds.
3. Add cabbage, carrot, spinach, cauliflower, potato, and salt. Continue cooking and stir until the liquid evaporates and the mixture is nearly dry. This step is important so that the filling will not soak through the wrapper.
4. Cool until room temperature.

The veg filling was oh so spicy, not too much for me, but you might scale back the spice if you aren't into that kind of thing. You can really use any assortment of veggies...whatever you have around.

I haven't made the following recipe, but wanted to present it as an option:
Tofu Momo
Also from Taste of Nepal by Jyoti Pathak

2 tab. Vegetable oil
1 med. Onion, finely chopped (1 c.)
4 c. chopped fresh mushrooms (about 1 ½ lb.)
2 c. firm tofu, chopped into small chunks
2 med. Red potatoes, peeled, boiled, and finely chopped (2 c.)
1 small red or green bell pepper (1 c.)
2 hot green chilies, finely chopped (wear gloves!)
2 med. Garlic cloves, minced
1 ½ tsp. ginger, minced
¼ c. cilantro, finely chopped
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. cumin, ground
¼ tsp. coriander, ground

1. Heat oil over med-high heat. Add onion and cook until it softens, 3-4 minutes.
2. Add mushrooms, tofu, potatoes, bell pepper, green chilies, garlic and ginger. Cook stirring frequently until all the water has evaporated.
3. Add cilantro, salt, cumin, and coriander.
4. Let cool to room temperature.

So that's momos. They're great. We're planning to make them for sibs weekend in two weeks!

Mac & Butter

2009-10-05T15:58:00.000-07:00

I had a very ambitious plan for Saturday. I decided to cook like mad. It's been a while since I've spent the day in the kitchen, so I was craving that experience. I intended to achieve the following:
1. Spring Roll Salad with accompanying sauces
2. Pumpkin Curry
3. Homemade butter
4. Ricotta

I woke up at 9 a.m. (a virtuous early hour for me) and headed to the Farmer's Market. As a CSA member, I hadn't gone to the FM this summer. Besides, I didn't have a very high opinion of the FM based on previous experiences there. Though it is somewhat obvious what is locally produced, I found some of the vendors a little shady when I'd ask them about their products. I have reason to distrust them when I see the packaged celery that I could just as easily buy at Kroger or the apples with produce code stickers still attached.

I'd heard that things were different this year and that is absolutely true. It was so nice to see that they now separate the local vendors from the others. There are also vendors selling meat, bread, and dairy. I was very excited about the local dairy and picked up a half-gallon of milk and a quart of cream.

I knew what would become of that lovely cream:

Butter is incredibly easy to make, kids. You just pour the cream in your food processor, crank it to it's highest speed and let it go for 11 minutes. It will change consistency a couple of times, but when it turns into a big lump, well that's butter. Dump it into a fine mesh colander and let it drain for a bit. That's it.

So easy it's ridiculous almost and the resulting butter is so heavenly that when I stuck my pinkie in for a taste, my first inclination was to eat a bowl of it like ice cream. You'll be glad to know that I had just enough self-control not to do that; so I did the next best thing with it...I made Ina's mac and cheese. I had just seen her make it on her show that morning when I came in for a lunch break in my ingredient-gathering mission.

Ina's Mac & Cheese

Ingredients

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Good olive oil
1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and caps sliced 1/2-inch
1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, stems removed and caps sliced 1/2-inch
3 tablespoons cream sherry
Kosher salt
1 pound pasta, such as cavatappi
3 ounces white truffle butter (recommended: D'Artagnan) (I used my homemade butter instead)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 quart whole milk, scalded
12 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated (4 cups)
8 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated (2 1/2 to 3 cups)
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 garlic cloves, chopped
3 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley leaves
1 1/2 cups fresh white bread crumbs (I used some of Mark's homemade bread)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Heat the butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large (12-inch) saute pan, add the mushrooms, and cook over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes, until they are tender. Add the sherry and continue to saute for a few more minutes, until the sherry is absorbed. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add a splash of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Add the pasta and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until al dente. Drain well.

Meanwhile, melt the truffle butter in a large (4-quart) saucepan and whisk in the flour. Cook for 2 minutes over low heat, stirring constantly with a whisk. Slowly whisk in the hot milk and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the white sauce is thickened and creamy. Off the heat, add the Gruyere, Cheddar, 1 1/2 tablespoons salt, the pepper, and nutmeg.

Combine the pasta, sauce, and mushrooms in a large bowl and pour them into a 10 by 13 by 2-inch baking dish.

Place the garlic and parsley in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade and pulse until they're minced. Add the bread crumbs and pulse to combine. Sprinkle the crumbs over the pasta and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until the sauce is bubbly and the crumbs are golden brown. Serve hot.

There is something that comes over me when I decide to make an Ina recipe. I go a little overboard and buy the pricey stuff. I stood in Kroger staring at the cheese for a freakishly long amount of time trying to decide whether I should spend $20 to get the amount of Gruyere Ina had requested of me. I nearly got a headache and finally decided that one $9 brick of cheese would just have to do. I had a ton of cheddar from Sam's (Cabot brand) and I figured I'd make up the difference with that.

Ina certainly is the direct opposite of Sandra Lee. I loathe that woman almost as much as Anthony Bourdain does, but I have to say Ina could tone it down a little with the expensive ingredients.

Anyway, I made the mac and it was divine:

If you're in the greater Nashville area, please come to my house and take some of it off my hands. It's too much really.

The pumpkin curry and the ricotta didn't happen yet...but they will.

Spring Rolls Two Ways & A Birthday Picnic

2009-09-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

Oh my, sometimes the best things we put on our table are the simplest. I was craving some deluxe spring rolls, fresh not fried.

potential fillings: cucumber, cilantro, romaine lettuce, avocado, mango, carrots, scallions, and peanuts. Sauce options: a delicious tamarind shoyu sauce from 101 Cookbooks & some peanut sauce from a bottle (very god actually--Whole Foods brand)

You can't seem to find fresh spring rolls anywhere around here. If only I could be as lucky as my friend Amanda who lives right down the street from the best Thai place ever: Jasmine.

Making spring rolls at home is easy and fun, though. We really should do it more often. I like to make a big platter of potential fillings and everyone (in this case it was just me and Mark) builds their own, so to speak. On this particular evening, Mark opted for massive spring roll burritos, filling them to their breaking point, which required the use of many napkins. I had trouble rolling mine as well, so I chopped everything up and ate with a fork thinking of ways to turn it into a salad. I guess it had been a while since I had printed the sauce recipe, because it is actually for a salad!

The sauce was incredible and I think it'd be a great one to have around for a stir-fry.
Tamarind Dipping Sauce
from 101 Cookbooks

2 tablespoons natural sugar, preferably maple sugar or evaporated cane juice
6 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon tamarind concentrate
1 tablespoon shoyu
1 teaspoon chopped fresh cilantro
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon finely slivered seeded red serrano or Thai bird chile

Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan, and warm over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Remove the pan from the heat and mix in the lime juice, tamarind concentrate, and shoyu, stirring until smooth. Let the mixture cool slightly, and then stir in the cilantro, garlic, and chile. The sauce should be tangy and slightly sour. The sauces will keep, covered and refrigerated, for up to 5 days.

Makes 1/2 cup.

When Bethany invited us to her birthday picnic at Arrington Vineyards, I knew I wanted to make the salad with the roasted shallot peanut sauce mentioned in the original post. Bethany's birthday parties are always a good time. Last year we had a picnic at a winery in Shelbyville and fabulous meal prepared by Dylan. I'm still thinking about that Thai Basil ice cream!

Anywho, here's what this year looked like:

Israeli Couscous salad prepared by Dylan

Lentil Salad

My interpretation of Heidi's Spring Roll Salad with Roasted Shallot Peanut Sauce

B'day Cake

Today was not a good day for a picnic as it was 56 degrees and raining, but it was a nice set up as they had outdoor heaters at the winery. I'd definitely like to go back on a nice day. This winery was very picturesque. Not to mention it's owned by Kix Brooks...oh, Brooks & Dunn, you've been good to us.

Makeup Mega Post

2009-08-27T14:54:00.000-07:00

Bet you thought you'd gotten rid of us for good, but alas

we creep right back in again.

This summer's brought a lot of changes in our lives. I have no job! What did I do all day? Go crazy, discover Facebook, become a Facebook addict, read a lot of great fiction, sun my legs a little in a cheap lawn chair, oh, and buy a new house!

My new workshop:

My favorite room in the house. Life with a dishwasher is just spectacular, y'all. As adventurous cooks, I estimate we did about 2 hours of dishes a week (at least!) at the old place. A dinner party took nearly a week to recover from, but not anymore. We've been having potlucks every two weeks for the last 2 months and it literally takes two loads in the dishwasher and that's all! We don't have to prerinse really either. We got a good machine on our side now. We let people eat off of real plates, drink out of real glasses! But they're forced to use plastic cutlery. Somehow we run out of silverware before dinner actually gets served, got to work on that. I plan to buy some sets with the birthday/housewarming money my generous mother-in-law has been sending me. I told Mark we should pop out some kids and we'd really be in the money! Oh Deej, you're the best.

So anyway, I'm going to highlight some of the tastiest of our exploits with brief discussion and links to recipes:

This is the pulled pork we made in April frozen and reheated in May with fresh corn and southern style green beans boiled to death with new potatoes. The pork froze really well. It tasted as good as it did the day we made it.

Neely's Grilled Corn Salad

This was really good. We grilled the corn on our grill pan indoors as we didn't want to light up the grill for just corn. The salad actually kept pretty well for a couple of days, but that's coming from me. I tend to like wilty salads because I'm gross like that.

We had the salad with some lovely burgers. Mark had his covered in our favorite cheddar.

You know, to this day, I've never had a cheeseburger and I don't really want to either.

We got the beef from our coop. It's a little pricey, but it really tastes a lot better...perhaps because I don't feel as guilty eating it knowing it was raised by honest local farmers in humane conditions. The coop now sells all kinds of meat, from filet mignon to chicken bologna, they got it. As soon as I'm gainfully employed again we're going to get some really nice steaks. Oh, that list (Things to Purchase When Gainfully Employed Again) is getting longer by the day. I mourn for our Saturdays at Whole Foods. I can't even let myself go in there anymore. However, there's something to be said for living frugally. We should have been living like this all along.

We joined a CSA this year, which has been nice if not a little bit overwhelming at times. Every Monday I take my basket to pick up our veggies. I soon realized this little basket wasn't going to cut it all by its lonesome, but it works hard for us and has many uses as you can see:

I've been trying to think of creative ways to use up all this beautiful produce and clean out my freezer. This little dish attempted to do both.
Giada's Roasted Cod with Lima Beans

I used frozen Limas and cod (not such a good idea as it turns out). The fish was a very unnerving texture and the extras I added to the Lima beans overpowered everything, namely the mint. I have no idea why I put that leaf of lettuce in there. I mean, I like it wilty sometimes, but this didn't work.

We ate it with a glorious salad alongside.

The recipe came from my friend Amanda's mom Patsy. It was just an assortment of veggies cut really small: zucchini, peppers, cukes, tomatoes, etc. The dressing was a simple vinaigrette. I topped mine with a copious amount of avocado (love of my life these days).

Whew this post is long! Almost finished though.

Being in the CSA has introduced me to some new and interesting ingredients, namely garlic scapes. I'd heard of garlic scape pesto and considered using my share to make that, but then I found this little number.
White Bean and Garlic Scape Spread

It was a little intense, so I topped it with some of the chopped veggies leftover from Patsy's salad. It was very yummy. In fact, I wish I had more of those garlic scapes. They have a lovely grassiness about them.

It was on this very night that my camera broke. I've been in mourning ever since and as a result, I've abandoned this blog. That night I served a beautiful roasted chicken which was so good I've made it a couple of times since. I've mastered the big bird, guys. Well, now that I have one of those probe thermometers that you stick in and it beeps whenever the chicken is done.

My camera didn't break entirely. The display screen is messed up which means we can still take pictures, but we just don't know what of. Hence

what was a perfectly acceptable kitten love fest looks more like photos of an illicit affair: caught red handed.

I'm hoping to get a new camera soon (when we get our gov't check--thanks Mr. Obama).
Until then, I'm determined to post crappy pictures because the food we've been making lately has just been too good not to document.

Sometimes I daydream about Artichokes (and manicotti)

2009-06-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

Saveur is by far my most anticipated magazine every month. I devour it with great tenacity. It's a real page-turner for me...so much so that I never let myself look ahead or casually peruse it when it first arrives. It's to be savored, appropriately. I have a stack of them beside my bed.

It's not a magazine I go to for too many recipes. It's more about the food-related articles and wonderful pictures for me. I don't know why I don't cook more from the magazine. An article from the March issue regarding artichokes nearly sent me into an obsession. All I could think about was preparing fresh artichokes...but I'd long cut myself off from our Saturday excursions to Whole Foods, given that I was technically unemployed as a student teacher. I couldn't use just any artichokes for the dishes I was dreaming of, after all. My obsession with Whole Foods and the supreme high I get from shopping there warrants a separate post.

Anyway, for a while I dreamed of a fresh artichoke or two sauteed with some dungeness crab and a decent Sauvignon Blanc (with some butter, of course). Mark had a similar dish in Portland last July. I soon dropped the crab idea as I'm really not that big of a fan of seafood (even though I think I should be and often try and force myself to enjoy it. It's a familiarity issue for me. The first times I ate Indian food, I liked it, but didn't love it. It took some getting used to. In my mind, I'm training myself to really crave a nicely cooked, rare piece of fish rather than bloody cow) also I was unemployed in Nashville, TN. Where would I get fresh dungeness crab without going broke anyway?

I soon moved on to this recipe for Stuffed Artichokes:

4 large, full-size artichokes
1 lemon, halved
1 3⁄4 cups dried bread crumbs
1 cup grated pecorino
1⁄3 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
5 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

1. Using a serrated knife, cut off artichoke stems to create a flat bottom. Cut top thirds off artichokes, pull off tough outermost leaves, and trim tips of leaves with kitchen shears. Rub cut parts with lemon halves. Open artichoke leaves with your thumbs to make room for stuffing; set aside.

2. Heat oven to 425°. In a large bowl, combine bread crumbs, 3⁄4 cup pecorino, parsley, salt, pepper, and garlic. Working with one artichoke at a time over bowl, sprinkle one-quarter of bread crumb mixture over the artichoke and work it in between leaves. Transfer stuffed artichoke to a shallow baking dish. Drizzle each artichoke with 1 tbsp. oil. Pour in boiling water to a depth of 1". Rub 1 tbsp. olive oil on a sheet of aluminum foil, cover artichokes with foil (oiled side down), and secure foil tightly around dish with kitchen twine. Bake until a knife easily slides into the base of an artichoke, about 45 minutes. Remove foil, sprinkle tops with remaining cheese, and switch oven to broil. Broil until tops of artichokes are golden brown, about 3 minutes.

When all are stuffed, they look like this:

When being eaten, the artichoke looks like this:

The artichoke is by far the most beautiful vegetable in my opinion. Sadly, I didn't enjoy eating them too much. They were still a little prickly. I'm not sure if this is due to Mark's inexperience in paring down the spiky points. We probably should have just doused it with melted butter and called it a night. The pecorino was nice and nutty. Maybe next time we'll make a pecorino butter sauce for them.

Along with the artichokes, we made some baked manicotti from the same issue. We started out by putting together a very simple marinara sauce:
From Saveur:

This tomato sauce, based on one served at Angelo's Fairmount Tavern, tastes just as good when tossed with spaghetti as it does when cooked in dishes like the Veal Parmesan and Baked Manicotti. We recommend using a good brand of canned tomatoes, such as Muir Glen; their balance of tartness and fruity sweetness will yield a brighter-tasting sauce. The sauce will keep in the refrigerator for up to 8 days.

1 28-oz. can whole peeled tomatoes
3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
1⁄2 small onion, finely chopped
1⁄2 tsp. dried oregano
1⁄4 tsp. dried thyme
1 tbsp. finely chopped
curly or flat-leaf parsley
Kosher salt and freshly ground
black pepper, to taste

1 Put tomatoes and their liquid into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Set aside.

2 Heat oil in a 4-qt. saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic, bay leaf, and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes.

3 Add the chopped tomatoes along with the oregano and thyme. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens slightly and its flavors come together, about 20 minutes. Stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper.

As for the Manicotti:

A little nutmeg added to the ricotta filling for this classic baked pasta imparts a subtle note of spice that complements the rich flavors of the dish, says Saveur.

4 tbsp. unsalted butter
3 cups Angelo's Marinara Sauce
1 8-oz. box dried manicotti shells (about 14)
8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 cups whole-milk ricotta
1 cup grated parmesan
7 tbsp. chopped curly or flat-leaf parsley
1 1⁄2 tsp. kosher salt
1⁄2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg
2 eggs, beaten (I opted not to use any as I hate eggs)

1. Grease a 9" x 13" baking pan with 1 tbsp. butter and spread 1⁄2 cup of the marinara sauce across the bottom of the pan. Set aside. Bring a 6-qt. pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the manicotti and cook until just tender, about 8 minutes. Drain manicotti and rinse under cold water; set aside.

Speaking of which, I've been reading about Julia Child lately and apparently she was both very tall, funny & foul-mouthed...sounds like my kind of gal, right? Well, she was once boiling manicotti in her tiny Paris apartment when she exclaimed to her husband, Paul, who told on her in a letter to his brother: "These damn things are hotter than a stiff cock."

Dear readers, please do not hate me or not employ me due to my bad language, as my grandmother Peg always said, "I was just repeatin' what somebody else said."

That never made a good enough excuse for her cursing when I was younger. So sorry blog, the cat's out of the bag, even though I appear to contain my urges to curse a blue streak in this forum, I do find humor in obscenities and cultivate my own foul mouth.

2. Heat oven to 450°. Heat remaining butter in a 12" skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 5 minutes. Transfer garlic to a medium bowl along with the ricotta, 1⁄2 cup parmesan, 5 tbsp. chopped parsley, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and eggs (if you aren't grossed out by them) and stir to combine.

3. Spoon some of the filling into both openings of each manicotti shell. (Alternatively, transfer the ricotta mixture to a 1-gallon resealable plastic bag, snip off a bottom corner of the bag, and pipe filling into pasta.) Repeat with remaining manicotti shells. Transfer stuffed manicotti to prepared baking dish, making 2 rows. Spread the remaining marinara sauce over the manicotti and sprinkle with remaining parmesan. Bake until hot and bubbly, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining parsley. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

I won't make any comments on that last photo regarding what it looks like.

I agree with Saveur regarding the fresh nutmeg. It is a very nice flavor. I also, per Rachel Ray's instruction, add fresh nutmeg to all my greens. I got a bag of fresh nutmeg at the international market for really cheap. It's more than I'll ever use. There were several seeds in the bag and they keep indefinitely in your cupboard.

The manicotti was really good, but I didn't have enough sauce to cover all the noodles. I made two small pans and used Newman's Own Sockarooni sauce for the second dish. They were both quite nice. The Saveur marinara is more acidic and way less sweet.

As I said, we made these dishes a couple of months ago and I'm still catching up. I've been cooking a lot in the last month and I hope to be up to speed before too long.

I had kind of given up on the blog for a while because I thought it was too self-indulgent, but I found out yesterday that my friend Claudia's family really enjoys this site. I'd like to give a big shout out to the Lombardo's and say thanks for the encouragement. I started the blog for myself, of course, and it is good to keep up with recipes that I've altered, but I was beginning to feel a little silly, like no one was getting anything out of it but me. So hello Lombardo's, I feel like I know you guys too as Claudia talks about you all so much.

The Best Chicken Marsala to be had in this great land...

2009-06-07T19:41:00.001-07:00

Who knew I even liked chicken marsala?

I didn't until we attended the Iron Fork. I had a sample that I couldn't stop thinking about. Alas, I sought out recipes.

I may go as far as to say that this dish was the best we've ever made in our kitchen. But with a meal this opulent, there should be no leftovers. This is what we like to call "sometimes" foods and not eat it everyday like nobody's watching....which I might have done just a little. Marscapone? I'm useless in resisting it. By the end, I had to throw it out. I just couldn't have it for the third time in three days.

I used to hate white dairy. I drank Tab out of my baby bottle, I'm sure. I've never tasted cereal and milk. I used to make my mama order pizza with no cheese.

I started my backslide at 19 in an Outback Steakhouse. I had butter on a baked potato and it was a religious experience.

I still have some standards; I will never ever willingly eat mayo or sour cream.

So if you have some arteries you care to clog, here's a fine way to do it:

Giada's Chicken with Mustard Marscapone Marsala Sauce (with sauteed kale)

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, each breast cut crosswise into 3 pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 tablespoons butter, divided
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 pound cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 cup dry Marsala wine (we used a very dry Marsala)
1 cup (8 ounces) mascarpone cheese
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard--I used whole grain mustard--somehow ran out of dijon
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves, plus whole sprigs, for garnish
12 ounces dried fettuccine

Directions

Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a heavy large skillet over high heat. Add the chicken and cook just until brown, about 4 minutes per side. Exercise restraint: ONLY TURN THE CHICKEN OVER ONCE. This makes a nice crust on the chicken. Transfer the chicken to a plate and cool slightly.

While the chicken cools, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in the same skillet over medium-high heat, then add the onion and saute until tender, about 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and garlic and saute until the mushrooms are tender and the juices evaporate, about 12 minutes. Add the wine and simmer until it is reduced by half, about 4 minutes. Stir in the mascarpone and mustard. Cut the chicken breasts crosswise into 1/3-inch-thick slices. Return the chicken and any accumulated juices to the skillet. Simmer, uncovered, over medium-low heat until the chicken is just cooked through and the sauce thickens slightly, about 2 minutes. Stir in the chopped parsley. Season the sauce, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the fettuccine and cook until al dente, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Drain.

glistening butta

Toss the fettuccine with 3 tablespoons of butter and season, to taste, with salt and pepper. (I add whatever cheese I'm going to add at this point before the sauce is added. A little tip I picked up from Lynne Rossetto Kasper). Swirl the fettuccine onto serving plates. Spoon the chicken mixture over top. Garnish with parsley sprigs and serve.

Improvised Pastas

2009-05-25T11:45:00.000-07:00

My favorite food in the whole world is a tomato. They are the one food I cannot live without. Show me a food better than the tomato. Fried corn and tomatoes, bacon and tomatoes: they play very well with others. However, in the summer I eat them like apples; they're perfect by themselves. Sure, they're nightshades, poison to some, very acidic, but I'll never turn my back on them.

I used to hate any tomato-based pasta dish I'd ever make from scratch. The sauce always tasted metallic. Lately, I've been having good luck with little sauces. I'm committed to the idea of making the perfect tomato sauce.

Here are two pasta dishes we've made in the last little while:

All great dishes start out with sauteing onions in olive oil, then adding some garlic and a pesto cube.

I made a big bunch of pesto last summer (minus cheese) and froze it in ice cube trays. I know they've passed their best by date, but I still use them. I have a bag of basil pesto cubes and a bag of arugula pesto cubes. Please try arugula pesto. You're doing yourself a great disservice if you do not.

After the onions soften, then you add whatever other veggies you want (The first dish had spinach, peppers, and chopped canned artichokes), turn the heat up really high so that you get a nice char on everything, then pour in some white wine (In this case, Old Fort White Something-Another from Beans Creek Winery--Spring Break trip with Bethany and Mark 2009!) to deglaze the pan, scrapping up the brown bits. Next, I added a 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes. I boiled up some whole wheat spaghetti and mixed the two together in a big bowl given to me by my sweet sister-in-law as a wedding present. This was very simple and clean tasting...but I wanted more tomato, something more akin to soup than salsa to cover my noodles.

The second dish was a meat sauce made leisurely last Sunday night. I started out by putting 1 lb. of lean ground sirloin and a pesto cube (maybe a tidbit of butter, but who's keeping track?) into my big ol' cast iron dutch oven. I chopped some onions and peppers and added those guys in (don't let 'em get too soft).

A note about the red bell pepper: I simply cannot do without red bell peppers. I hate how expensive they can be, but they are simple pleasures I've found that I cannot live without. Frozen peppers will do at times, but some times I need them crunchy and delectable in their fresh state. I rationalize that I do not spend money on fancy shoes or that pesky (not to mention bland) Banana Republic anymore, so why not?

I added some red pepper flakes, some homemade chili powder, oregano, probably a myriad of other spices I can't remember, and some s & p and let that go for a while. I added some chopped canned artichoke hearts and three cans of tomatoes to get my fix (1 28 oz. can of sauce, 1 28 oz. can of crushed, and 1 14.5 oz. can of fire roasted diced)! I let that come up to a simmer and added a pinch of sugar. The sugar cannot be avoided, mind you (not entirely true--you might be able to figure something out with agave syrup or your favorite sugar substitute). The sweetness from the sugar balances the acidity of the tomatoes. I then added 2 bay leaves and a parm rind from the freezer and let it simmer away for as long as we could wait: about 45 minutes, I'm guessing.

In the meantime, I boiled the pasta water, salted it well (always add more salt than you think is sufficient) and added a box of rigatoni. In a separate pan, I sauteed some cremini mushrooms in 2 tablespoons of butter until all the butter was absorbed. I deglazed the pan with some leftover marsala wine we had for some incredible chicken marsala you'll hear about some day. These mushrooms were incredible. I'd intended to fold them into the sauce, but I didn't want their flavor to get lost in with everything else. So, I poured the mixture into the bottom of my baking dish. When the noodles were done, I poured them in a big bowl and added enough sauce to cover them well. I poured this on top of the layer of mushrooms and topped it with pecorino romano cheese, parm, and skim mozz. I baked it at 450 for 10 minutes and yeah, it was the best so far.

A few interesting bits of info re: at-home pasta goodness:
1. You don't have to spring for the expensive tomatoes. My darling Lynne prefers Hunt's.
2. Trader Joe's never ceases to amaze me. They're dried pasta has proven to be better than many of the more expensive products that get me with the flashy packaging. See this article. Thanks for the info Claudia/Lesley.

Also, I'm in the midst of a culinary love affair with Ina Garten! I once counted her a nemesis with her condescending descriptors of "good olive oil," etc. Now I know what it's all about: more details to come, maybe.

Please stop, Ina. That's tacky. I'm a married woman.

Steak & Peanut Butter

2009-05-10T18:55:00.000-07:00

My mentor teacher was so excited when she saw my lunch the other day. She exclaimed, "Oh, that looks and smells so good. Is it pot roast?" No, I tell her, it's steak and peanut butter. I realize that sounds kinda gross and she immediately becomes uninterested. I didn't mean it that way, but it's true. It is steak and peanut butter and it's pretty good.

With my teaching responsibilities dying down, I've come back to recipe reading. I couldn't be more pleased because for a while I thought I might never be inspired by cooking again.

I do think it was a good experience to learn how to cook like "real people" with simple no-nonsense recipes for chicken breasts and a requisite rice cooker (I love this appliance...a wedding gift from Sandy Sprankles--my favorite name ever. It automatically shifts itself to warm once the rice is cooked. You don't have to watch it or time it).

I found this recipe in an old issue of Everyday Food.

Skirt Steak & Bok Choy Stir-Fry

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 tablespoon honey
2 garlic cloves, minced
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 pound skirt steak, thinly sliced crosswise
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 large head bok choy, cut 1 inch thick crosswise
4 medium carrots, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced on bias
cooked rice, for serving (We had brown rice seasoned with Asian garlic and chili paste)
1/4 cup peanuts, chopped

Directions:
1. In a small bowl, mix soy sauce, vinegar, peanut butter, honey, and garlic; season with pepper.
2. In a bowl, toss steak with cornstarch; season with salt and pepper. In a large nonstick skillet with a lid, heat oil over medium-high. Add 1/2 of steak; cook, tossing, until browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate; repeat with remaining steak.
3. To skillet, add soy mixture, bok choy, and carrots. Cover and cook, tossing occasionally until tender, about 5 minutes. Return steak to skillet; cook until heated through, about 5 minutes. Serve over rice; sprinkle with peanuts.

I loooooove bok choy. The spines are very celery-like in texture, but without the acrid taste of actual celery. I kind of freaked out when I realized the stir-fry to sauce ratio and doubled the sauce. I do not think this was a wise decision. It was still really good, but I think the flavors would have been more subtle and less peanut butter and steak if I'd had some patience and taken into account that the bok choy would obviously wilt down.

This reaction came from my experience with recipes from the Everyday Food magazine. I absolutely adore this publication, but it's mostly for the stylistic elements of it. The photography charms the pants off me, but the recipes are very simple and sometimes I wonder why they take up space with the repeated information (I've been a subscriber for a little too long, but you let an issue show up late and I'm calling their customer service department immediately).

Sometimes simplicity is best, but I adhere to the advice of Bobby Flay (I can't believe I'm invoking his name; I can't stand to see or hear him. I will not tell you what I think he looks like.): cook it less and season it more.

We also had some lovely Asian Cabbage Slaw (also from Everyday Food):

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 milliliters rice vinegar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
2 teaspoons sugar
Salt
1/2 small head shredded Savoy or green cabbage (I used green)
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
4 scallions, cut into matchsticks
1 grated carrot
1/2 fresh jalapeno, minced

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, 2 tablespoons rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, and 2 teaspoons sugar; season with salt and whisk. To dressing, add 1/2 small head shredded Savoy or green cabbage, 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves, 4 scallions, cut into matchsticks, 1 grated carrot, and 1/2 fresh jalapeno, minced, and toss to combine.

This was delectable...and only gets better with age. I adore raw cabbage. Pickled foods like this are good for digestion. The macros have a dish like this with every meal.

Summertime...and the livin' is easy

2009-05-10T18:25:00.000-07:00

Here are the cupcakes I made for my last day of student teaching. These were exclusive cupcakes made for my mentor teacher and other folks at the school who kept me alive (mainly the school librarian--she was indispensable). Now I'm on to a full-on job search and packing. We will soon be leaving South Nashville for our new digs in the East (fingers crossed tightly).

The cupcakes are a version of my very favorite cake recipe from Anne Byrn. I've made this cake so many times for so many people. It's super easy and a real treat. I generally don't care for desserts, but this cake is an exception.

Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake ingredients:
1 package (18.25 oz) plain white cake mix (do not get super moist varieties)
1 package (3 oz.) strawberry gelatin (this makes the cake non-vegetarian friendly)
1 c. mashed fresh strawberries with juice
1 c. veg oil
1/2 c. whole milk
4 large eggs
1 c. sweetened coconut
1/2 c. chopped pecans

Frosting ingredients:
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temp
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temp
3.5 c. confectioners' sugar
3/4 c. mashed and drained strawberries
1/2 c. coconut
1/2 c. chopped pecans

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray your pans with Pam.
2. Mix cake mix, strawberry gelatin, strawberries, oil, milk, and eggs for a couple of minutes until well blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl every once in a while.
3. Add coconut and pecans.
4. Pour into cake pans (3 9-inch round pans)
5. Bake 28-30 minutes until a toothpick, when inserted into the cake, comes out clean.

Make frosting:
1. Cream the butter and cream cheese.
2. Slowly add confectioners sugar until it's all combined.
3. Fold in pecans and coconut.

There you are...best ever strawberry cake. Blue Ribbon worthy.

Meat + Dutch Oven: A Long Term Vision Is Realized

2009-04-21T17:32:00.000-07:00

a Mark post

I had a dream, that one day we would take a piece of meat, and cook it in the cast-iron dutch oven.

That's it. And, full disclosure, we have done that before. However, this craving for meat to be cooked in the dutch oven could not be denied, and I finally talked Wendy into the idea. Of course, she made it a more complete thought than my primordial "meat in pot... make good", and so we decided on a pulled pork sandwich from Simply Recipes.

What appealed to us about this particular recipe is that we make a sauce for the meat to marinate overnight, which later mixes with the juices of the meat while it cooks and becomes the sauce for the final product. And the vision played out as I expected: we simply put the meat in the dutch oven with the marinade over night, pulled it out the next day and cooked it on the stove eye, removed the meat to pull it, then added it back to the pot after letting the sauce reduce.

Pull that meat!

Add it back to the reduced sauce.

We served the BBQ on those little Hawaiian rolls, like sliders. We also made some great collard greens and mustard slaw.

A complete plate.

Gnocci thinks she wants some.

Seasoning for the greens.

Greens close up.

Condiments, Cookies, & Cats

2009-04-21T15:51:00.000-07:00

We thoroughly cleaned out our fridge a couple of weeks ago. That is, we threw out the squirt bottle of caramel ice cream topping we moved from Murfreesboro with three years ago...that is to say it was a thorough cleaning. The fridge is so clean that every time I open it, I holler out, "Mark, we got a show fridge."

I like grocery lists because I think they're succinct little character sketches. I've recently seen a few folks posting pictures of their fridges in a similar sort of spirit.

When I look at this photo I realize just how much I've cut back on the recreational mustard collection I strove to cultivate. Ah me...getting old already.

Highlights include Pea Soup (to be discussed at a later date), homemade chicken broth, Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper (sweet chemicals needed for survival), several tubs of TJ's hummus/dips, and some homemade cookies and Parmesan crisps chillin' in sleeves of parchment paper.

The cookies were for my niece, Kelley, as we weren't able to attend her 11th B-day party. They were a lovely recipe from Dorie Greenspan: Coconut-Lime Shortbread.

I opted for pistachios.

& obligatory cat shots:

Xena = a Nautilus

You can't really tell in this picture, but she's hugged up to a catnip filled cat cigar. Mark kinda staged this, I think. This is his cat/squirrel, after all.

At-Home Indian Food, Part I

2009-03-24T19:06:00.000-07:00

Vegetarian Times inspired us to finally try and create some Indian cuisine that went beyond microwave papadum and homemade naan.

We actually made the entire magazine spread minus the chutneys. As I've mentioned before, we're fortunate enough to live next door to an Indian grocery. Usually, I go alone and peruse the aisles as mere entertainment. But since I had a recipe in mind, I brought Mark along to help me find everything. However, another shopper, with his young son in tow, (almost excitedly, actually) stopped his shopping to help us find many of the ingredients.

Mark was immediately drawn to the lentil pancakes, so we prepped those first as they needed to stay in the fridge overnight. I was so surprised that we were able to puree the lentil and rice mixture without cooking it at all.

Here are the lovely toppings:

Peas, jalapeno, red onion, and cilantro

We cooked them up on our cast iron griddle:

My favorite dish of the night was the Lemon Rasam soup:

not the best picture in the world, but it'll do.

Chiles, curry leaves, mustard seeds in ghee

We made a vegetable curry as well, but it didn't rock my socks or anything. I've proven not to be the biggest coconut milk fan, sadly.

We made this spread more than a month ago. I'm still playing catch up. This second student teaching placement is less hectic, but I'm knee deep in a job search as well as a newly initiated house search. We're hoping to find a nice cheap house so that we have enough money leftover for a tandoori oven...not really. I guess it'd be a little silly to make a clay oven top priority these days.

Bonus India-related tid-bit: my lovely little sister-in-law is studying in India this semester and she's learned how to dance the Kuchipudi. We're real proud of this little gal. She's the one in the red (not fuchsia) on the right. (It takes the video a minute to start up.)

Hey Stranger

2009-03-17T22:08:00.000-07:00

We've cooked minimally in the last couple of months. I've been playing a teacher, which has worked out well for me, I'd say...though I cannot go into specifics right now. I have been sad to have to relinquish my cooking habit, but the payoff may be worth it. Generally, I cook for therapy, but it is possible, I'm now convinced, that teaching is my new therapy. It's a calling, that's for sure.

For now, I cook on Saturdays, if I have the energy to look something up.

On a lazy Hills-soaked Saturday night a month or so ago, we made this:

Chicken Sausage Farro Soup

We got the Cilantro Chicken Sausage from Trader Joe's. This soup was good, better on the reheat if you ask me (as you know, most soups are). I loved the texture of the farro: chewy goodness. The collard spines were crunchy and delectable as I like them. I would recommend this soup if you're into sausage + curry. The flavor and textures were too much for me, though.

We also made a tomato soup, which was good, but not remarkable.

I made the croutons with some Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Sourdough cut into cubes, tossed with olive oil, and a good shake of Sicilian oregano (from Lazzaroli's).

Shameless Self-Promotion: please do check out my Middle School Blog as I'm really intrigued by my thought processes those days as I'm now working with kids of this age group.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

2009-01-25T15:45:00.000-08:00

Smitten Kitchen has been sweet reading for me since I found it about a year ago. Deb's writing is great and her photos are just lovely. As you might know, we grew tomatoes last summer and sometimes ran out of ideas for how to use them...Deb helped us out.

Here's her recipe for Slow Roasted Tomatoes. Check out her post here.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

Cherry, grape or small Roma tomatoes
Whole gloves of garlic, unpeeled
Olive oil
Herbs such as thyme or rosemary (optional)

Preheat oven to 225°F. Halve each cherry or grape tomato crosswise, or Roma tomato lengthwise and arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet along with the cloves of garlic. Drizzle with olive oil, just enough to make the tomatoes glisten. Sprinkle herbs on, if you are using them, and salt and pepper, though go easily on these because the finished product will be so flavorful you’ll need very little to help it along.

Bake the tomatoes in the oven for about three hours. You want the tomatoes to be shriveled and dry, but with a little juice left inside–this could take more or less time depending on the size of your tomatoes.

Either use them right away or let them cool, cover them with some extra olive oil and keep them in the fridge for the best summer condiment, ever. And for snacking.

Here are our specimens from last August:

Good on sammiches:

The natural sweetness of the tomato is astounding. They're like candy.

Well, as you may know, tomato season is far behind us at this point. I stop buying tomatoes completely in the winter minus the occasional carton of cherry tomatoes. I mean, those pale pink mealy things you find at this time of year are offensive! It's not that I think we should have tomatoes year round, but I miss them terribly. Tomatoes and watermelon: the only two reasons I endure the Tennessee summer. I'm rambling here, but this past week I was really craving some candied tomatoes, so I took a carton of cherry maters and slow roasted them with some garlic. They've been very tasty in the quesadillas we've been subsisting on since I started student teaching.

Pork & Apples

2009-01-19T16:07:00.000-08:00

When we made Anna Laura's Meatloaf over Christmas break, Mark was struck with inspiration for a curried pork loaf. Saturday night that pork loaf became a reality. We based it loosely on Alton's recipe which can be found here. Here's our rendition:

Curried Ground Pork with Apples

1.5 lbs of ground pork
4.5 oz. bag of garlic and cheese croutons
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 tablespoons curry powder
2 tablespoons smoked paprika
1 finely minced onions
6 whole cloves garlic
1 red bell pepper
1/4 cup of crushed pineapples, well drained
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 egg
1 bottle of pre-made apple curry chutney

Heat oven to 325 degrees F.

In a food processor bowl, combine croutons and spices. Pulse until the mixture is of a fine texture. Place this mixture into a large bowl. Combine the onion, garlic, and red pepper in the food processor bowl. Pulse until the mixture is finely chopped, but not pureed. Combine the vegetable mixture and ground pork with the bread crumb mixture. Season the meat mixture with the kosher salt. Add the egg and use your freshly washed hands to toss together, but avoid squeezing the meat.

Shape into a loaf and put in cast iron skillet or on lined baking sheet. Cook until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 160 degrees.

I coated the pork with the chutney and some minced onion before I baked it, but I definitely wouldn't do that if we made this again. As I suspected, it burned off into nothingness.

We surrounded the pork "loaf" (I certainly hate that word!) with two seeded and chopped granny smith apples that were coated in the chutney.

We had leftover collard greens as a side along with some garlic cheddar biscuits I threw together at the last minute. I've been craving Red Lobster biscuits for a bit now and I can't bring myself to go there, so I thought I'd do my own rendition. We had some Bisquick from a snow day breakfast we had last year, so I put it to good use:
Stupidly Simple Cheddar Garlic Biscuits
2 c. Bisquick mix (mine was heart-healthy, mind you)
2/3 c. milk
small block of white cheddar grated
few spoonfuls of garlic out of the big jar

Mix well with wooden spoon, drop onto baking sheet, brush with butter or butter substitute and cook at 425 for 8-10 minutes.

I added a ton of garlic and it had a lovely crystallized texture.

We ate this meal as we watched the first season of This American Life. We had just finished our meal when a story about pig farming came on. Yep, I'm not eating the leftovers, but Mark doesn't seem to mind.

Weeknight Curry, etc.

2009-01-18T20:32:00.000-08:00

As mentioned in my previous blog, Mark and I resolved to each cook through a cookbook this year. I didn't choose the most ambitious of books, but it's full of helpful techniques that will enable me to bring more improv into our kitchen.

Sweet Yams in Ginger-Stick Curry from How To Eat Supper

Yams
4 quarts salted water
2 large Garnet or Jewel yams (about 1 3/4 pounds), peeled, halved lengthwise, and cut into 1/4-inch-thick half-rounds.

Curry
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
One 1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into paper-thin matchsticks (Rachel Ray told me a long time ago...buy a big hunk of ginger, bring it home, peel it, cut it into chunks, and put it in a ziplock in the freezer. Otherwise, it dries out and doesn't last very long. It even slices better in its semi-frozen state)
4 large garlic cloves, sliced paper thin
1 jalepeño, sliced very thin
2 whole scallions, cut into 1-inch lengths
2 large shallots, sliced thin
Salt and Pepper
1/2 light-packed cup fresh basil leaves, course chopped (I was craving Thai basil, searched high and low for it, but even the huge World Market beside our house was out...regular basil was okay)
Juice of 1 lime
(I added a package of fresh snow peas to this mix)

1. Bring water to boil.
2. Once water is bubbling fiercely, drop in the yams and cook them at a hard bubble for 10 minutes, or until tender. Drain in a colander and turn into a serving dish. Set the pot back on the stove.
3. Generously film the pot with oil. Set it over medium-high heat and add the snow peas, ginger, garlic, jalepeño, scallions, shallots, and generous sprinklings of salt and pepper (I used the mandoline for all the veg). Saute for two minutes, stirring often. Then cover the pot tightly, reduce the heat to medium low, and cook for 5-8 minutes, or until the ginger has softened.

Do take note, Lynne says:

Cutting the ginger into paper-thin matchsticks may seem fussy, but there is method to what seems to be madness. That shape changes how you taste the ginger in this dish. Crushed or chopped ginger would taste different - an interesting thing to remember when you see very specific instructions like these in Chinese recipes. There's always a reason.

4. Stir in the basil and cook, uncovered, for no more than 30 seconds. Spoon curry over yams, and squeeze lime juice over the finished dish.

We served this atop Mark's project, Veganomicon's Easy Stir-Fried Leafy Greens

Mark:
I started with the simplest recipe I could find, not because I wanted it to be simple, but because I wanted to make greens. I love greens! The book I chose was Veganomicon, from which we had made a few recipes already that all turned out well (please see Acorn Squash Empanadas with Chilantro "Sour Cream" and Chick Pea cutlets from previous posts).

The recipe is simple - 1 pound of greens, garlic and ginger, stir-fried, with some asian sauces. I used mirin and shoyu (in place of soy sauce. These are some of the great things we picked up during Wendy's readings of macrobiotic literature), and sesame oil. I thought it was going pretty well, but I decided to use the two pounds of collard greens we already had and doulbed the recipe. When the recipe had run its course it turns out the greens kind of sucked, not because of the recipe, but because collard greens are naturally bitter and much better at stewing in a pot with some form of pork belly for 2 hours.

So what could possibly dominate these failed greens into tasty submission?

Wendy interceded with a heavy hand, adding about a tablespoon of lemon juice and many many many squirts of Tabasco's smokey chipotle flavor - greens saved!

Wendy here...the greens didn't really suck, they were just blander than we're used to. I'm convinced that I've burned off most of my taste buds, so that's why I have to cover everything in sauces!

On another night this week, we made this quick, simple soup from Everyday Food

Soba Soup with Spinach

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
12 ounces shiitake mushrooms (stems removed), caps thinly sliced
4 scallions, white and green parts separated and thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon peeled and minced fresh ginger
Coarse salt
2 cans (14.5 ounces each) reduced-sodium chicken broth (I used a carton of veg broth, but use what you have)
1/2 package (4.4 ounces) soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles)
1 bunch flat-leaf spinach, torn
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce (again, we don't keep soy sauce, so I did a mix of mirin and shoyu)

In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium. Add mushrooms, scallion whites, garlic, and ginger; season with salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are tender, 6 minutes.
Add broth and 3 cups water; bring to a boil. Add soba; reduce to a simmer, and cook 5 minutes. Add spinach; cook just until tender, about 1 minute. Add lime juice and soy sauce. Serve topped with scallion greens.

It was a light, super quick, lovely meal. I, of course, added chili paste to my bowl. I can't help myself.

And We're Back

2009-01-10T11:52:00.000-08:00

I hope the holidays were good to you kids. Mark and I enjoyed our first year together as a married couple. Though we've been together for 4 years, this was the first time we actually spent the entire break together. It's nice to have a second family. They're lovely and diverse and a whole other brand of crazy...

That's grandma Miller with the electric knife

Well, really, it's just his mom that's crazy, but she's a good kind of crazy. She thinks I can do no wrong. One night we were really late for dinner and she was yelling at everyone, telling them how they were ingrates and she looked at me and said, "Not you, honey." I have no idea why I was exempt and Jacob, Rachel's boyfriend, was not, but I won't argue with it.

We got lots of great new toys and actually got to cook for everyone. We made a lovely lasagna for Dad & Bev.

I don't have any pictures of the finished product, but I can tell you it was real good. I made a simple marinara the night before by sauteing some onions, garlic, and red bell pepper. When those were caramelized, I mixed half of the mixture into a pound of ricotta, grated a bit of fresh nutmeg in and pureed it in the food processor. I added two 28 oz. cans of San Marzano's to te marinara and let it simmer for 30 minutes. At home I would have added a parm rind from the freezer, but alas. After the sauce had simmered, I pureed it in the food processor and added 1 lb. of cooked lean sirloin. The next day, I layered the chesse mixture with the sauce and noodles adding some piles of fresh baby spinach.

We made a similar lasagna when we got home for Shane and Sarah sans meat, but I decided to sautee the spinach in some white wine and olive oil prior to adding it. Next time I will definitely use frozen spinach as that whole bag wilted down to nothing.

We made meatloaf for Deej (Mark's mom) & Jer using my favorite recipe from Amanda Yarbro-Dill (annotations are hers):

Miss Anna Laura's Meat Loaf
(I must add that my mom, Patsy, has marked this recipe with a g. for good. Not v.g. for very good, mind you)
-------------------------------------
1.5 lbs ground chuck (or round)
1/4 c. bell pepper, chopped
1/4 c. onions, chopped
1.5 tsp. salt
2 eggs
3/4 c. oatmeal
1/2 c. ketchup
1/4 tsp sage
*Mix all ingredients together and shape into loaf (Lord, those directions are short and to the point, huh?)

Topping
1/2 c. ketchup
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. bell pepper, chopped
2 Tbsp. onion, chopped
*Spread on loaf and bake @ 350 degrees for approx. 1 hour or until done.

It was so good we made it again when we got home. We ate it with some ridiculously good greens I had made and frozen. We used a bunch of kale, a bunch of turnip greens, and some spinach and turnips from our co-op.

Another recipe we made twice was this cobbler by David Lebovitz. We rang in the New Year with it, actually. I'm not much of a fan of sweets, but blackberry cobbler is my favorite.

Our New Year's celebration was very laid back. We ate Indian food with Shane and Sarah, bought a huge television with our Christmas money, and made a little time capsule based on a tradition I used to keep. When I was in middle school, Peg and I would always write down our resolutions and I'd keep them sealed in an envelope until the next year. Well this year we wrote our resolutions as well as a few other thoughts and put them along with a few other artifacts from the night in an Aqua Globes box, which was an artifact all in itself. While Shane and Mark were talking TVs, I was desperately searching for a watering can with none to be found. The whole gardening section had been taken over by marked down Christmas stuff. I had to settle for Aqua Globes. They're working out quite well for my two rosemary trees.

As for our resolutions, Mark and I took Sally Swift's idea and decided to pledge to cook our way through cookbooks. Mark picked Veganomicon and I decided on How to Eat Supper. Our goal is to make one recipe a week for the whole year. Tomorrow we're going to have a curried yam dish with some jazzed up bok choy.

Oh yeah, Mark got a deep fryer. So far he's made sweet potato chips:

sorry for the terrible picture

& recreated the ravioli sticks from Mafiozia's

Shane approves:

Holiday Extravaganza

2008-12-10T18:07:00.000-08:00

Sorry guys (i.e., readership of 3), I've been suffering from blogblock.

Last Saturday, Mark and I had the best party we've ever hosted. Our friends are a lovely and diverse group that came together beautifully...many dressed to the nines:

The spread was fantastic:

I must say I was impressed by our efforts, if it wasn't just a wee little bit over the top. During the planning phase, I had to stop myself and say, "wait a minute, these people are my friends, they're just going to be glad to be with us." For a bit, I was thinking of it in a professional sense and that's a little silly as I work in education, not culinary arts...but I'm glad I aimed high, because we proved successful.

The menu was as follows:
Dips
Garlic Chutney Hummus (my usual hummus from VCon with garlic chutney from the Indian grocery)
Spinach Dip

Olive Tapenade
Ranch

Smoked salmon dip

herbed ricotta

fresh mozzarella
drunken goat cheese
montegrappa
Fontina D'Aosta

Soups
Curried Pumpkin Soup
Vegetarian Chili

Various soup toppings:
Shredded cheddar
Scallions
Sour cream
Cilantro
Jalapeño

various dippers:

the usual suspects: Baguette, crackers, Parm spirals ,

Manchego crackers--these guys were my favorite

Small Bites

Prosciutto Cups with Pear

Spiced nuts
Acorn Squash & Black Bean Empanadas with Cilantro Soured Cream from Veganomicon--as it turns out, vegan sour cream=quite tasty

Desserts
Pistachio Rose-water Cookies
brie w. fig/apricot jam
Bourbon pecan truffles

Crunchy chocolate treats

As daunting as that list might lead you to believe, it felt like the most effortless party we've ever given...most everything was made the night before, which was fun. Mark and I stayed up to 2 a.m. and got to catch up on our This American Life podcasts. David Sedaris does the best Billie Holiday. I wish he was pocket-sized.

Needless to say, it was a lovely night. Old friends
(Yay! Wal-Mart portrait hands)
mingled with new friends

and no one got too drunk...
not even our newly appointed alarm clock.

Naan, Pie Crust

2008-11-30T17:59:00.000-08:00

Hey Folks - (Mark post)

I have made the jump to one of my favorite breads, Naan. You've probably had naan before at an Indian restaurant. I just found some random recipe online, but I realized while I was making it that it's a lot like pizza dough: flour, yeast dissolved in lukewarm water, a little salt in the flour and sugar in the water, but the major difference is the addition of a few healthy tablespoons worth of yogurt and some ghee. I used some organic greek yogurt from Whole Foods, and I made a ghee-like substance by cooking plugra on low heat and pouring off the separated oils.

I let my dough rest in the fridge overnight so that the yeast can rise slowly, and then for the next few days I simply cut off a small chunk to cook when I wanted to. It's important to roll it out super thin, and to get the good pillowy texture I try to work the dough mostly with my hands and not a roller, creating that baker's window pane which results in a lot of air pockets. I cooked the naan on a pizza stone with the oven on broil. It only takes about 2 minutes and it's as close to a tandoor oven experience as I can achieve, haha.

puffy goodness, with garlic, brushed with ghee

Pie crust, I've been told, is hard to make, but I've recently had a few good experiences, all of them successes.

My first try was with the pot pies a few weeks ago.

Then, on Thanksgiving, I made pie crusts for Wendy to make pumpkin and coconut pies.

It helped a lot to have a food processor to make the crusts come together. Also, I gleaned a lot of good tips from Smitten Kitchen.

Afterthought

2008-11-30T17:39:00.000-08:00

Did you know that if you're lucky enough to have a pressure cooker, you can cook dried beans, not pre-soaked mind you, in 17 minutes?! I did not believe the booklet that came with my pressure cooker.

I have a fear of the pressure cooker. Everyone's mom has some story about one blowing up and I've believed those stories. My grandma Peg had a real loud one that rattled as it cooked. They're scary vessels, but I must start using this resource for all it's worth. I bought it back when I was knee-deep in my obsession with macrobiotics and have used it to cook brown rice exactly twice before last night. I'm so ashamed.

Well, it's gonna pay for itself now. No more canned beans in this house.

Also, this last week, I procured some Gimme Lean sausage and made some quick spaghetti with it. I sauteed some onion, green pepper, and garlic, then I added in the soysage (I've often made spaghetti using Jimmy Dean sage sausage), let it cook for a few minutes, added some spices (chili powder, oregano, dried basil, s & p), then poured in a jar of my new favorite canned sauce. I stirred in some cooked whole wheat angel hair pasta (Barilla, I think). At the very end, I added some part-skim mozz (hey, we make an effort to be healthy every once in a while). I would have baked it if I felt like I could wait a little, but...

It was pretty good. The Gimme Lean is really nice in flavor, but unfortunately it doesn't break up well (I tried really hard), so there were big clumps which was kinda off-putting. Overall, it was pretty good.

Pumpkin Ravs

2008-11-30T16:29:00.000-08:00

These came from Lazzaroli's. They're filled with pumpkin, mascarpone, ricotta, and parmigiano reggiano. Quite amazing. Mark made a sauce of butter, garlic, (more) parm, and I grated in some fresh nutmeg and added a touch of cream at the very end. I sauteed some kale in olive oil and a little white wine with some thinly sliced onions and garlic. OMG. It was the best. The kale was an heirloom variety called Lacinato. It's also known as dinosaur kale. The texture is great, very cabbage-like. But then again, I've never met a green I didn't like.

Self-indulgent pictures of the new cat in inopportune (but cute) places:

the bread basket!

the laundry basket!

I have no shame.

I hope y'all had a good Thanksgiving.
I made this version of mac & cheese except I left out the ham and topped it with bacon. The horror! If I'm cooking for my family, I know it has to be cheesy pasta. They aren't big fans of any of our other food endeavors (wait...what other food endeavors? we only cook cheesy pasta). The mac was awesome, but not very photogenic, so I'll keep the picture to myself.

Just a reminder:
Mark & I are hosting our annual holiday party this next Saturday, December 6th. Don't forget to show up. Here's a small preview:

Pistachio-Rosewater Cookies

2008-11-23T18:45:00.000-08:00

I auditioned these cookies at Mark's big show last night. They were a big hit. The recipe comes from a cookbook I've been obsessed with for a while...in fact, I mock threatened Mark that I was going to break up with him if he didn't get it for me last Christmas. As I remember, I got it for myself a little early because I couldn't wait.

I ran into some rosewater during one of my Indian grocery store visits and I knew just what to do with it. Here's the recipe lifted straight from Veganomicon:

1¼ cups sugar
½ cup canola oil
3 Tbsp. rice or soy milk
1 Tbsp. rosewater
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 tsp. finely grated lime zest
¼ cup cornstarch
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. ground cardamom
½ cup shelled pistachios, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease two cookie sheets with vegan shortening or margarine.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, rice or soy milk, rosewater, vanilla, lime juice, and zest. Add the cornstarch and whisk until dissolved. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and cardamom. Mix well.
3. Roll the dough into balls about 2 teaspoons in size (a bit smaller than a walnut) and dip the tops into the chopped pistachios. Press down with two fingers; the dough will flatten a bit and the pistachios will collect on the bottom.
4. Place the cookies, nut side up, about 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. You should be able to fit 16 on a standard baking sheet. Bake for 13 minutes; they will be soft but will firm up as they cool.
5. Remove from the oven and let cool on the cookie sheets for about 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely before serving.

My experience when making these was quite comical. I returned home from two different grocery stores to discover that I was out of sugar. After a quick trip to Kroger, I was faced with difficult machines and bottles that refused to open even with one of those rubber opener deals. I just wanted to quit....but these were good. Not too perfumey as some adaptations have turned out.

Ironically, there was another gal at the show serving vegan chili and cornbread. I let her know quickly that I enjoyed a bloody steak, but I am sensitive to her endeavor.

That's My Potpie, Kitty

2008-11-23T18:30:00.000-08:00

I know that's the first line of the Smitten Kitchen post that inspired this endeavor, but I must repeat it because we really did have a newly-adopted beggar kitty pursuing our potpies.

A few more obligatory shots because I'm shameless and you know you want it:

reaching out to win over our friends:

adapting to her new home:

getting acquainted to her new roommate:

that's too much, i know. more can be found on my new blog devoted to miscellany and self-indulgent narrative.

let's shift gears to the real topic at hand, my friends. Mark's bread obsession has led him to pie crust...and pie crust he can do. i know, i'm a little baffled. this man's outdone me already.

we got our inspiration here, and it turned out like this:

The only thing I did differently than Deb & Ina (good company to keep if you ask me) was I boiled the chicken breasts in my cast iron dutch oven with some herbs, peppercorns, bay leaf, onion, carrot, celery, and the greens from the top of a bunch of carrots (they needed a use) which resulted in some lovely homemade chicken broth.

This was last Sunday's work and I was a powerhouse that day. I elected to spend the entire day in the kitchen. That cast iron dutch oven paid for itself that day. I also used it to make veggie broth. For a month or so I've been saving onion skin (as long as it's organic), mushroom stems, chard spines, things that would otherwise be composted in a ziplock in the freezer. I dumped the contents into the pot, added fresh onion, carrot, and celery along with the other items mentioned in the previous paragraph and simmered it for about an hour and a half. I strained it and then added salt. It was very tasty.

I froze two quarts and used the rest to make a curry ginger carrot bisque recipe I found on Tastespotting.

It was just okay...needed texture. Next time I'll add black beans.

So, to recap, last Sunday, I made:
chicken stock
pot pie filling
veggie stock
carrot soup

oh yeah, and I also made maybe my best batch ever of chili powder. Take that last week's bloody chicken debacle.

South of France Tomato Soup with Young Chèvre

2008-11-22T18:31:00.000-08:00

To tell you the truth, I wasn't a fan, but Mark loved it. The combination of the cinnamon with the salty, pungent goat cheese was pretty magical, but it was just too much for me. I know, I'm a baby. This was, however, the most interesting tomato soup I've ever had. Try it for yourself. Here's the recipe:

Generous ½ teaspoon dried basil
Generous ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
Generous ½ teaspoon dried oregano
Generous ½ teaspoon dried thyme
Good-tasting extra-virgin olive oil
3 medium onions, finely chopped
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
3 large cloves garlic, minced
Generous ¼ cup tomato paste
1/3 cup dry vermouth
2 pounds good-tasting fresh tomatoes (do not use Romas), peeled, seeded and chopped; or one can (28 ounces) whole tomatoes with their liquid, crushed (I used canned fire-roasted because that's all I had)
2 cans (14 ounces each) chicken or vegetable broth and 2/3 cup water
Generous ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon, or to taste
Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
4 ounces fresh goat cheese, crumbled

1. Combine dried herbs in a small cup. Crush them lightly until they become fragrant. Set aside.

2. Film the bottom of a 6-quart pot with olive oil. Heat over medium-high heat. Stir in onions, season with salt and pepper, and cook until onions are golden brown, 5 to 8 minutes, stirring often. Add reserved herbs and garlic. Continue cooking until their aromas open up, about 30 seconds.

3. Blend in tomato paste until there are no lumps; then add vermouth and tomatoes. Boil for 2 minutes. Pour in broth, stir, adjust heat to a light bubble, and cover pot tightly. Cook 20 minutes. Then blend in cinnamon, taste and adjust seasonings if needed.

4. Ladle soup into bowls, and top each serving with crumbles of goat cheese.

From, you guessed it, How to Eat Supper

Total Waste of Time

2008-11-17T18:28:00.000-08:00

Well, not totally wasted. I could have been watching The Hills On Demand as I've shamefully succumbed to in the last week. I swear, I stayed so far away from that show for so long knowing I'd get hooked and enable myself to watch under the guise that I'm a culture-watcher. B.S. I'm in on it, sure, but I just can't get enough of Heidi's carebear voice. She's such a total loser and I'm not, right? Many mornings Mark is awoken to my rendition of "Feel the Rain on Your Skin." I've revealed too much.

Last Saturday, we tried to cook a 5 lb. frozen chicken that we got from our co-op...a $20 chicken, mind you. That's a lot to me given I could have gone down to the Kroger and paid about $6 for one that was already rotisseried and pumped full o' facsimiled spices. Well, this one was treated humanely and supposedly you can taste all that good treatment.

I handed the chicken, literally and figuratively, over to Mark as the last time I cooked an entire bird, I was home alone and nearly vomited and became a vegetarian for life. I had to transfer it to a bigger pan and when I picked it up, it's joints moved and it felt just like Xena. My experience only got worse as I stuffed its "cavity" with lemons and heads of garlic. I'll never forget how I ate mine so gingerly while Mark tore into the legs slurping up the skin. That's an image I'll keep for a lifetime.

Well this time, Ina made it look so easy.

Garlic Roast Chicken
1 (5 to 6-pound) roasting chicken
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 heads garlic, cut in 1/2 crosswise
1 lemon, halved
1 large onion, cut into fourths
4 carrots cut diagonally into 2-inch chunks
2 large Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 6 pieces
4 tablespoons butter, melted

As soon as you get the chicken home, salt it inside and out, wrap it and keep it in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

When you are ready to cook the chicken, first preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Pat the outside of the chicken dry with paper towels. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken and stuff the cavity with the all the garlic and lemon. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place it in a roasting pan just large enough to hold it and the vegetables. Scatter the onion slices, carrots and potatoes around the chicken. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken to a platter and cover with aluminum foil. Place the vegetables back in the oven and continue cooking for an additional 15 minutes.

When the vegetables are cooked, carve the chicken and place the slices on the platter surrounded by the vegetables. Drizzle some pan juices over the chicken and vegetables.

I added a few red turnips to the vegetable mix because I had them on hand and I would never turn down a roasted turnip. But Mark failed us a little, I'll admit. He got overly excited with the salt and the turnips seemed to absorb it all. They were almost inedible.

In fact, nearly everything we touched that night turned into a fowl-smelling expletive. Mark accidentally cooked the chicken upside down, so when we took its temp an hour and a half in, it seemed done. We took it out, tented it with foil, and proceeded with the rest of the meal.

I'd planned to try my hand at homemade cornbread for stuffing. The cornbread was beautiful, fluffy and tasty all on its own, but I wanted to attempt stuffing to accompany our big bird.

The stuffing was dry and also too salty (I used salted pecans from the beer isle--LRC told me to--I didn't add much salt knowing I was working with pre-salted pecans).

Well, it was ready to be sprung from the oven 45 minutes after the chicken. When the stuffing was sufficiently dried out, we cut into the bird...yeah, blood went everywhere. I was over it at this point. I fixed a vegetarian plate and handed the operation over to Mark and Randy.

I was in such a bad mood by the end of the night. I only wanted to sulk and read by myself. Poor Randy. I had to try to convince him I wasn't a meanie. But I know he gets it. I haven't had any luck at all in the kitchen lately.

Last Week in October

2008-11-03T17:42:00.000-08:00

We haven't been cooking so much lately. I've been focusing instead on school work.

Luckily, my little slave cat works real hard at rubbing my feet each night:

Last Monday, we had a lot of co-op veggies that needed using up, so I tried to come up with something that encompassed all of them. Inspired by a post over at Last Night's Dinner , I sauteed some onions, garlic, red pepper, and sweet potatoes while some Rancho Gordo Christmas Limas simmered on a separate stove eye.

I added in some chicken stock and Lacinato kale and swiss chard (more of the "bright lights" variety) and sauteed it until it was wilted, then I added some softened bulgar and spices. It was really quite good and different from what we usually cook up.

I roasted some squashes and a few tomatoes in tamarind chutney and we had those on the side.

On Wednesday, we used the kale sautee to stuff some colorful peppers...the green one is the last from our garden:

I surrounded the peppers with a tomato sauce I made quickly in the food processor:
1 28 oz. can of Muir Glen Fire-Roasted tomatoes
1 jalepeno
1 onion
garlic
homemade chili powder
cumin
corriander
salt and pepper

It's based on my favorite recipe for stuffed peppers which can be found here.

My friend Christin had a Halloween party on Thursday in which we were instructed to dress as our respective bosses. It was very cute, indeed.

I brought spinach dip which was a nod to my love of Mark and Christin. Everytime we go out, they have to order it even though I don't eat it. I let them, because they are sweet babies and I'd hate to see them with faces any different than these:

However, this spin dip was Wendy-friendly...no mayo.

Bonus pic: Our friend Moe dressed as Flavor Flav:

Los Rosales

2008-10-27T16:21:00.001-07:00

In America, most Mexican cuisine has been reduced to order-by-number restaurants, cheese-smothered everything (nothing wrong with that by the way), 4th Meals, or as my friend Olaf used to say - "The Same Seven Ingredients ANY WAY YOU WANT IT!"

Mexican food has been the last thing Wendy wants with one exception: Taco Bell soft tacos, no cheese, add tomatoes (usually from home), with Valentina or Mild Taco Bell Sauce. Though she's no longer the dairy-phobic eater she once was, the limited varieties of most Mexican restaurants offer nothing exciting enough to make them our dining destination. Despite this, I've guilt-tripped Wendy into trying out local spots along Nolensville road - a converted pizza hut (still in "hut" shape) now called Las Chivas and a place in Brentwood called Las Palmas. Both were disappointments that ended with Wendy swearing off future experiments.

Wendy here, I'm taking over the post. I can't say I like the fact that Mark outed me on my Taco Bell indulgences...Hey, we live right beside the Taco Bell. & besides, Speidi likes it.

Inwardly chanting, "We are not worthless, we are not worthless."

When we pulled into the parking lot of Los Rosales, I told Mark that this may well be the very last time I agree to eating at a Mexican restaurant. I was encouraged by a great review over at Lesley Eats. I was not disappointed. In fact, I was so excited that I wanted to call up Amanda Yarbro-Dill and tell her that I finally am able to eat Mexican food that's not prepared in my own kitchen. We didn't take pictures that first visit, but I wish I had. I ordered a steak and pinto bean dish that had these lovely pearl onions in it. Mark got a shrimp dish with avocado sauce. When attempting to cut the shrimp, he accidentally slung it on his shirt. Luckily, he had an extra shirt in his car, so he went out and changed. When he returned to our table, his shirt was unbuttoned three buttons. It was very cute.

The next visit, we got the queso fundido.

Now I'm not one to eat cheese dip, but this stuff is superb. Sometimes we get it without the chirizo and it's just as good. Their tortillas and tortilla chips are housemade and can't be beat.

Everything we've ordered there is really spectacular and the service is always top-notch, which is something I've never experienced in the Mexican restaurants we've visited in the past. The owner, Carlos Moncayo, is always present and is really sweet.

He once sent us a flaming mango for dessert. It was something he was trying out and wanted to get our opinion.
Our favorite dish so far has been the Filets Montes:

Not so photogenic, but really, really good. Usually Mark and I split it.

However, this last visit may have been our most successful. I got spinach enchiladas:

Mark ordered the Great Melee, or that's what he thinks it was called. It was absolutely stellar...

scallops, clams, octopus, shrimp and this wonderful tilapia - all of it grilled. It came with a really subtle, darkly-sweet sauce with a rich seafood stock base which Carlos explained was made with 8 types of seafood, including calamari. The sauce was great because it didn't overpower the seafood, but instead accented it.

Other highlights:

Veggie Fajitas

Cactus Soup

Also, Carlos is the owner of Ibiza Night Club on Old Hickory in Nashville.

Indian Food, Part II

2008-10-25T19:41:00.000-07:00

Bombay Palace

I feel as if I've committed an infidelity...

Bombay Palace is the new kid in town and it certainly gives Sitar a run for its money. First of all, the service is about a million times better. Ron (his Americanized name), the owner, went above and beyond what was expected to make us feel welcome telling us, “this back door is open for you anytime.”

I’d heard great things, but I was still reluctant to pass up a Saturday at Sitar to try this place out. We were not disappointed. Ron immediately introduced himself and brought us some pillowy fresh naan. Then there was an incredibly creamy and complex cauliflower dish, Mark thinks it was called Galoo Jobni...whatever it was, the translation was incredible cauliflower. Among other delights was a delicious cinnamon and curry dal, pakora fritters, chiken tiki masala (also amazing), and tandoori chicken which was unfortunately a bit cold, but still quite nice. Unlike Sitar, they have a separate area for salads, fruit, dessert, and chutneys. Mark really liked their raita, the yogurt hound he is and I, of course, doused all my food in the tamarind sauce. We Americans, the majority of us, like our food covered and smothered in sauce. Tamarind is my ranch dressing, kiddies.

Ron came and introduced himself to thank us for stopping by almost immediately. He made a point of asking for our names and came over a few more times during the meal to get our opinion about it all (not annoying or intrusive in any way...he could tell we were really enthusiastic about finding the place. Lord knows, we like to eat). On our way out, as we came in the back door, we passed through the kitchen and he introduced us to the "chef" Sam. He looked young and sweet-faced. I could insinuate something...but we don't talk like that about Indian cooks who make us like cauliflower regardless of our past hatred of it.

After the lovely first impression we talked some friends into revisiting on the Friday night of the David Sedaris show. Ron, sweetheart that he is, remembered our names.

We all started with soup except for Mark. Logan got this incredibly rich chicken soup, Christin got coconut milk with saffron, and I opted for tomato. I got tastes of all and they were just dandy. As with all the dishes at Bombay, the flavors are really vibrant...Sitar's fare seems, in retrospect, much blander and less fresh tasting. Ron, I guess thinking Mark felt left out, brought him some vegetable fritters.

For entrees:
Christin ordered Lamb Korma. Logan got Sag Paneer (spinach and cheese) with lamb in it. Mark was trying to find that same cauliflower dish from the other day, but settled on another one. I got the chana masala.

As mentioned earlier, the flavors are much more vibrant and multi-dimensional. Also, the presentation was quite nice.

Bombay is near Centennial Park in a strip mall that's proven toxic to lots of restaurants who've made a go of it there. Let's hope Bombay doesn't succumb to that curse. We'd like to continue to be spoiled by having two wonderful Indian eateries to choose from.

Indian Food, Part I

2008-10-24T19:38:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in an earlier post, I’m smitten with Indian food. Sitar has always been near and dear to our hearts. In fact, Mark and I ate lunch there, just the two of us, on our wedding day. We take lots of out-of-towners, including my oldest niece Kelley, who proved to be a very adventurous eater for a 10 year old. She actually liked it even though the usually pedestrian lunch buffet was extra spicy that day.

My favorite dish is the Chana Sag.

Bottom Left: The chana sag: chickpeas, spinach, tomatoes, ginger, and, I'm certain, a good amount of ghee. In the middle: Garlic Naan, Top Right: Mark's scrambled cheese dish (It's hilarious when he orders it, because the waiter inevitably asks him if he's sure he wants to order that dish. Mark has to assure him that he's had it before).

The sag is almost like a dessert if it’s made mild enough (of course, I order mine spicy). I haven’t come across it on any other menu, but then again, I haven’t been to that many Indian restaurants. We’ve also tried Woodland’s…not memorable or too very exciting. The menu is entirely vegetarian, but I almost always order vegetarian at Indian restaurants and I've found much better elsewhere.

In Portland we had the pleasure of dining at Vindalho. Oh, Vindalho. I wish we hadn’t waited until the night before leaving town to go for the first time. There were so many things I wanted to try, but we’d consistently been ordering too much food everywhere we went and we had no way of storing or reheating leftovers...What we did experience was quite nice, though.

We started with the onion rings with 4 different chutneys.
God love us, Mark and I can’t pass up fried onions (though in hindsight, I wish we'd gone with something more interesting) and dipping sauces. In this case, the dipping sauces are referred to as chutneys and they we're complex and sophisticated. We got a chutney sampler that consisted of fresh peach, tomato, date, and mint. Surprisingly, the date chutney was my favorite. I thought I hated dates.

For an entrée, we shared the Tandoori Flat-Iron Steak with chickpea and mushroom curry (you can’t keep me from the chickpeas). I didn’t realize it would be drizzled with yogurt sauce, but I was a big girl and ate it without complaint anyway. It was wonderfully tender and quite beautifully presented. Sadly, we tore into it without a thought of taking a picture beforehand. When we came to our senses, it looked like this:

Bonus Pic:
This is what happens when you imbibe the curry with wild abandon:

P.S. That's an airbrushed lamb on that t-shirt.

Decatur County Weekend

2008-10-20T17:09:00.000-07:00

Mark guest post

After seeing David Sedaris Friday night and nearly wetting ourselves with laughter we made our way westward to see the Fam.

David Sedaris (before he quit smoking)

After stopping in at the house, we made our way to Perryville, specifically the River Arts Community there. Our bro, Jeremy Gibson, was playing a set on the stage there while the local news crew got the story - Wendy and I walked about to see what we could find (Note by Wendy: I found an incredible owl clock at a yard sale, full of kitchy good vibes).

The Stage (love the rebel flag amp)

Right across the road from the stage was this lovely house, with an open front door.

Inside we met the owner of the house, Stan J. Valencis. He creates a wide variety of work: acrylics, watercolors, pastels, sculptures, and murals.

He had some sweet cats, and the whole front room of his house was a gallery and studio.

The community is cute in so many ways. Sweet little houses with murals painted on the outside.

Note the mural on the retaining wall and the tree painted to the corner of the house.

Lots of baby making in this community...

Saturday's dinner was supposed to be Giada's mushroom pasta, however, our plans were thwarted when the fam decided we needed The Rusty Fish Hook in Linden. It was a smart move in the end so that we could relax and focus on hanging out.

The conversation hilariously bounced from talk of Sarah Palin to the Girls Next Door on E! to discussion of Paula Dean's most outrageous moments. Wendy shocked everyone with the story of Paula's breakfast hamburger, topped with bacon, an egg, and most insanely replacing the bun with two glazed Krispy Kreme donuts.

"That's the most outrageous thing I've ever heard," said Lacey - without pause, "Get me a Whopper!" We all burst into laughter. She's learned that she can really milk the laughs with her impersonation of that line.

Freddy ate a huge 20oz. steak

Kelley's dramatic take on our dinner - "Hooked"

I promised the girls we'd make pasta together. When they visited us in the summer they had such a good time making pizza dough, I knew they'd love the pasta process. I was so impressed how much they remembered from the pizza dough: what ingredients we use, specifically they remembered my borrowed (from Alton Brown) explanation of how yeast "burps" and creates the air which rises the dough, and the steps of the process.

We tore a neon yellow stalk off the "bright lights" swiss chard and used it to make bright yellow pasta - using the Tom Lazzaroli method passed to me in a magical conversation at his store. Here's a slideshow of the dough-making process.

On Sunday we finally made good on the mushroom pasta:

It was so very good. Half of the fam didn't even like mushrooms, but still raved about it.

Coming Soon: Zena, a life story

2008-10-20T17:04:00.000-07:00

no pasta? must be pizza

2008-10-17T20:35:00.000-07:00

midweek meals, midweek interest

veggies sauteed in plugra and sauvignon blanc.

mark hooked up the cat toilet.

we joined an intellectual bowling league based on some ideas found here:

Andrew Summa, Ed.D., Ph.D.
Don't get me started. This guy's a saint.

Aren't you tired of cheesy pasta?

2008-10-14T19:22:00.001-07:00

For a girl who has never known her limits...um, yeah...I kinda am tired of the barrage of pasta dishes. Sorry. Maybe this will be the last horah for a little while.

Saturday night, we tried another recipe out of How to Eat Supper. This time, it was in the name of using up tomatoes (I know, you've heard it all before). The title sounds dramatic:

Cheese-Gilded Linguine with Smokey Tomatoes

What you'll need:
* 5 quarts salted water in a 6-quart pot
* Extra-virgin olive oil
* 6 thick slices bacon, sliced into 1/4-inch-wide sticks (I didn't use thick bacon)
* 1 medium to large onion, chopped into 1/4-inch dice
* Salt and fresh-ground black pepper
* 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
* 5 large garlic cloves, minced
* 2-1/2 to 3 pounds delicious ripe tomatoes, cored and fine chopped (do not peel or seed); or one 28-ounce can whole tomatoes with their liquid, plus one 14-ounce can, drained(I used one can whole and one can chopped)
* 1 pound imported linguine (We used Mark's homemade chive pasta)
* 1 generous cup fresh-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus more for the table

What you might do:
1. Make fresh pasta a la Mark Barrett

false start pasta... too sticky to be salvaged and sad about it

2. Boil then generously salt water.

3. Lightly film a straight-sided 12-inch saute pan with oil (I didn't add any oil), add the bacon, and set over medium-high heat. Saute until the bacon is golden. Remove it with a slotted spoon, setting it on paper towels to drain. Pour off all but about 3 tablespoons of the fat from the pan (We only had about 6 tablespoons total, so we transferred three into the next pan over--kale side dish, mentioned below).

4. Return the pan to the heat, and stir in the onions, salt and pepper, and red pepper flakes. Reduce the heat to medium. Sauté until the onions soften and start to color, 5 to 8 minutes.

5. Blend in the garlic, cooking for 1 minute, and then add the tomatoes. If using canned ones, crush them as they go into the pan. Stir in the cooked bacon. Bring the sauce to a lively bubble and cook until it is thick, 7 to 8 minutes, stirring to keep it from sticking. Remove from the heat, taste for seasoning, and cover the pan. The sauce can wait on the stovetop for up to an hour. Bring it to a bubble before adding it to the pasta.

6. Drop the pasta into the boiling water, and cook until it is tender but still a little firm to the bite. Drain, and turn it into a serving bowl. Toss with the 1 cup cheese until it clings to the noodles, then toss with the sauce. Serve hot, with additional cheese at the table if desired.

My process was a bit different as I was multi-tasking like the well-oiled efficient kitchen machine that I am. I sauteed a side dish of extremely well-seasoned and delicious kale (believe me, I was impressed as I haven't had much luck in the past) with baby turnips. Also, at the same time, I prepped a second recipe from the very same book for Carrie's brunch the next day:

21st Century Mac & Cheese

Here's the recipe from the book that serves 4, but we doubled it

1/2 pound (2 cups ) raw penne pasta, cooked and drained (I used organic elbows)
1 large egg
1 cup milk
1 small clove garlic (um, yeah right)
3/4 medium onion, coarsely chopped (2 onions)
1 generous cup (5 ounces) shredded good quality, extra-sharp cheddar cheese ( 1 c. Grafton's cheddar + 1 c. mixed bag of Gruyere, Pecorino Romano, and a bit more cheddar)
5 ounces cream cheese, crumbled (as the recipe was supposed to be "doubled," I didn't remember the measurements while shopping, so I only used 1 8 oz. bar of cream cheese--organic--believe me, I used to be the biggest ol' el cheapo ever, but if you're going to all this trouble anyway, what's 60 cents? I can honestly taste the difference in organic dairy and I could talk for just about forever on the subject, but I won't, maybe later)
Generous 1/8 teaspoon each hot red pepper flakes, salt, and freshly ground black pepper
Generous 1/4 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika (I was careful with the paprika this time)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter (I didn't make a crust because of time constraints)
12 saltines, coarsely crumbled (you don't need saltines if you don't opt for the crust)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter a shallow 1 1/2 quart baking dish, and add cooked macaroni.

2. In a blender or food processor combine egg, milk, and garlic, and process 3 seconds. Add onion, cheeses, peppers, salt, and paprika, and blend 10 seconds. Turn into dish, folding into macaroni. Casserole could be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated up to 24 hours at this point.

3. To bake, bring casserole close to room temperature. As mentioned earlier, I didn't make the crust because I woke up too late, but if you're good and set your alarm, you might: melt butter in a small saucepan. Coat crackers with butter and spread over top of casserole. Bake about 20 to 25 minutes, or until thick yet creamy. If top is not golden, slip under broiler for a minute. Remove from oven, let stand about 5 minutes, and serve.

Though this is my first undertaking of homemade mac and cheese, I've been around and read a few recipes and this one was different in that you don't start by making a roux, you just input everything into a food processor. I thought it questionable, but proceeded confidently knowing that Lynne and Sally wouldn't do me wrong.

As it turns out, it was quite nice:

The overabundance of cheesy noodles was due to the fact that Carrie was having a Sunday brunch. Mark's here with a montage of the highlights:

Also, here's Mark explaining to Alex how his new haircut, when the bangs are combed straight down, makes him look like Lloyd Christmas from Dumb and Dumber

For reference, the real Lloyd Christmas (in case you forgot):

It's Sunday, Pumpkin

2008-10-14T18:41:00.000-07:00

We made all this stuff on Sunday, October 5th for those of you taking notes out there.

I am absolutely besotted with Dorie Greenspan. Her blog reads like a dream. Upon seeing her post for stuffed sugar pumpkin, I knew I must make it immediately if not sooner.

I followed her recipe exactly only I added chopped parsley and chives from our garden. I would have loved to use Gruyere, my new pet cheese (I'm an amateur, I know), but I only had Grafton cheddar. It wasn't too much of a compromise.

It being Sunday, I was interested in an extended endeavor, so I thought I'd try out an idea I saw on one of my other favorite food blogs,

Last Night's Dinner. We had quite a few tomatoes that needed to be used up.

There was an incident while seasoning the polenta resulting in an overly paprika'd dish. It was okay, but the pie turned red as a result...and was a little too spicy because I'd added some chopped jalapeno (hey, we've got more of them than we know what to do with!).

The polenta pie

I had some beautiful swiss chard from the co-op, so we sauteed that up so our entire plate wasn't filled with orange. It's called "bright lights" and it lives up to its name:

Our colorful plate:

My lovely friends from Memphis, the Yarbro-Dills, sent me some excellent gifts, all arriving on my doorstep the very same day I received what may be my most favorite cookbook ever. It reads like a novel. I wish everyone I knew had a copy. I've always loved The Splendid Table gals, but I didn't know how much. I have an advanced tab system set up:
green tabs for those recipes I want to make immediately,
yellow tabs for dishes that look interesting, but can wait,
and red tabs for things I do not want to eat myself, but I'd like to make them for others (mostly egg-based dishes).

Either way, I thought it would be befitting to use the Yarbro-Dill sent apricot pistachio jam to make a super easy tart recipe from the aforementioned book.

Rustic Jam Shortbread Tart

- makes 4 to 6 servings -
Adapted from The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift.

Ingredients

Zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup whole almonds
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
Generous pinch of salt
6 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into 6 chunks
1 large egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 cup jam (tart cherry or and wild blueberry are recommended, but I used a mix of apricot pistachio and raspberry preserves)

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Butter a 9-inch round silver-colored cake or tart pan. (If using a dark-colored pan, cut baking time by 5 minutes.)

2. With food processor running, drop in the lemon zest and almonds, and grind them fine. Stop the machine, scrape down sides, and add the flour, sugar, salt, butter, egg yolk, and almond extract. Pulse until they are blended and starting to come together in small clumps at the bottom of the processor. (They should look like clusters of peas.)

3. Turn the pastry dough into the pan. With your hands, pat it to evenly cover the bottom of the pan. Give the tart a standing rim by nudging the dough 1/2 inch up the sides of the pan. Don’t worry if it looks a little ragged.

4. Bake the crust in the center of the oven for 13 to 16 minutes, or until the edges are golden and the center is starting to color. The rim will sink down a little, which is fine.

5. Remove the pan from the oven, and turn the heat up to 500°F. Carefully spread the jam over the tart, and immediately return it to the oven (don’t wait for the temperature to reach 500°F). Bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, or until the jam is bubbly.

6. Cool the tart on a rack, slice it into squares or wedges, and serve. Serve the tart warm—but not hot, because hot jam can burn.

As an added bonus, they sent this guy as well.

Thanks Yarbro-Dills!

old + new friends + muscadines - (as much) verbage

2008-10-06T19:32:00.000-07:00

Saturday was just dreamy.

Bethany’s birthday celebration rocked my socks off. We toured a small winery in Shelbyville, tasted their wares (I agree with Bethany that most were ridiculously sweet, but I bought a few bottles to give as gifts this Christmas. The red muscadine was my favorite), and had a small picnic outside under a tree. I tried and liked smoked gouda. I purchased some blackberry jam and spread it on bread with some brie...it was like buttah.

While we were all having a gay old time, little Dylan Thomas Mackin was working away in the kitchen back home. A word about the couple: Dylan and Bethany are definitely a force to be reckoned with. They both know what's up. Dylan is currently working a The Five Senses as their dessert chef.

We used to cook dinner together quite often when I lived next door to them 4 years ago. First of all, Dylan Thomas is named after Dylan Thomas, the poet, and Bethany has been one of the best friends I've ever known. She's an encouraging type. She was and is a sweet baby...& you have no hope in beating her at Scrabble.

Dylan produced a veggie dish and a fish dish. We decided to get one of each so we could try everything. Here's the set list:

The main course was simple and amazing: Salmon, or crusted, mixed-mashed bean fillets, with asparagus, mashed potatoes, and buttery melted tomatoes. The salmon was amazingly cooked, just rare enough but not too much. The texture couldn't be beat. It, also, was like buttah. The bean fillet tasted like the best meat loaf I've ever had. The crunchy outside combined with the crunchy peppers and onions inside in a beautiful way. The texture was 100% perfect on both plates. Sometimes I think that's the most important part of a meal for me.

And DESSERT!!! Oh my. Thai Basil Ice Cream with a dab of caramel on cranberry apple cobbleresqueness...

This meal was truly sexual to me and I felt as if I just needed to lie on the couch and cuddle afterward...However, there were games to be played.

Mark's here with the commentary:
I have to say, our team was pretty stacked - Wendy, James, and myself. Wendy was a real sleeper competitor, providing clutch answers to my charades performances: what other team could guess "short-order cook" and "Queen Elizabeth" in less than 10 seconds? James provided great spatial intelligence skills, rendering very effective drawings, with or without sight, that enabled us to take an early lead - Yes, I'm still gloating. We won, and hopefully Bethany will send us the photos of our victory poses soon.

Overall, the night was sweet. I made fast friends with Bethany's new bandmate Susan. Every so often I meet someone and I feel as if we are kismitly (now an adverb!) linked. We made up a very successful (in my opinion) conceptual dance involving a windmill motion and a rolly chair. I hope I get to see them all again soon.

This may be my favorite pic of the night.

Name Changed to Protect the Innocent

2008-10-06T17:39:00.000-07:00

I had to drop Skinny Cooks Can't Be Trusted. I don't want to be associated with this:

Beef Hangover

2008-10-03T17:31:00.000-07:00

Pretty much all of last week was lackluster in the kitchen. We got knee-deep in a bunch of beef without really meaning to. It started out with the burgers from last Saturday. We had some leftover sirloin and I figured we’d just use it in some ghetto spaghetti or something (I knew we’d be busy bees this week and I’ve been kind of easing off the food reading for a couple of days, trying to focus on my thesis). Monday we had leftover burgers. Mark had purchased, with my encouragement, a lamb burger stuffed and studded with feta and spinach. I’m so silly; I can’t bring myself to eat lamb,* but I often think of fixing it for Mark because I know he loves it so.

*(I’ve tasted it, but it’s just hard for me to swallow…pun intended? I’ve seen too many of those little pamphlets about how lambs are treated…I mean, I know that depending on where you buy your meat, pretty much any animal you eat has a fair chance of being prodded inappropriately or worse, I don’t even want to know, but lamb… lambs = sweet baby Jesus and, though the Baptist may have been leached out of me, I still can’t think of eating lamb and enjoying it…we’ll see what happens though, I think I need a food sherpa and I’m accepting applications).

On Tuesday, our neighbor Lisa asked us to “check in” on her son, Dakota. Mark’s been giving him drum lessons for a little while now and they’ve developed a sweet friendship. Mark’s idea was to have a shortened lesson and bring Dakota over to help out with dinner. I mistakenly said we could have tacos or ghetto spaghetti, and Dakota naturally leaned towards tacos, but we didn’t have enough meat, only enough for about 3 tacos probably. No matter how much I sweet talked the idea of spaghetti to them, their little faces still registered disappointment. So Mark and Dakota ran to Kroger and got more beef – Ugh. Mark and I had committed to a limited amount of grocery trips/expenditures this week, but it was okay, because this was a special occasion. We’ve never had Dakota over and I was really trying to be mindful of an 8th graders tastes. We made ghetto tacos and then Mark and Dakota played Nintendo Wii while I worked upstairs until Lisa came home. It all worked out, but we got stuck with too much beef. Our bowels have not really forgiven us yet.

I finally got some of the last sweet corn from a little produce stand near where I work. I made a lovely little salad to take for lunch:

It’s a tahini dressing, thinned hummus basically with some raw corn kernels, red onion, spinach, and some scallions.

Pop Culture to the Rescue

2008-09-29T18:04:00.000-07:00

Dr. Lavery allowed me to love TV again.

this post is sprinkled with fun clips not necessarily referenced in this post

Like many a college student, when I reached the age of reason I had to rebel against, well, everything I could. When I realized the influence of mass media on my ideology, on politics, and especially on American Culture, I felt repulsed by the idea that I was being contaminated by forces larger than me which were driven by money.

Daily Show from Oct. 2007 - Republican Black Issues Debate

This reflected a very narrow view of mass media, and it was not without value or principal, but just as when I wore a mohawk, stopped showering, and stopped wearing deodorant because I had heard it would give me cancer - I was overreacting.

Mohawk Days - circa 2004

What has come with maturity is a discerning eye which I can use to effectively navigate the popular culture I want to participate in. First of all I'm a political junkie, and so finding information that's truly valuable takes work, and also requires the synthesis of many different sources - for fun, I love to watch the Daily Show, Colbert Report, and Countdown with Keith Olbermann, but not as news sources. Usually I've already studied for myself everything discussed in their shows, and I consider them all to be entertainment.

An Entry in Stephen Colbert's "Make McCain Interesting Greenscreen Challenge"

Today's media is so fragmented and personalized that we can find the voices we want to speak to us. This cuts both ways in the sense that we endanger our cultural-political perspectives with insulated sources of information. But, it's also amazing to know that We can find hundreds of local and national food bloggers to inspire our kitchen ambitions.

Thank You Dr. Lavery for helping me shake the too-cool-for-school routine and embrace what is beautiful about American Culture.

Visit Dr. Lavery's Blog |- The Laverytory -|

Week In Review - Sept. 22-26

2008-09-27T19:20:00.000-07:00

Although poor little Marky is still suffering from his tooth troubles, the cooking must go on...

Monday was a recipe we've made so many times, I don't have to reference it anymore.

Veggie Chili
Adapted from Rachel Ray

2 tablespoons (2 turns around the pan) olive or vegetable oil
1 medium yellow skinned onion, chopped
1 large red pepper, seeded and chopped (sometimes I use frozen pepper blends when red bells are $5 a piece)
1 large green pepper, seeded and chopped
1 large jalapeno pepper, chopped
garlic cloves (at least 4), crushed and chopped
1 cup dark beer (I love to use Dos Perros by Nashville's Yazoo brewery or Shipyard's Pumpkin Ale) or vegetable stock/broth
1 (32- ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 (14-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (14-ounce) can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 half palm full of ground cumin
1 palm full of yr favorite chili powder
hot sauce
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 15 oz. can spicy vegetarian refried beans

We turn the stove to a good 6 1/2 to 7 and combine onion, peppers, and garlic in our 5-quart cast iron dutch oven. Saute for 3 to 5 minutes to soften vegetables. Deglaze pan with beer or broth, add tomatoes, black beans, red kidney beans, stirring to combine...

Season chili with cumin, chili powder, hot sauce, and salt. Thicken chili by stirring in refried beans. Simmer over low heat about 5 to 10 minutes longer, then serve up bowls of chili and top with shredded sharp cheddar and any number of other things you might have on hand. Our favorites are: scallions, cilantro, pickled jalapenos, avocado, fresh tomatoes (if you have them), extra dashes of hot sauce (if you're me. I swear, I have no taste buds left. I used to scold my friend Dylan for the very same thing), sour cream (if you're Mark and can't get enough white dairy). Sometimes we crumble in tortilla chips.

As many times as we've made it, we never tire of this stuff. I've made it during the middle of sweltering July heat and we've relished it just as much. We often make double batches and freeze some for later. It comes in very handy on Monday nights, usually our laziest time in the kitchen.

Thursday we improvised with the leftover noodles Mark made on Saturday. He chopped the sheets of sage peppercorn pasta into linguine-like strips while I made the sauce.

I got the idea from here, realizing we had leftover cream in the fridge.

Pasta with Creamy Tomato Sauce
An Adaptation

3 tablespoons butter
4 strips of bacon, diced and cooked in a separate skillet
1 onion, diced
1 bay leaf
Salt
Pinch of red pepper flakes
garlic cloves (at least 3), minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
5 oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained, rinsed, patted dry and chopped (3 tablespoons)
1/4 plus 2 tablespoons dry white wine
2 15 oz. cans tomatoes (I had 1 15 oz. can of Muir Glen fire roasted and a 15 oz. can of Hunt's diced with jalepeno)
leftover fresh pasta or 1 lb. cooked pasta of your choice
1/2 cup heavy cream
Ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
Grated Parmesan cheese

The original recipe had ridiculous measurements. I hate it when a recipe calls for an odd amount of canned substance, i.e., 1 cup diced tomatoes....No. What do you do with the remainder? Throw them out? Painstakingly put them away in the fridge? Um, no. So I use whole cans when I use them and adjust the seasoning accordingly. When I first starting cooking for myself, I was always intimidated by the recipe, abiding by it completely, but now, I almost always only use the recipe as a guideline. The rest is determined by what ingredients I have on hand and what kind of mood I'm in. With that being said, here's the process:

1. Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add cooked bacon, onion, bay leaf, pepper flakes, and 1/4 teaspoon salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft and beginning to turn golden, 8 to 12 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high, add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomato paste and sun-dried tomatoes and cook, stirring constantly, until slightly darkened, 1 to 2 minutes. Add 1/4 cup wine (or veg broth in my case) and cook, stirring frequently, until liquid has evaporated, 1 to 2 minutes.

2. Add tomatoes and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to low, partially cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thickened, 25 to 30 minutes.

3. Remove bay leave from sauce and discard. Stir in cream, remaining 2 tablespoons crushed tomatoes, and remaining 2 tablespoons wine or broth/stock; season to taste with salt and pepper. Add pasta to sauce. Stir in basil and serve immediately. Add fresh Parmesan, if desired.

This was a success, but I don't know if we'd make it again. It was too creamy for my taste. However, I was very happy to use up the rest of those noodles. It was a lovely twist that made this dish.

That same night, Mark chose (rather ambitiously in my opinion) to make some bread. He's live with the story here:

Mark's Cheesy Bacon Bread Endeavor

from Jamie Oliver via Sass and Veracity

I'm trying to branch out in the dough crafts, so when Wendy showed me this awesome recipe from the blog Sass and Veracity I knew I had to make it.

Bread dough has a different feel altogether and it was a lot of fun to make. If you follow her recipe here, my process was basically the same except I used FOUR TIMES THE BACON and a lot more cheese. The kitchen was ransacked afterward because I didn't prepare very well, but when it was all said and done, we had a house that smelled like delicious bacon a beautiful loaf of cheesy, smokey bacon bread.

Thanks, Mark. Truth be told, the oven was left on overnight and I woke up in a sweltering heat. Luckily, he didn't kill me and my cat in the name of his dough endeavors. Yet, quite nicely, the house has smelled like bacon ever since....and why aren't there bacon scented candles yet?

Oh, good Lord in heaven, I love me some bacon. I've been reading tons and tons of recipes for bacon as dessert...my favorite of which can be found here . Well, today at the Whole Foods, I ate a rather fine piece of chocolate:

It was indescribably good in its texture and taste. Don't question it until you think long and hard about it (e.g., waffle + bacon + maple syrup, is it not a dessert?).

The meat continues, kids. Go ahead, hide your eyes.

2 p.m. Saturday

We proceeded to purchase 2 lbs. ground sirloin and make some pretty incredible burgers.

I've recently become obsessed with Tamarind chutney. Luckily, I live next door to an Indian grocery store. I love this place. I will not describe it right now because this post has already exceeded it's limits, but maybe later.

Anyway, we made the best burgers ever.

I was inspired, yet again, by a post over at The Bitten Word.

I composed a sauce of 1 1/2 c. water, 1/2 c. of mandolined ginger (too much ginger if you were chopping by hand--luckily I found a mandolin last week at the TJ Maxx), honey, ketchup, tamarind concentrate, chipotle chiles, smashed garlic and cider vinegar in my smallest sauce pan. Once it reached a boil, I turned down the heat and simmered it over low until it was thickened (20 minutes).

In the meantime, Mark prepared the toppings by tearing some lettuce, slicing an heirloom tomato we'd purchased (the first we've bought since June, as I remember it), and setting out the condiments. He also took a moment to say hello to an unexpected guest in our garden that he spotted scaling a tree root:

a turtle friend

I made an aluminum foil packet of mandolined onions, chopped poblano pepper (it really had to be used or thrown away at this point), and topped it with a small pat of butter and some additional tamarind sauce. This went on the grill when the burgers did.

It all turned out rather beautifully as you can tell:

-Mark's burger

Although I detest mayo, I must say it's quite beautiful in this presentation that you'll see below...though it kept me from sharing our usual dishtowel napkin during the meal.

He had to have a separate one as I wasn't about to be exposed to that business.

Tommy Noodles and accidental mini-party

2008-09-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was pretty phenomenal though I didn’t expect much from it as I had class (which is lovely, but very draining as it’s 16 hours of instruction piled on top of each other) and I wasn’t feeling well.

We hadn’t seen Shane and Sarah in more than a week, so we’d planned to have them over for dinner Saturday night…that turned into "Sam is coming into town," so she and Randy were invited as well…then, to my delight, little Alex and his friend (and my new friend) Carrie…then we got a surprise call from Dylan and Bethany who we never get to see. I was so excited when they called, I was literally screaming for Mark to tell them to come. Luckily they were in Nashville, so there we had it, our own little impromptu dinner party.

I knew I wanted to make the Butternut Squash lasagna recipe in the new issue of Martha Stewart Living. *Sorry, Martha, but according to Joy Ramirez, lasagne is actually the correct spelling because, “the word in Italian means the layers of pasta itself, which would be plural and ending in e rather than singular, which would be lasagna.”

Mark was over in east Nashville that morning and I had asked him to pick up some fresh ricotta from Lazzaroli's. He’ll regale you with the fascinating tale:

The first time I walked into Lazzaroli's, it was a surreal experience. I wasn't a foodie in any way at this point, (still in the baby stages of earning stars on my apron) but it was impossible not to be impressed by all the imported goodies, fresh made cheeses, and especially the strikingly unique raviolis: I picked up some pumpkin ravs, also some goat cheese and pear on my last visit. In contrast to the magnificent food was a touch of the stereo-typical Italian movie-star worship - autographed photos of Sylvester Stallone, Al Pacino, and Robert De Niro

Inside Lazzaroli's

I was there on this first visit to pick up some fresh pasta - I put it on the counter to purchase and it was my first face-to-face with Tom "Tommy Noodles" Lazzaroli:

"No Sauce?" he said with some disdain in his voice.

"Oh, we're going to make our own," I replied.

"Well, you better, because if you put that sugary store bought shit on these noodles, you're wasting my time and yours."

It had been almost a year since that hilarious first encounter, and in that time, I have grown into a dough-making enthusiast. So when Wendy requested I go to Lazzaroli's to pick up some fresh ricotta, I was really excited to bring up my recent experiences, seeking his guidance (and approval), and see what I could learn to improve on my skills.

When I walked in, it was a similar treatment - like the "soup nazi" (without extremism) Tom is the kind of guy who does quality control on his customers, testing with questions to make sure they will respect his work/their ingredients, or get an earful first perhaps. I immediately launched into "talking shop" by revealing my plan to make lasagna - "Oh, making your own noodles, eh...making your own sauce? 'atta boy...you know if you get too good at this, I'll put you to work."

He proceeded to hook me up with some awesome flour in an unmarked bag which resulted in my best noodles yet. Here is my noodle process, this time with Tom tips:

Sage Noodles with Cracked Pepper

2 cups flour from "unmarked bag"
3 lrg. eggs (in my case I used 5 medium organics from Hohenwald, TN)

some sage - yeah, it's not very precise, I would just say about 4-6 oz.
1 T olive oil
lots of cracked pepper

Put the cups of flour in your mixing bowl, if you have a Kitchen Aid mixer then you're so set, but otherwise you will have to incorporate the wet ingredients manually with a wooden spoon or something like it. Fill the palm of your hand with peppercorns to measure, then place these in a coffee grinder. After obliterating them into dusty chunks, add them to the flour and turn on your mixer to kind of aerate the flour and evenly distribute the pepper.

Chop up some sage finely. I got some at Krogers in the produce section by the salad dressings and organic veggies. Throw them in the blender by themselves and use the blender to chop them a little further. Add the eggs and olive oil and blend like crazy.

Now it's adding time - slowly pour a little bit at a time and watch the flour bead into mini dough balls. Continue this process for 20 minutes, slowly letting the pasta come together until it suddenly crosses that breaking point and clumps into one ball. You want to err on the side of too dry because it's easy to add more mixture, or water if it happens to be too dry after all your mixture is gone. If you get it sticky, you're screwed - mostly. It's just so hard to incorporate flour.

Now you go through my pasta rolling process laid out in previous posts. Have fun.

Butternut Squash and Sage Lasagna
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living October 2008.

Serves 10 very generously with some leftovers.

* 3 1/2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch pieces
* 1 Vidalia onion, sliced into thin half-moons
* 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
* Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
* 1 pound whole-milk ricotta cheese
* 1/2 cup heavy cream
* 1 large egg yolk
* fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
* Freshly grated nutmeg
* Hazelnuts, chopped
* garlic
* 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
* 1 package fresh sage leaves, coarsely chopped (minus whatever Mark used in the pasta noodles)
* 1 1/4 cups organic veggie stock
* Fresh Lasagna Noodles cut into 4-by-13-inch strips and cooked
* grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Toss squash, onion, oil, and 1 teaspoon salt on a baking sheet. Season with pepper. Bake until light gold and tender, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool.
2. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees. Combine ricotta, cream, egg yolk, hazelnuts, and nutmeg in a medium bowl. Season with salt. Have Dylan taste it for seasoning and texture.
3. Melt butter in a small sauté pan over medium-high heat. As soon as it starts to sizzle, add sage, and cook until light gold and slightly crisp at edges, 3 to 4 minutes.
4. Place squash and onion in food processor bowl and puree. Gently stir in sage-butter mixture and stock. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Spread ricotta mixture in the bottom of the baking dish, top with a layer of noodles, then butternut squash mixture, then sprinkle of cheeses. Repeat layering until you’ve filled the dish. Top with rounds of fresh mozzarella.

6. Bake until cheese is golden and bubbling, 30 to 35 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

The hazelnuts made the texture quite lovely. If I were to make a vegan version, I would puree some tofu, add hazelnuts and some sort of acid (lemon zest and juice or some kind of vinegar).

After our bellies were filled, we played a game of Taboo which has come to be a favorite activity of ours when we have guests over (exactly how old are we?).

Vulgar Bulgar Soy Joes

2008-09-22T18:01:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in my previous post, this week has been fairly virtuous in my kitchen efforts.

It's been "no recipes" week. I read and study recipes so much that I should be able to carry something out freehand at this point. Monday we made some excellent meatless sloppy joes using TN made Soysage. We loved the Snobby Joes from Veganomicon, so we figured we’d try these guys out.

Vulgar Bulgur Soy Joes
This recipe is dedicated to Darlene Connor. Darlene, I sure wish you could have grown up eating my loose meat sandwiches instead of Rosanne’s.

1 15 oz can of organic tomato sauce
1 4 oz can of organic tomato paste
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 poblano pepper, chopped
1 jalapeño pepper (we have more of these than we know what to do with)
1 Vidalia onion, chopped
garlic, amount up to you
½ package of soysage
1 c. bulgur
Oregano
Hungarian smoked paprika
Homemade chili powder

Sautée the peppers, onions, and garlic in a cast iron skillet. Add soysage, breaking it up as much as possible. Once everything is slightly softened, add various spices and cook for a few minutes. Add tomato paste, mix well, and then add sauce. After it simmered for a while, I adjusted the seasoning…you guess it, I added hot sauce. This kind this time. The mixture looked pretty thin, so I decided to thicken it by stirring in some bulgur.

A note about bulgur: its one my new favorite grains. It’s incredibly easy and quick to prepare and the texture is wonderful. To prepare it, I poured about a cup into a mid-sized bowl (in this case, I didn’t season the bulgur itself, because it was going into an already seasoned dish. If you want or need to, add whatever seasoning you like at this point), filled the teakettle and set it on high heat. Once it’s whistling, add enough water to cover the bulgur, cover the bowl with a dishtowel and let it sit for about ten minutes. Test for texture, I like mine real chewy. Most of the water should be absorbed, if it’s slushy still, just drain it.

After I added the bulgur, I turned the heat to low and let it sit and marry together a little while we cleaned up and got the bread and toppings together. I toasted some mini Sweet Hawaiian rolls and chopped up some red onion (to the consistence of those little darlings that adorn Krystal burgers). We had some baby Romas that needed to be eaten, so we sliced those as well.
Finished product (we used up the rest of the mustard slaw—the longer that stuff sits, the more I looooove it):

After dinner, I was still hopped up on coffee and not ready to resign myself to the couch for the night (very out of the ordinary for me), so I packed some leftovers for our lunches the next day, marinated the chicken for the next night, and made a red pepper dressing for these veggie wraps I get at The Food Company. I’ve eaten the Veggie # 2 for lunch at least once a week since I’ve started working at Lipscomb. There’s a ton of spinach expertly wrapped in there with lots of other goodies. The texture can’t be beat. And the sidecar of red pepper lime dressing is good enough to drink on its own…and vegan, as all dressings should be.

I tried my hand at creating my own version at home using a new wedding gift. Yes, due to the unconventional nature of our nuptials, we’re still receiving the odd gift here and there. I’m not sold on these little prep machines, but this one I think we’ll keep. It’s perfect for small projects and really works unlike the others I’ve tried.

The dressing was surprisingly identical to the Food Company version. I was pretty excited. I got out the juicer (it’s really not hard to clean it, so I should use it more often) and juiced some lemons and limes. I added the lemon juice to the chicken marinade and added the lime juice to the food processor bowl, which already contained a small jar of roasted red peppers. I added a touch of olive oil, black pepper, two teaspoons of honey, and a few dashes of chipotle hot sauce. I blended that up and it was very near perfect in my eyes. I haven’t made one of the veggie wraps yet, but I’m sure it’ll be great.

As for the chicken marinade, I added the lemon juice, as I mentioned earlier, and some Gingerly vinaigrette, garlic, parsley, and black pepper.

I was in super overachiever mode at this point, so I went ahead and made the dressing for tomorrow night’s salad as well mixing the freshly squeezed lemon juice with olive oil, chopped parsley, garlic, and salt and pepper. It was a little too lemony, so I added some veggie broth we had in the fridge. It was quite lovely. I’ve never been able to master dressings and sauces. I must say that I’ve had more success this week than ever in my culinary adventures.

Tuesday night, Mark grilled the chicken on our tiny little grill while I composed a simple salad in attempt to replicate the salads we get at Kalamatas. I tore up some romaine, sliced some kalamata olives, one of our Celebrity tomatoes, some feta, and a few banana peppers from our garden. We added the dressing and a little bit at a time (it was very liquidy, but it was light and lovely to my tastes). I had some pickled pepperocinis with mine. It was very satisfying. I was proud of us for eating salad for dinner: that never happens in our house. We’re a couple of children. If it doesn’t have melted cheese, generally, we’re not filling our bellies with it.

Sadly, I’ve come to realize that I hate vinegar. I know that’s a crazy pervasive statement, but it’s true. The last couple of vinegars I’ve purchased, I tasted at Whole Foods before I bought them. I thought I’d picked a lovely fruity balsamic…but I can’t stand adding but a tiny touch to anything. Maybe I’ll grow out of it.

Until then, I’ve resigned myself to creating dressings with citrus.

Fast forward: It's Monday and I've continued with my good habits of last week. We had the most lovely little weekend...Jenny Lewis and an impromptu dinner party at our place on Saturday. Details to follow.

In Retrospect

2008-09-22T16:26:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I write stuff and I'm too lazy to post it on the actual day I wrote it as evidenced below:

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

I have a pair of navy blue corduroy pants. When I wear said pants, all the world is right and good and as it should be. I have not been able to fit myself in to those pants for some time now. This week, with the empowering cooler weather, I took that into account. I've had a very virtuous and forward-thinking week so far. Until today.

My first thought when waking up was that I was horribly hung over. It was one of those nascent, unthinking times of morning when you can think all sorts of things. I was also convinced that it was Xena's fault that the alarm clock wasn't set for 7:30 a.m. In reality, I hadn't had so much as a Tylenol PM the night before…in fact, I'd only drank water yesterday. As it turns out, I'm suffering from sinus ickyness.

I should have known it was coming. My friend Christin was complaining about the very same aches and sore throat the night before at dinner. That's another thing: dinner was delectable, but all but sabotaged my perfect streak of eating virtuously. We were originally going to go to PM which had some lovely offerings that fit beautifully into my plan…but because it was crazy busy (due, probably, to the fact that it's Nashville Originals week and they had a special prix fixe deal going on), so we all decided to go to Mafiaoza's. No. NO. No. I proceeded to eat fried cheese and a pizza entitled "The Last Request." I did, however, put my foot down to Mark and Christin about the salami, though. No salami or Italian sausage. They're of the devil. I wouldn't eat them if they were completely calorie free and loaded with antioxidants.

So I've been working out really hard every day this week…sweatin' it out on my elliptical in the office listening to old podcasts of The Writer's Almanac and New Yorker Fiction, taking the occasional walk with the husband after dinner. As I have class tonight and tomorrow night from 5 p.m. – 9 p.m. (basically I just leave my office on the third floor and report to a classroom on the first floor), I was supposed to get up at 7:30 today, ellipticize and go about my day. But I feel icky and didn't even want to stand to wait for the trolley this morning (long story—basically, parking on campus is non-existent for faculty and staff, quite the debacle). Oh well, I have been good this week. I'm sure two pieces of pizza and a cheese stick won't do me in for all eternity.

It's just that I was riding this wave of positivism…and those come about less and less for me in my old age. You can't mess with it in its embryonic stages. I've been really sweet to myself this week, not allowing any negative thoughts about myself or my body to creep through. I've felt really comfortable in my skin knowing that, though I might think I'm gross now, I'm effecting change in a positive manner.

Next time I will put my foot down and say, "No cheese tonight, children, we're going to Jason's Deli." That's the thing, though, there are so many great healthy places to eat around here, and I have it so much better than when I was in high school and junior high. In Parsons, I could only eat at Subway or, if I were in a restaurant that I didn't choose, I'd just eat chicken and a naked baked potato (not even salt). I would, however, indulge in a side of BBQ sauce that I’m sure was loaded with high fructose corn syrup. The point being, I have tons of healthy, non-depriving options around here, I just have to be an assertive little brat as I was in those days. Also, I'm lucky in that I've always had fairly healthy taste, so I don't really feel deprived when I'm eating well. It's the cheese and liquid calories that do me in.

Corn Soup

2008-09-14T16:56:00.000-07:00

I'm a compulsive list maker. The act of writing and organizing a list almost gives me as much satisfaction as if I'd actually completed all that was outlined in them. I'm an avid collector of lists…those found in grocery carts or in store aisles. They're little self-contained character sketches.

The other night after I posted the previous blog, I made a list of all the things we've made and documented in the last little while that I'd still like to post about and a list of things I'm excited about making for the first time and the requisite posts to follow as a result. I'm going to start with this ridiculously simple corn soup recipe…well, simple if you have one of these guys.

Corn, next to tomatoes, may be my favorite summer vegetable. All through this last little spurt of not-cooking, I've been thinking about all the corn I'm missing…how pretty soon it's going to be back to only what Kroger can afford me in the way of corn that's nothing compared to the sweetness of locally grown Peaches & Cream or Silver Queen corn that's so abundant at our Farmer's market during the summer.

When preparing corn, I eat quite a few raw chunks because of their pure and unadulterated sweetness. The cat and I love corn. She's never showed any interest in human food until one day…I brought home an armload of corn; set it on the kitchen table and she went crazy. I tried to take pictures, but she's writhes around so crazily, they never come out right using my dinky little point and shoot.

She doesn't try to eat it; rather she rubs her face against it and kind of half bites at it. It's adorable, really, but I'm pretty biased. Now every time I bring home corn, I tear off a little strip of husk for her to cart around the house for a while.

So, this corn soup is really only corn and butter and whatever garnishes you like:

Creamy Corn Soup
Lifted straight from Everyday Food

Ingredients

16 ears of yellow corn stripped from the cob
4 tablespoons of butter (cut into small pieces)
1 tablespoon of coarse salt

Garnishes:

Tortilla chips
Lime wedges
Scallions
Chives (from our garden, as seen above)
Hot sauce

1. Remove husks and silks from corn. Holding ears in a large bowl, slice off kernels (to yield about 10 cups). When slicing corn from cobs, work in a deep bowl to catch the kernels and any juices. In two batches, puree kernels and accumulated juices with a total of 2 cups water until chunky.
2. In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, cook pureed corn, butter, 4 cups water, and salt until butter is melted and soup is heated through, 5 minutes.
3. Serve hot, garnished with tortilla chips, lime wedges, and sliced scallions, as desired. Or let cool, then freeze in individual servings; reheat over medium-low.

If and when I do get some corn in the near future, I've been inspired by a post over on Vegan Crunk to make a raw corn soup. I intend to puree corn with jalapeño, red pepper, cilantro, and a healthy dose of freshly Jack LeLanned lime juice, maybe an avocado to thicken it or some coconut milk…the same concept, only rawer and slightly healthier.

P.S. I've taken to reserving the naked corncobs in a big zip lock in the freezer for use in future homemade veggie stocks.

Euphemisms

2008-09-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry friends, but this one is political in part, so cover your eyes if you don't appreciate "liberal scum" like me.

-This post is by Mark + Zena

Euphemisms are an everyday linguistic device. I use them a lot because I'm a naturally encouraging kind of person who verbally nudges people towards optimism and hope - Ha! But I also have a tendency to oversell the high points of a situation that might otherwise be typical, or even bad.

Take McDonald's food for example. Oh, I don't "euphe-o-mize" their food, but truly they are always sticking to this linguistic device in an attempt to suck in those-who-know-better to try their newly introduced items. Like in this McSkillet Burrito commercial, the operative adjectives are found at "...goodness of a Sunday Morning breakfast in a..."

I think you see what I mean. Words like "home style" being used as an adjective - What is that supposed to mean?

It's almost like there is some unspoken rule about food advertising that new products need a minimum of three adjectives describing them: "A home style, sit-down, Sunday Morning breakfast, hand-wrapped to go"

It's like when a Beer commercial stresses "superior drinkability"- do they have nothing else to exclaim?

Recently, we've noticed Pizza Hut and Hardee's taking a similar approach with their advertising, doing hidden camera spots inside "real restaurants", to market their "tuscani"-pasta dishes and $6 gourmet burgers respectively. Both play on the idea that they aren't real restaurants themselves, except Pizza Hut has the boldness to exclaim their new product is "restaurant quality". I can hardly call that a euphemism when it's so self-deprecating.

George Carlin's piece "advertising" is a brilliant take on language and euphemisms which will further my point.

The most dangerous euphemisms however are political. Politicians love to substitute a euphemism to muddy the waters of a debate or make themselves feel better about taking a hideously wrong position.

Jon Stewart explains some of the bigger political euphemisms of the Bush administration in this clip from early August when the Bush administration was trying to negotiate an "aspirational time horizon" with Iraq - not a timetable for withdrawal.

The idea is to create confusion in the populous, most people don't look deeper. Also, even after giving the order to do so, W can ask his legal counsel to write the laws, redefine and rename the procedures, and thus create plausible deniability - Water boarding may be torture, or maybe not. So George Bush can continue to say publicly "we don't torture", while knowingly giving the Geneva Conventions a big middle finger.

- Trust me, waterboarding is torture

"But these are terrorists, these are people who tried to kill Americans and who want to do us harm!"

If you believe this, then maybe you don't care that our country tortures captive prisoners. However, on many occasions prisoners have been released, innocent of any connection to Al Qaeda, just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Which is why in our own country, until the passage of the Patriot Act (another euphemism for a bogus law), we upheld the writ of Habeus Corpus to protect people from wrongful imprisonment.

After seeing "The Road to Guantanamo", which chronicles the captivity at Guantanamo of 3 British citizens who were in Afghanistan for a wedding shortly after 9/11 and were captured while fleeing from the country as it was bombed, I realized what's most at stake. They had ID on them, but were held for 2 years, interrogated regularly, and then finally released without charge.

When we do to our prisoners that which China would do, we lose our moral authority in the world and let all other countries we might otherwise hold accountable off the hook. It creates an international ripple that allows Syria, Lebanon, and more to say to themselves "Well, the US did it, so why can't we?" It's very simple, if we don't hold ourselves to a standard, how can we ask that of others. Ex: where does the lack of moral authority come from in this quote?

This is all besides the fact that torture gives us terrible information and breeds more hatred towards our nation. It's really a no-brainer, further proof that there is plausible deniability for the existence of a brain in the Bush administration.

Why was Nixon impeached? And something so egregious as the complete dismantling of this major legal principle isn't enough for George Bush to rot in jail?--- Yet, mind you, because torture breaks international law, and no Presidential pardon can save this administration from another country which should choose to prosecute -- (Somebody please?)

Thank God that, at least on this one issue, John McCain is different from the Bush administration. It goes without saying that Barack Obama, a constitutional lawyer and law professor, understands what's at stake fully and completely.

Tooth + Noodle

2008-09-11T18:22:00.000-07:00

We haven’t been doing much cooking in the Barrett-French house since Mark had his last baby tooth surgically removed Monday. I thought I might recap last week’s stellar endeavor: spinach pasta with random veggie sauce.

I had some squashes from the co-op that we’re about to exceed their best by date. I sautéed them with onion, tons of garlic, carrot, red pepper, and a banana pepper (from our garden). The last of our summer matos were piling up, so I cut them up and added them after the veggies were a little soft. I threw in some pesto cubes I’d frozen after ravaging my basil plant one Sunday afternoon (I like to spend a few hours in the kitchen on Sundays. Yes, I love the cooking, but I like to hear This American Life. Oddly, I’ve realized that through this endeavor, I have heard Car Talk inadvertently each week for years! It’s comforting to me to hear it, because I’ve made such a habit of it).

I digress. Anyway, I sautéed the veggies, poured in the tomatoes, added some organic veggie broth and seasonings, put the lid on and let it simmer on low for a couple of minutes. At the last minute, I mixed in some frozen baby peas and parm. Meanwhile, Mark worked on making the infamous chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon. I swear, I’ve seen these guys on a million food blogs. He mashed some chick peas with some olive oil, added vital wheat gluten, some spices, and made them into a dough of sorts, then cut them into cutlets (oh how I detest that word). Poor Mark didn’t mind his recipe (partly my fault as well) and we ended up with something like an overcooked McNugget. Well, I guess we’ve figured out what we’ll feed the nieces on their next visit.

We'll definitely try these again, but next time we'll make them the focus of the meal rather than an afterthought.

The pasta, on the other hand, was fab. Very fresh tasting as the veggies were still a little crunchy.

I took some to my friend and coworker Katie the next day and she raved about it. I do this from time to time to sort of test our palates. Mark and I like everything we make, but I often wonder if it’s a little too garlicy or too something. So Katie’s my guinea pig. Thanks, KT!

This past weekend was our yearly family reunion at Nathan Bedford Forrest state park in Camden, TN. I think it’s so hilarious and ironic that it's the grand wizard’s park. I’ve attended this shindig each year since birth (only missing one for a Bright Eyes show back in 2001). The first time I went I was merely two weeks old. I always look forward to it. Saturday is a fish fry, Sunday is a big pot luck followed by a raffle that raises money for renting the lodge the next year. There are a lot of miscellaneous prizes, but the best are the home sewn quilts made by various family members throughout the year. There’s also a candy jar contest in which everyone guesses the number of candies and the closest guess wins the jar…the winner is given the responsibility of bringing the jar back filled and counted for next year's contest.

For the occasion, I made mustard slaw (adapted from David Rosengarten’s recipe) and a strawberry cream cheese cake for the occasion.

We love seeing our favorite cousins (I have no idea how they’re actually kin to me) Frank & Joy. They’re lovely conversation. It’s pretty overwhelming, though, because there are so many people there and I don’t really know many of them anymore. Anyway, the car ride was long and full of giggling children.

From Blogger Pictures

I did, however, witness a snake killing. An unnecessary and saddening experience. It was like watching a train wreck: you can’t look away. Pretty soon after arriving, my youngest niece, Lacy, said she’d seen a snake under the small bridge next to the lodge area. Well, word got around and these three grown men proceeded to poke it with sticks even after it’d retreated. I was kind of expecting the snake to come out and bite them on the face Snakes on a Plane style, but alas, they just kept poking at it until it ran out from under the bridge to hide under a rock. Then one of them pinned it down with a piece of aluminum siding, took out his pocket knife and cut it’s head off…a very intimate and disturbing killing to witness. Its head was still attached and its tail was still writhing. By this time, someone had retrieved one of those litter grabbers and he picked the snake up and carried it around and showed it to everyone. Grr.

We’re going to be away this weekend as well. It’s Mark’s mom, whom I affectionately refer to as Deej's 50th birthday. She’s planned a party for herself (because no one else would do it right, she’s said) in Cincinnati. Looks like I’ll be missing Car Talk kitchen time again this week. And next weekend I have class Thursday-Saturday…Sunday is Conor Oberst + Jenny Lewis!

I'm Mark

2008-09-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

I'm Mark

From Mark First Entry

I'm the other half of this duo. Most of you who will read this also know me, so I'll spare too much introduction. Wendy and I have a sweet little life here in Nashville:

A sweet cat - (yes, we are crazy cat people)

From Mark First Entry

*note the relaxed paw - this is a natural lounging position for Zena.

...and plenty of space and toys to kill time joyfully in the kitchen with new projects. For a long time I was basically the "chopping team" and the meat tech.

At work as the meat tech

From Mark First Entry

In the last year however I've begun finding my own crafts to focus on - primarily, making great pizza and pasta dough.

*making some dough by hand in the spring

From Mark First Entry

Yesterday I worked on making my first ever flavored pasta dough using spinach, while Wendy made another batch of chili powder.

Pasta is easy to make. The recommended ratio is 3 eggs to 2 cups of all purpose flour. If you have a Kitchen Aid mixer or food processor with a blade attachment, those work best. You should start by placing the flour in your processor and turning it on for 30 second or more to aerate and evenly distribute the flour in the bowl. Then, beat the eggs in a mixing bowl and add to the flour. Run your processor until the dough comes together in a firm ball. If it beads up into little flour balls, add water 1 tsp. at a time and continue to mix. If it sticks to the sides of the bowl add flour one tbsp. at a time while continuing to mix.

The spinach pasta required one half cup more of flour and half of a 10oz. package of frozen spinach: chopped, boiled for a few minutes, and drained until as dry as possible. This was added to the beaten eggs before I added that mixture to the flour.

All the steps in the rest of the process

We're not sure how we'll use this pasta yet, but it turned out well. I sprinkled it with flour so that it won't stick together and placed it in a bowl.

Surely, we'll let you know how it turns out. --Mark

Two Videos

2008-08-31T17:55:00.000-07:00

from the absolute loves of my life...
thom yorke

mark barrett

First Post: No Pressure

2008-08-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

from yesterday

Hey kids,

I’ve been talking about starting this blog for too long now…I’ve gotten several entries written and tons of pics of what we’ve been cooking, but I don’t want to overdo the first post. Most of you already know me, so no introduction is necessary, but the blogweb is big and I hope to be a contributing member…so someone somewhere might read this that doesn’t know me.

I will start with the basics (rather than the long drawn out intros I’ve worked on before): I’m a mid-twenties Nashvillian who likes to eat. Cooking is my new favorite form of creative expression. Anytime I take an interest in something, I’m fanatical about it and cooking is no different.

I won’t pretend I have a lot of experience or know a lot about it yet; I’m just starting out. I will detail at some point a kind of time line of how my cooking has changed over time because it’s something that’s interesting to me. I, in no way, cook the same way I ate growing up. However, I am from rural West Tennessee, so there’ll be a good bit of bacon going on (must keep the Anthony Bourdains of this world happy and content).

I’m somewhat newly married to a wonderful young man by the name of Mark. He’s new to food fanaticism, but he’s taken to it well. In fact, we make quite the team. He used to be more of a sous chef, delegated to chopping, etc., but he’s risen in the ranks and has earned a few more stars on his apron. Just today, he’s masterminded a homemade marinara (all tomatoes from our very own garden!) as I entertained some unexpected visitors:

We’re such baby-ooglers…but procreating is not in the cards in the near foreseeable future...besides, we already have a little child

She’d be none too pleased if we were to bring a baby around.

And yes, we ARE crazy cat people. All the stereotypes are true. Don’t judge, sigh, I didn’t think it could happen to me, either.

In other news, after realizing we have moved twice with a box of outdated Kraft macaroni and cheese that once belonged to my roommate in Murfreesboro (outdated before leaving M’boro, mind you), Mark and I have decided to go on a pantry raid. I rarely use canned foods anymore (if I do, it’s beans, LeSuer English peas, tomatoes, or broths) and the four boxes of prepared foods that we have are nearing the end of their shelf life. So today, it was time to call forth the Fantastic Foods meatless taco box. I was delightfully surprised that they were as good as the tacos we usually make (affectionately referred to as Ghetto tacos, but more on that later). I added some extra seasonings, of course…our favorite hot sauce, homemade chili powder, garlic (nothing goes garlic-less around here), and the darling condiments that shine in our beloved Ghetto tacos (squirt o’ Heinz ketchup, spicy mustard, and Worcestershire). I know, we’re too much, but I love them Ghetto tacos. They remind me of the ones my sister, Heather, makes which always put mine to shame. Here’s my usual rendition:

French-Barrett Ghetto Tacos
Sauté onion, green bell pepper, and jalapeño pepper (seeds and membranes remain intact in this household) in olive oil with salt & pepper. After a few minutes, add 1 lb of lean sirloin (fattier if you are in to that kind of thing) and a packet of Taco Bell seasoning with a small bottle of Ortega mild taco sauce. I add lots of hot sauce, but you certainly don’t have to if it ain’t your thing. Then I get out the aforementioned condiments and squirt liberally (no jokes, please, this is a serious process).

Oh, Ghetto tacos, you take me right back to middle school. However, I think we may be converts. These meatless babies are just as good and faster! With meat, as far as I’m concerned, mostly I’m only looking for the texture. I just need a vehicle for the spices I want to use. Besides, we put so many toppings on our tacos; the meat is really second fiddle anyway.

For taco assembly, Mark and I have a patented system and if it isn’t followed correctly, there will be disappointed faces. Just ask my friend Samantha. She didn’t listen and ended up with a soggy, falling apart glob o’ taco.

We have a Panini press, so at this point, we plug that baby in. We heat up the tortilla of choice in the microwave for just a second or two, then add meat or meat substitute, refried beans (“recipe” to follow), and Cabot white cheddar. Wrap it up and put it on the grill. After it comes out crispy and brown, I top mine with more hot sauce, shredded lettuce or cabbage (my fave), fresh tomatoes or salsa or both, and anything else we have on hand (cilantro, avocado, scallions, and I usually add some picked jalapeños).

For the beans, I just open a can of vegetarian refried beans (I can do without the lard in the non-veg kind), put them in a small pot with some ground cumin, garlic, and a small dash of cinnamon.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m a novice in the kitchen. I tend to over-season things. I once had a good friend remark that I season things like I’ve been smoking for 20 years.

However, I will say, my intuition in the kitchen is growing stronger. Between the two of us, we’ve tried and succeeded at a few ambitious projects these past couple of months. Our most recent accomplishment was an entirely homemade lasagne:

We made everything but the cheese, my friends, and that’s something I intend to look into having just purchased this guy.

Our new KitchenAid has enabled us to become pizza evangelicals. We take the operation to the streets:

not so much to the streets...as that appears to be my red & white tablecloth showing in the background...but in theory, we take it to the streets.

goat cheese, roasted red peppers, and various mushrooms

black beans, corn, scallion, avocado, cherry maters, cheddar, etc.

That’s all for now.

Love & stuff,
W
P.S. I also cooked up some amazing fresh lima beans…just simmered them in water with the rind of a Parmesan wedge…I keep those in a bag in the freezer…we use them for lots o’ things.