A Year in the Kitchen

NYT chocolate-chip cookies

2009-02-04T15:39:00.001-07:00

When the New York Times posted a recipe for chocolate-chip cookies authored by Jacques Torres, food bloggers went wild testing them out. They key ingredients were: days spent chilling in the refrigerator; and a sprinkling of salt just before baking. Cut to, oh I don't know, five or six months later, when I finally got around to testing them.

First, they were fine. They were chocolate-chip cookies! So, we liked them well enough. The salt was a nice touch, and we've replicated that in a few different ways since. The only problem was that they turned out really dry and crunchy, which is fine for days three through seven, but on day one I really like a chewy cookie. The recipe is actually for mega-sized cookies, but I like mine small and manageable. I think these would actually be even better if they were smaller, like cookielets. There is a version of this recipe on King Arthur's Baker's Banter site that I'm going to try next. In the meantime, a go-to cookie recipe continues to elude us.

Potato, bacon, and egg soup

2008-07-28T15:52:00.001-07:00

potato, bacon, and egg soup

I've been reading Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking for the past month, and it's inspired me to try some seemingly atraditional takes on food. Twice already, we've made potato soup, which is the first soup in the book. And last week, I had an idea that you could poach an egg, cut up some bacon, and basically make a brunch soup. A hunk of bread sunk into the final soup completed the meal.

The result: It was delicious. Really clean and simple. I grated some fresh pepper just before eating, and the poached egg and soup balanced each other really nicely.

Next time, I might flavor the soup with bacon, then fish it out before serving. Or else, use a bit of bacon fat to cook some onions. The bacon flavor was welcome, but the crunchy texture of the bits didn't mesh well with the overall texture of the soup and egg.

No, this is not a doughnut.

2008-07-18T11:05:00.002-07:00

Prosciutto Ring

It's a 1.5-pound ring of bread, and my, is it delicious!

First, let me say that I know we sound like a broken record, here. But we can't stop expounding on the virtues of The Bread Bible. It's the most spectacular baking book either of us has ever come upon. Sometime, we'll pick up other books (and we have our eyes on a few), but until then: Bread Bible!

So, we've both been itching to make this for a while: a simple bread, straight dough method, only one rise, cute shape. And best of all? Three ounces of chopped prosciutto baked right in. Oh, and the top? Glazed with bacon fat.

It turned out beautifully and tasted amazing. We took it over to a small gathering and, between the five of us, polished off the entire thing. We hope to make this bread again soon, perhaps for a cocktail party. Next time, we're going to try making a braid instead of a ring.

Happily, Rose has published the recipe on her web site, so you all can go out and try it right away. Let us know what you think!

The Need to Knead

2008-07-18T10:46:00.003-07:00

Almost No-Knead Bread

We made this almost no-knead bread using the Cook's Illustrated method. When the now-famous Minimalist column with Lahey's bread was first published, we scurried to the kitchen and excitedly tried it out—and made a rather unsuccessful loaf. Since then, we've been baking the occasional loaf of bread the old-fashioned way, and have hit with success every time. But the other day, Jen got the urge to try again. So much hype! What were we missing out on? We have heard high praise for the CI method and gave their recipe a whirl. And it turned out a decent loaf of bread, yes. But, in the end, it's not that much less effort than just making traditional bread. We have a Kitchen Aid, so kneading is a snap. Otherwise, even the biggest bread projects are mostly inactive time (rising/proofing/resting). And the taste of this bread does not quite measure up, I'd say. This recipe will likely stick around, but the search continues for a good everyday bread.

Operation: Zero Meals Out update

2008-07-18T10:32:00.002-07:00

Soba noodle lunch

The first half of the month has been great to us. We are really taking the opportunity, with this new program, to be more creative in the kitchen. We've wasted very little—missed two pieces of stone fruit, but otherwise all has been eaten. We're trying to repurpose foods (leftovers, scraps) as much as possible, but have also taken time to test a couple of new recipes. This week, we even skipped the bread aisle and made our own. After all, we have plenty of water, flour, yeast and time.

Highlights this round included the soba noodle lunch you see here (soba noodles, tofu, carrots and zucchini, lightly dressed with rice vinegar, mirin, soy sauce, miso and sriracha); salmon cakes with herb potatoes and homemade tartar sauce (mayo, mustard, chopped dill pickles and some lemon zest) and more of Lee's yummy potato soup.

The doc complimented me yesterday on keeping my pregnancy weight gain in check and we have saved lots of money (which we can now gleefully turn around and spend on cute baby clothes).

Truthfully: I feel a little foolish that two people who love cooking (and cooking together) as much as Lee and me had such inconsistent cooking and eating habits. This experiment—even just a couple weeks in—has been eye-opening for us both. We're planning to stick closer to home for meals, even after the month is through.

Halibut Poached in Olive Oil

2008-07-18T10:05:00.002-07:00

Halibut poached in olive oil

We've been hearing about it everywhere, so finally, we tried it. Halibut and some herbs poached in oil (we tried to keep it at 140). We served it alongside a homemade white bean hummus and toasted flatbread, with a few olives and sun-dried tomatoes for good measure. The verdict? Eh. It used a lot of oil. It tasted fine, but lacked the flavor of Lee's Alice Waters-inspired poached fish. And the texture was totally regular—we were both expecting the oil to impart some sort of beyond-all-measure silkiness or something. But the good news is, the olive oil poaching did not make the fish greasy. We're open to trying this method again but, as of right now, we just don't get it.

The first week of Operation: Zero Meals Out

2008-07-10T13:10:00.010-07:00

Our first week got off to a great start. Lee kicked off the week by grilling a heritage chicken from Whole Foods. For a while, I had a real aversion to chicken, but luckily that time has passed. The chicken with potatoes and veggies made for a great meal and yielded plenty of leftovers. We used part of leftovers for chicken quesadillas. I also made this chicken and rice dish:

I used a pretty standard risotto method - rice sauteed in a little fat (I used bacon drippings, because it was handy), a splash of white wine and then slow additions of chicken stock. When the rice was almost there, I threw in a generous amount of chicken and some frozen peas. I finished the dish with some amazing Italian hard cheese (a cousin of parmigiano) we picked up from our favorite cheese shop during a recent visit to Chicago and a touch of heavy cream. It came out well. The flavor was helped along quite a bit by the heritage bird and bacon drippings. If I weren't pregnant, I'd have started the risotto with some aromatics, but garlic and onion are bothering my stomach these days.We spent July 4 at a barbecue organized by some local Obama supporters. It was potluck; I made some sweet tea and Lee made tandoori chicken. Our guideline for the chicken was Madhur Jaffrey's excellent book, Indian Cooking, but the recipe was modified a bit for my dietary needs (and because we decided to grill instead of bake). Here's how we did it:

Tandoori-Style Chicken

serves 15 or so

3 whole chickens, cut into ten pieces each (cut each breast in half)

1 lemon

1.5 family-size cartons of plain, whole-milk yogurt

1/2 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1 clove of garlic, peeled

2 inches of fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped

6 tsp garam masala

First, cut up your chickens and remove the skin from all but the wings (not worth the hassle). Sprinkle the pieces with salt and squeeze a lemon over them. Let the chicken hang out while you combine all of the other ingredients in a food processor; you'll probably have to do it in batches. Strain the sauce through a fine-mesh strainer and into a large bowl (we used one with a 4-qt. capacity). Add the chicken pieces to the bowl, making sure all pieces are covered by the sauce, and refrigerate for at least 6 and up to 24 hours (the longer the better).

Grill the chicken over direct high heat for about six minutes per side, basting with the leftover sauce as needed. You'll get a nice char and the chicken inside will be cooked through, yet moist. It's absolutely heavenly--my favorite thing we've ever made on the grill.

Lee made stock with the chicken scraps and used the rest of the onion and a couple pounds of potatoes to make potato soup. We made a simple dinner of that one night (a green salad and some zucchini fritters on the side) and lunch the next day was vichyssoise. The soup he made (adapted from a recipe by Julia Child) is the base of many other interesting soups, and we're thinking of making a weekly habit of barbecuing a whole chicken and making soup with the scraps (more on that, perhaps, next week).

Our breakfasts have been pretty standard (we usually ate breakfast at the house, anyway): cold cereal, steel oats, fruit/yogurt, etc. But one morning I was in the mood to bake blueberry muffins. I used a new recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible. I truly cannot recommend this book highly enough. The muffins were the best Lee and I had ever tasted. They were moist without being cakey, delicate rather than heavy, and not too sweet. A sprinkling of salt and lemon zest upped the sophistication. Best of all, they were still delicious the next day. I have definitely found my new muffin recipe (sorry, Bittman).

I also made a simple frittata using Trader Joe's Potato Medley. I simply sauteed two cups of the veggies (along with some more zucchini; we have a ton right now) in a cast iron skillet with a tablespoon of butter. When the potatoes were soft, I added six whipped eggs and popped the whole thing in the oven at 350 for ten minutes or so. That provided two light meals for each of us.

There were a few veggies burgers, bean and cheese burritos, and sandwiches in the mix, to be sure, but that's not terribly unusual for us, especially in the summer. And overall, I've been happy to see how much we've prepared from scratch--especially considering we both spend the whole day at home (I'm a student and Lee telecommutes) and it's dead hot in Tucson right now!

Our July Experiment.

2008-07-10T12:44:00.004-07:00

A recent conversation at Serious Eats got us thinking about how often we eat restaurant meals. Thanks to our budget-tracking software, I was able to analyze our dining habits, both by frequency and cost. Taking the average from January through June, we found that we ate out about 20 times per month. Let's just say we weren't exactly thrilled with the report, even though the results weren't surprising. With the pregnancy, I've had a tough time figuring out meals. My cravings change on a whim, and I'm constantly navigating the maze of dietary advice (aside from the usual restrictions, there are all sorts of little things: I'm advised not to eat any acidic foods to counteract my third trimester heartburn, but should eat lots of acidic foods to counteract this horrible metallic taste in my mouth. Etc.).

Now that I'm in T3, the cravings have started to subside and the other physical challenges are making the prospect of dining out more difficult. Also, my stomach has gotten smaller to make room for baby, so I'm not eating full-sized meals these days anyway. So, Lee and I decided not to eat any meals out for the entire month of July. As in, zero.

So far, it's going well. We have not cheated at all; we have not thrown out any wasted produce or leftovers; and we have saved 66% on food expenses compared to the first half of last month. Lee and I figure it takes about a month to make a new habit, and we're hoping this one sticks.

We won't post on everything we make this month, but I'll hit a few of the highlights and share our strategies for making the most of what we've got.

No more delivery

2008-06-23T13:52:00.002-07:00

Pizza

So, we had to bow out of Tuesdays with Dorie. Nothing against the group, but we started coming up with our own ideas for weekly projects, and our plans weren't compatible with that group's weekly baking schedule.

One of our first projects was to make pizza. Lee used to make it, and we were convinced that we could make it at home again, not to mention better than he had before. The crust came from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible, and it is fantastic and fantastically easy. You can let it rise for just an hour or overnight, if you can anticipate the craving. The crust is thin but fluffy and is best for a simple, one-topping pizza. Come to think of it, we have some pepperoni in the house, in the same drawer as a big hunk of mozzarella. Perfect.

Halibut kabobs

2008-05-08T10:47:00.002-07:00

Halibut kabobs
Originally uploaded by Ricestein

After 4+ months of an intense aversion to both fish and poultry, Jen finally got a hankering for some halibut (helped along, to be sure, by the amazing fishmonger at Rincon market). We decided to take full advantage of both Jen's pro-fish mood and our relatively mild weather (Tucson has already been blazing this spring) to barbecue some halibut kabobs.

It was very simple. Lee tossed the halibut cubes with lemon, salt and pepper and we skewered them along with some tomatoes, red bell pepper and button mushrooms. Lee grilled over high heat, and within 10 minutes we had the filling for a light and flavorful batch of fish tacos.

We served these with a side of black beans, but neither of us even bothered with them.

Tuesday with Rose, Mark, and James

2008-04-29T14:16:00.003-07:00

matzo

Usually about this time, we're mulling over the results of our entry for Tuesdays with Dorie. This weekend, however, the cake baking clashed with Passover. So instead of baking with Dorie, Lee did a little baking with Rose (Levy Beranbaum, that is).

With a recipe from The Bread Bible, Lee made a batch of fresh matzot for our Saturday seder. He also cooked a beef brisket in the Mark Bittman style. And Jen tackled her first ever potato gratin using James Peterson's Essentials of Cooking as a guide.

We'll be back to Dorie next week with a peanut butter torte, as chosen by Ugg Smell Food.

Matzo Crack

2008-04-25T16:25:00.003-07:00

matzo crack
Originally uploaded by Ricestein

Lee cribbed this one from David Lebovitz's blog (see: here), and it is completely addictive. Lee has a terrific sweet tooth, but pregnant Jen prefers her snacks savory. And yet, the salty-sweet combination (caramel, bittersweet chocolate, sea salt, and toasted almonds) hooked us both.

Matzo, you have won our hearts.

TWD: Carrot Cake!

2008-04-21T17:58:00.005-07:00

Success! Well, mostly. This week's TWD challenge, by Amanda of Slow Like Honey, was for Bill's Big Carrot Cake. I'd been intrigued by this one since I first brought home Dorie Greenspan's book. I love a big, beautiful cake and I've never made a carrot cake at home, although it's one of my favorites.

We baked the three-layer cake in 9-inch rounds, as suggested by the recipe. I checked the oven temperature with an oven thermometer to ensure that the heat was right. I left the cakes in the oven, undisturbed, until it was time to check for doneness. And still, the cakes sank. Just a few mm right in the center, but when we stacked them three-high, the sink was more apparent. This also happened with my 1-2-3-4 cake! What gives?

The taste, however, was extraordinary. We omitted the coconut (I can't stand it) and used walnuts and golden raisins as filler alongside the carrots. With the cream cheese frosting, the final product was delicate and moist and very rich. We served it to friends with homemade vanilla ice cream and iced coffee (this is Tucson, after all). More photos here.

I can't wait to make one of these for my mother's birthday. Carrot cake is her favorite, and this may be the best balance of richness/tenderness I've ever tasted in one.

Matzo Brei Pancakes

2008-04-21T09:18:00.002-07:00

Matzo Brei

Every year, Lee's dad makes a delicious scrambled egg and matzo dish called matzo brei. I had it for the first/only time during our first Passover together in 2006.

This morning, I decided to try my hand at making matzo brei for Lee. While looking for a recipe, I began reading about all of the different matzo brei variations on Mark Bittman's blog. It seems that matzo brei is like stuffing/dressing: every family has their own way of doing it, and people are fiercely loyal to the matzo brei of their youth.

In light of this, I decided not to emulate Bill's splendid recipe (especially without him here to guide me!), instead trying something totally new. Lucky for me, Lee is always on board for experimentation.

One of the comments on Bittman's blog seemed intriguing, and I decided to adapt that gentleman's recipe. Thanks, Bruce Kleinman!

Start by breaking three sheets of matzo into 1/4" to 1/2" pieces. Pile your matzo into a colander and rinse them under hot water for five seconds. Squeeze out the excess water.

In a mixing bowl, combine two eggs, 2 tablespoons of milk, and a pinch of kosher salt. Add the matzos to the egg mixture.

Heat up a large cast iron skillet with 2 tablespoons of butter (I know! but you'll need it). When the foam starts to subside, drop spoonsful of the matzo/egg mixture into the pan, forming dollar-sized pancakes. Go ahead and smush them a little with the spatula while they're cooking: that will help them hold together. After a minute or so, flip your matzocakes. Transfer the finished product to a plate and eat with a drizzle of maple syrup.

This recipe made eight small pancakes, a good serving for two (or three, if you add some fruit alongside). They taste rather like French toast, but with a distinctive matzo flavor. You could add some finely diced shallot or green onion and eat them as a savory dish, too, but I liked them sweet. We might make these again before the week is out.

Happy Passover!

Homemade Vanilla

2008-04-18T07:01:00.002-07:00

Homemade Vanilla

The last time Lee and I ran out of vanilla extract, we decided to try making our own, rather than buy another bottle. The results were fantastic; the effort minimal. Here's how we did it.

Take one vanilla bean. Slice it open and scrape the seeds into a bottle (we used a 10-oz tonic bottle). Add the bean, too. Fill the bottle most of the way with a high-quality vodka (we used Tito's) and top off with a little dark rum (we used a 1 oz. sampler bottle of Mount Gay). The liquid will still be pretty clear, at that point.

The extract needs two months to work its magic. Every week, give the bottle a little shake; otherwise, just leave it be. At the end of two months, the liquid will be a beautiful amber-brown and you will have on your hands a bottle of very high quality vanilla.

TWD: Marshmallows

2008-04-14T19:43:00.011-07:00

Lee and I have joined an online baking club, where we'll be cooking our way through Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. This week's recipe, chosen by Judy's Gross Eats, was for marshmallows.

It's very interesting to join a club like this: the recipes are chosen by a different club member each week, and it's liberating to have someone else select which recipe we have to try. I've been wanting to practice my baking skills more, and this is a great way to do it.

I'll confess that I don't know if I ever would have made homemade marshmallows if not for this TWD challenge (although Lee has been curious about them; he's more of the candy guy around here), and I certainly wouldn't have tried them in April, where (in Tucson) hot chocolate season is over. But I'm definitely glad I did; it was good candy practice and we had pretty successful results.

Lee, as I mentioned, is the main candy maker around here, and he is the one who made these; I just helped. But since he's out of town, I'll write on our behalf.

The recipe was pretty simple: basically, a meringue with gelatin and flavoring. We whipped some egg whites and added the sugar syrup and gelatin. At this point, they smelled disgusting, slightly meaty (gelatin). But with addition of our homemade vanilla, voila! The mixture was transformed into the sweet-smelling marshmallows we know and love.

Next, we poured them into a lined, cornstarch-dusted baking sheet and let them rest for three hours. Getting them out was definitely the trickiest part. They looked like perfect little marshmallows on the top, but the undersides were a little chewed up from being scraped from the pan. Also, our pan might have been a bit too large, because they looked more like little duvets than little pillows.

But they tasted like fresh, melt-in-your mouth vanilla marshmallows. I think we'll be making this again, with a few adjustments to the lining method/pan size, come winter.

Cake Friday: Olive Oil & Rosemary Cake with Orange Confit

2008-04-13T16:22:00.003-07:00

Olive Oil & Rosemary Cake with Orange Confit

We've had the Babbo cookbook since it was released and for six years it has moved with us. That's three states and probably a dozen apartments. But have we cooked from it? I'm embarrassed to say no. We've been making a serious effort to either use or retire the cookbooks we've collected, so last week, we dusted off Babbo and quickly found the Olive Oil & Rosemary cake. It was love at first sight: a sweet and savory pound cake with six ingredients. The only item we needed to buy was the fresh rosemary and it was on.

The cake was incredibly simple to make, and the end result was moist and flavorful. It was dessert-like but not too sweet (which had its down side: we each ate two slices). We apologize, Mr. Batali. More recipes from Babbo will be made soon.

To accompany the cake, Lee made orange confit from a recipe we found on an old NYT Minimalist video. Here's how it works:

Take four whole oranges and blanch them in a dutch oven of water for 30 seconds. Dump the water and do the same thing again. Then quarter the oranges and put them in the pot with two cups of sugar and enough fresh water to cover. Keep the whole thing at a low simmer (just a stray bubble here and there) for eight hours. You might need to add a little extra water from time to time, to keep the oranges covered. When eight hours is up, you can take the oranges out and let them rest, covered and at room temperature, overnight. The next day, arrange the oranges in the bottom of the dutch oven with two cups of sugar and enough water to cover (again). Keep it at a simmer for eight hours (again). Let them rest over night. The third day: orange slices, sugar, water, simmer. The oranges are quite delicate by the end. They're soft enough to cut and eat with a fork (rind and all); the flavor is kind of related to that of marmalade, albeit with a fuller orange flavor.

We're definitely making this one again.

Lemon & Asparagus Risotto

2008-04-11T13:42:00.003-07:00

Lemon & Asparagus Risotto

This lemon and asparagus risotto, from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Cooking, was like springtime in a bowl. The only ingredients are rice, one lemon (zest and juice), 1/2 c dry white wine, chicken stock, a finely minced small onion and a couple tablespoons of butter.

Even Lee, who has lukewarm feelings about asparagus (at best) loved it! I think it would also be delightful with fresh peas. Alice Waters also suggested a pancetta and potato version, which would be nice for brunch.

Cake Friday and news.

2008-04-11T13:35:00.003-07:00

1-2-3-4 Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

A Year in the Kitchen has been quiet lately; my apologies. We have been busy with a new project around here... Jen is pregnant! We are expecting our tiny sous chef on September 27.

For the past couple of months, cooking has been limited, to say the least. This is mostly due to morning sickness. Jen hasn't had many cravings (potatoes, icy-cold foods and some chocolate, but that isn't too unusual) but has many aversions: namely chicken and fish. Now that we're safely into trimester two and the nausea has subsided, we're back in the kitchen baking up treats and trying new vegetarian dishes.

To celebrate, we've instituted a new tradition: Cake Friday! We kicked things off last week with 1-2-3-4 Cake, a classic yellow cake from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food. It was relatively easy to make and delicious--very moist, very rich. We used farmers' market fresh eggs and homemade vanilla. We also used her recipe for buttercream frosting, adding in a little bittersweet chocolate at the end. Yum!

Homemade Doughnuts

2008-03-11T13:38:00.000-07:00

Frying Doughnuts

We used a recipe in Baking Illustrated for these homemade buttermilk doughnuts. It was pretty simple, and we were able to control the shape pretty well by using a drinking glass and a small water bottle to make the holes. Baking Illustrated recommended frying these in Crisco, but I think that if we had them to do again, I'd use peanut oil. They weren't greasy, but the Crisco weirded me out.

Shallow-poached fish

2008-02-16T08:37:00.002-07:00

This winter, we eased into a pretty simple pattern.

Each week we roasted a bird (mostly chicken) that we ate from for a few days and used to make stock. We've got four cups of stock left in the freezer, with room for plenty more.

Also, at least once a week, I've been poaching fish. Until this year, I really didn't understand poaching, at least not poaching at its best. But after reading The Art of Simple Food, I'm converted.

Poaching has got to be the simplest way to cook and flavor fish. And I'm talking about the shallow poach, which requires little liquid and even less effort.

Basically, you put in enough water to go halfway up the fish (I usually put the fish into the pan to measure, then take it out). I usually add my seasonings here, so they steep for a long time. I might add rosemary or thyme, sliced lemon, a clove of garlic cut in half, and maybe a few drops of sherry vinegar. Sometimes, we use wine, but the vinegar adds a lot of texture.

Heat the water until it begins to boil, then turn the heat all the way down. You want constant heat, but no bubbles. When the water's settled, place the fish back in.

Here's where things get really cool. With poaching, you can actually see the food get cooked. Of course, you can always watch the food cook, but the fish begins to cook as soon as it touches the water. It's amazing to watch, in part because the water is perfectly still, so nothing else is happening.

Then after three or five minutes (depending on the thickness of the cut), you flip it. Another three or five minutes, and it's done. You'll know because it looks the same as all other cooked fish in the end. And for sauce, you can swirl a little butter into the remaining poaching liquid. I swear, it doesn't get any easier.

Baked Eggs

2008-01-20T18:01:00.001-07:00

outside, inside
Originally uploaded by Ricestein

Baked eggs are my new favorite thing. Picture it: a lightly buttered ramekin. A few ingredients that complement eggs (here - feta and spinach, but we've also laid down just a bit of diced pancetta with ribbons of basil) and the egg cracked on top. Off into a 350-degree oven for about half an hour and voila! They're like tiny quiches, without all the fat. And easier to make for a brunch (or for house guests) than, say, individual omelettes, yet so much nicer than a box of doughnuts.

What's better than homemade eggplant parmesan?

2008-01-20T17:44:00.001-07:00

eggplant parmesan in Emile Henry baking dish

Eggplant parmesan with a clementine clafoutis for dessert. Eaten with good friends, of course.

Pasta alla Puttanesca

2008-01-20T17:42:00.001-07:00

puttanesca
Originally uploaded by Ricestein

Lee and I have discovered pasta puttanesca at home. Here's the recipe: saute some garlic in a bit of olive oil until soft. Stir in minced anchovies (I just used one) and a pinch of red chili flakes. Add canned tomatoes along with some chopped olives (we used kalamatas) and capers. We ate ours over linguine.

Tepary beans

2008-01-20T17:38:00.001-07:00

tepary bean stew

Tepary beans are Arizonan heirloom beans with a nutty, meaty flavor.

We soaked a bag of teparies acquired from Native Seeds/SEARCH and used half for a vegetable tepary soup (just added carrots, green beans, broccoli and other veggies on-hand, plus a bit of chili powder and cumin) and made fresh baked beans with the other half.

The beans have great flavor, kind of lentil-cum-pinto. They added immense flavor to the soup and an earthiness to the baked beans. In both cases, the beans held together well after the long cooking time.

Mini Madelines

2008-01-20T17:30:00.001-07:00

mini madeleine

We recently made a batch of mini madelines using Dorie Greenspan's basic madeline recipe (from her most recent cookbook, Baking: From My Home to Yours). The batter is mixed and then must rest overnight. The next day, gently scoop just half a teaspoon or so of batter into each tiny mold. The results were light, cakey and lemony. We'll definitely make these again (although I think I'd like a larger madeline mold--we have only one mini-mold and getting through the batter took several batches!

Scones

2008-01-20T17:20:00.001-07:00

measuring cups

Our friend Tonya recently gave us the wonderful Rose Bakery cookbook, Breakfast Lunch Tea. Filled with recipes for brunchy treats, we kicked things off with their classic scone recipe. As we put the put the recipe together, I continually asked Lee: how is this different from a baking powder biscuit? It's essentially the same, albeit lightly sweetened (we did not mix any fruit or nuts into this first batch). The upside? We ate them with both breakfast and dinner.

Pull-apart dinner rolls

2008-01-02T15:26:00.001-07:00

Pull-apart dinner rolls

I made these dinner rolls from The Bread Bible, which was a Christmas gift from my mother. They were laborious--a sponge starter, three rises, shaping, hand-dipping into butter, and, at long last, a quick spin in the oven. But they were worth it. A fine crust on top, tender and flavorful inside. And they made the whole house smell fantastic.

Somebody get this woman a bread box!

2008-01-02T15:17:00.001-07:00

Spelt honey bread

Sometimes it's difficult to get out of one's head and, as a writer, I spend an inordinate amount of time playing around with all the muck, good or bad, that hangs out therein. Normally, that's not a problem--it's what I signed up for, after all. But I've been working through a rough couple of weeks, personally speaking. I lost two people who were very important to me. One was 92, the other 30. So I've been trying to keep my hands busy with something other than typing, which, for me, means baking.

Today I baked some spelt honey bread, taken from December's Food & Wine. Here's the recipe, in a nutshell:

Honey Spelt Bread

adapted from a recipe by Lionel Vatinet in Food & Wine

4 1/2 cups whole-wheat spelt flour, plus more for dusting
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 teaspoons of active dry yeast
1 3/4 cups of cool (70-degree) water
2 tablespoons honey

Basically, it's just a matter of kneading (just a minute or two in a stand mixer), rising, punching, folding and laying into a loaf pan, rising, dusting with flour, and baking at 450 for 35 minutes. Lee and I each ate a slice fresh from the oven with butter and jam.

The Art of Simple Chicken

2007-12-30T20:00:00.000-07:00

The Art of Simple Chicken

We've made this chicken, from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food, twice now. Both times, the resulting bird has been juicy and tasty.

Start with a high-quality chicken (free-range, no hormones added, etc.). This is the most important step.

The day before you intend to roast it, clean the bird out and rub it with salt and pepper.

An hour before you intend to roast it, remove it from the fridge and let it rest on the counter. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Then (and here's the second most important part), start the bird breast-side up and set your timer for 20 minutes. Flip her every twenty minutes until she's done (maybe an hour and a half for a four-pound chicken).

We roasted the chicken on a v-rack, placing some sliced yellow onion in the (dry) pan below. We served it with red potatoes tossed with olive oil and rosemary and roasted, covered, on the lowest rack of the oven. The chicken cooked on the middle rack at the same time. Also along for the ride was broccoli and fresh dinner rolls. And, of course, the perfectly carmelized yellow onions and accompanying jus, which we sneakily referred to as sauce.

Fish and veggies

2007-12-17T06:44:00.001-07:00

tilapia, green beans, brussels
Originally uploaded by Ricestein

Nerd alert: We finally set up our Flickr account to speak to our Blogger account, so we can post photos directly to our food blog. We've missed writing posts about the food we eat, so maybe this will make everything just a little bit easier.

Now, on to the food.

Winter vegetables are in abundance out here in Tucson, and in the past year we've become particularly enthralled with brussels. Most of the time we just roast them in the oven with only a little olive oil, cracked pepper, and salt. As much as we like bacon, the simplicity of this preparation really highlights the brussels' natural taste. It's part of a pretty major shift towards a whole foods aesthetic that we're embarking on. Basically, we're trying to bring out the individual flavors with as little meddling as possible, then build whole menus featuring items that build upon each other. Sounds much fussier than it actually is.

For example, this night we had the roasted brussels, some blanched green beans, and tilapia cooked in the skillet. All pretty basic preparations, but the brussels melded really well with the tilapia, and the green beans helped keep us honest.

Right now, we're using a combination of cookbooks to guide us through our simplifying, mostly the ever-present Bittman's How to Cook Everything and our newly acquired The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters, which by some quirk is aimed exactly at us.

Shrimp and white beans

2007-08-31T23:26:00.000-07:00

No photo of this one, yet, but I just needed to rave for a moment. We started dipping into Mark Bittman's big list of 100 fast and easy recipes from earlier this summer, and we have fallen in love with the simplest recipe of all. It's for shrimp and white beans, which we have started eating over toast.

Basically, you take some shrimp (we use frozen from Trader Joe's) and chop them into little pieces. Open a can of white beans, put them in a frying pan with a little olive oil and chopped garlic. Then, add the shrimp. The whole thing cooks up pretty quickly, and somewhere near the end I usually squeeze half of a lemon over the whole thing and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. The last two times we've eaten this, I made a side salad, using the juices from the pan (deglazed a la Bittman with a dash of sherry vinegar) as a dressing. A slice of toast on the side, and the meal's complete. It keeps us full and energized, and the shrimp juice makes a surprisingly wonderful salad dressing.

Mixed greens with tuna, green beans, and broccoli

2007-08-09T12:11:00.000-07:00

This was the first meal that we made in our new home in Tucson. Pretty simple mix of fresh ingredients, plus some albacore from the can. We purchased just about everything at a Trader Joe's nearby; I'd nearly forgotten how totally wonderful that store is.

Nothing special for the dressing. Jenny used a bit of the oil from the oil-packed tuna, and then drizzled some balsamic vinegar over the top of it all. I got tomatoes on mine, but Jenny isn't a huge fan of raw tomatoes. Right there on the plate is also one of the forks from our Jasper Morrison set, Knife Fork Spoon, a highly recommended set of tableware.

Peppered Balsamic Ice Cream with Fresh Strawberries

2007-07-19T14:48:00.000-07:00

Balsamic vinegar + strawberries = yum.

When I came across this recipe in the L.A. Times I just knew I had to try it. Using the mixing paddle on the KitchenAid, I combined a quart of vanilla ice cream with some freshly ground black pepper and a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar. Served with fresh strawberries and an extra drizzle of vinegar, for good measure.

The vinegar cuts the sugary quality of the ice cream, lending a more sweet-and-sour, yogurty taste.

Buffalo Chicken and Bleu Cheese Sausages

2007-07-17T18:10:00.001-07:00

I wish I could say that I made these tasty sausages, but I haven't been much for scratch cooking lately. Alas, we are packing up the kitchen.

These flavorful sausages, filled with ground chicken, hot sauce and bleu cheese, came from Whole Foods. I served them hot dog-style with tabasco-spiked ketchup, a green salad, and champagne grapes.

I think these could easily be made with a sausage/grinder KitchenAid attachment, and we intend to try it in Tucson. Stay tuned!

Banana Bread

2007-07-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love banana bread, so when I spied a few soft bananas in our kitchen, I decided to take full advantage. I've been using a modified version of a Better Homes and Gardens recipe for ages, but I recently found a recipe from Baking Illustrated that intrigued me. It called for a generous 1.5 cups of bananas, like my modified BH&G recipe. But Baking Illustrated also wanted me to use a combination of melted butter and plain yogurt in my wet ingredients. There were other small but significant differences as well. The result was a more bread-like bread (vs. the cake-like bread I usually make), slightly less sweet but still tender and moist. I'm converted.

Now, the Baking Illustrated recipe did suggest adding toasted walnuts to the bread. I will confess here that I am not a fan of nuts in banana bread at all. I'm especially put off by the texture of the nuts after they have been steaming inside the bread for an hour. However, I did have a few leftover chopped pecans in the pantry and, in an effort to use everything in the house before our move, sprinkled them atop the bread.

The pecans remained crunchy and nutty, and the baking brought out their natural sweetness very nicely. I also appreciated the contrast between the crunchy texture of the crust and bread's chewy, soft insides. In short, I may never make banana bread without pecans again.

Spiked Basil Lemonade

2007-07-10T18:39:00.000-07:00

Our cross-country move is just around the corner, and Lee and I have been trying to make maximum use of the food and beverages in our cupboards. Among other things, this has meant trying out new cocktail ideas.

When we first moved to Oak Park, Lee and I hosted a small cocktail party, inviting our new coworkers. The party was great fun, but the coworkers were mostly beer and wine drinkers.

Now, about one year later, our little bar is brimming with bottles of neglected spirits. Tossing most of this liquor is inevitable; but in the meantime, we are trying out a few new cocktails so all is not wasted.

Tonight's experiment was a spiked version of our favorite summer drink, basil lemonade. I used an iced tea pitcher for this, but you could easily replicate it with a regular pitcher and a strainer.

Start by mixing half a cup each of sugar and hot water to make a simple syrup. Roughly chop a generous handful of basil (probably two cups, before chopping) and let it steep in the syrup for a little while, maybe 15 minutes or so. Add the juice of two lemons and a couple cups of ice cubes, and let it steep in the fridge for another 15-30 minutes. Remove the pitcher from the refrigerator and strain out the basil leaves. This is one of the fun tricks with this drink--it looks like lemonade but has an added kick from the basil. If you wanted a non-alcoholic basil lemonade, add another 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water and serve. For a spiked lemonade, use vodka in place of the water.

It's a great balance of flavors--neither too sweet nor too strong, grown-up without tasting overly boozy.

Think Globally, Eat Locally?

2007-06-18T13:48:00.000-07:00

What does someone do if they love food and care about environmental stewardship--particularly, curbing consumption of fossil fuels? Do non-coastal dwellers forego saltwater fish? Do Americans stop drinking French wine? Do New Yorkers stop drinking California wine?

Even the things that seem like they should be simple aren't. Lee and I have had a lot of conversations lately about choosing organics/natural foods vs. choosing locally grown food. It's a lot of grey. What if, for instance, your only local milk option is pumped full of hormones? (Luckily, ours isn't.)

Or, in the case of today's shopping trip: what if there aren't any local produce options? I went to Whole Foods this afternoon and found precisely one item in the produce department that was grown locally. I should take a moment here to say that it is the middle of June, and Lee and I live in Illinois. It's not as if we live in Alaska and I'm writing this post in the dead of winter. Illinois! June!

But back to today: now that summer has arrived, I decided that I'd choose this week's fruits and veggies based on what was trucked in from nearby (and by nearby I mean the midwest, not just Chicagoland or Illinois). I found some Michigan blueberries right by the entrance and dropped them in my basket. Then I circled the entire produce section twice but found only California and Central American options. So, I moved on.

The meat department was much better. I immediately alighted on some ostrich burgers from Illinois and pork sausages from Wisconsin. I then found a whole roasting chicken, hormone free, from Indiana. I probably could have kept going, but that was already more meat than we like to eat in a week.

Sadly, I had to sail right past the fish counter.

We already had milk and coffee, but I needed and found eggs (Illinois). Your deductive reasoning skills are probably hard at work now, wondering what on Earth we're going to make with this sad batch of food.

I hunted desperately for yogurt before finally finding a gourmet brand from Indiana, which means we'll have yogurt with blueberries for breakfast or desserts.

I decided to make breakfast for dinner one night with my sausage and eggs.

For the ostrich burgers, I found hamburger buns from Wisconsin, which seemed like a waste--technically within my parameters, but bread should never really have to travel more than a few miles. Lee and I just went to Paris on our honeymooon, and the prevalence of the boulangerie is surely influencing me here.

But still no plan for the chicken. And no vegetables in our diet this week. So, I went to the frozen food aisle and picked up mixed veggies and broccoli, both packaged in Austin, Texas. I have no idea whether it's better to buy non-local frozen veggies or non-local fresh veggies. I'm sure it's probably the same, but for some reason this felt a little better.

I then purchased Frontera chips and salsa (produced in Chicago) and some local cheese, just to have a few more things to eat. I went back for a small bag of red roasting potatoes produced somewhere in the U.S. The total bill was about $55.

Going to Whole Foods today was a learning experience: although Lee and I discuss the origins of our produce regularly, I had never really thought about where my bread was coming from until today. Luckily, the Oak Park farmers' market takes place every weekend during summer, so starting next week Lee and I can purchase local food and then plan meals for the week accordingly.

We're moving to Arizona in just a few weeks, and it will be interesting to see what is available for us there. Since I'll be in grad school and Lee will be working from home, we'll probably try to make more of the convenience foods we now buy: mayonnaise, bread, tortillas, etc.

I don't want to completely stop eating midwestern cheese or drinking Spanish wines. But there's just no excuse for eating a cookie or carton of yogurt that traveled 2500+ miles to get to my grocery store.

At least, not anymore.

Brik

2007-05-04T07:45:00.005-07:00

This stuff is amazing. Like a really special tuna sandwich. Or, perhaps, a really special egg turnover.

First, mix together one can of olive-oil packed tuna (drained), green onions, parsley, salt and pepper. Add a small drizzle of olive oil if necessary. Spoon 1/4 of the mixture on the lower corner of an eggroll wrapper, making a little ring. Paint the edges of the wrapper with some egg white and crack a small (or medium) egg into the center of the ring. Quickly close up the wrapper, making a triangle, and shallow-fry in some high-heat canola oil.

When the edges of the brik start to brown, it's time to flip. Brown the other side and pop it onto a plate to serve. Ideally the egg inside is creamy, like an egg cooked over-medium.

We HIGHLY recommend making these little guys one at a time, because they can get messy. Once you get the hang of it, though, it's very easy. We've made Brik for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

2007-05-04T07:45:00.001-07:00

Was this the simplest, most toothsome weeknight supper we've ever prepared? Quite possibly.

You can read the Saveur recipe from which this was taken here. We swapped the pancetta for bacon and used whole-wheat pasta. We had pasta leftover and found it much less tasty the second time around; I don't think it reheats well. Next time, we'll invite a couple friends over and polish it in one fell swoop.

Barbecue Baked Lentils with Chicken Apple Sausage

2007-04-18T19:00:00.000-07:00

Since learning that we will be moving in a few short months, Lee and I have started forming our grocery lists with an eye on clearing out the cupboards.

Some time ago, we bought lentils (I think they were for Smoked Cheddar and Lentil Burgers) and I noticed this week that we still had a couple cups leftover. It's finally starting to warm up here in Chicago and we're not in the mood for soup these days, so I started hunting around for a unique way to use these little beans. Lo and behold, Cooking Light listed a recipe for Barbecue Baked Lentils.

We served the lentils with chicken apple sausage and some Dijon mustard and a side salad--a nice spring welcome at our table.

I made the lentils according to the recipe, but I wouldn't do it again. The method (pre-simmering for 20 minutes, baking with a sauce that includes some of the cooking liquid) is a keeper, but I found the sauce to be one-dimensional and altogether too sweet. Next time, I'd create my own sauce or use one of the fabulous-sounding recipes from Epicurious.

Chicken Frittata

2007-04-14T14:46:00.000-07:00

Lee and I love a frittata. We'll eat one for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner. So today, when we found in our fridge a bit of leftover chicken (from the Chicken with 20 Cloves of Garlic), a half-empty bag of frozen potatoes O'Brien, a red bell pepper, some Chihuahua cheese and five eggs, there was only one thing to do for brunch.

I used to be an omelette fan, and I like them. But more and more often, I find myself drawn to the foolproof frittata, which is basically a baked omelette. Just saute vegetables, mix in the pre-cooked meats and a few beaten eggs, top with cheese, and move the skillet directly from the stovetop to a 350-degree oven. Thirty minutes later, you have breakfast for eight!

Frittatas are often quite fluffy, but you'll notice that this one is pretty flat. As I mentioned, we had only five eggs. I could have used a smaller skillet, but decided instead to make a flatter frittata that would yield more servings with fewer eggs. With our wedding just around the corner, we're trying to eat light.

Chicken with 20 Cloves of Garlic

2007-04-12T20:46:00.000-07:00

Lee and I are always on the lookout for a meal that we can transform into different dishes throughout the week. Tonight, we made one of the tastiest, easiest dishes I can remember--Chicken with 20 Cloves of Garlic, adapted from a recipe we saw on the Cooking Light web site.

Start by combining a bit of butter with a bit of olive oil (perhaps a teaspoon of each) into a large covered saute pan. Take a whole cut-up chicken and brown it in the pan; you may need to do this in two batches. The chicken needn't be cooked through at this point; you just need three or four minutes per side.

Once the chicken is browned, set it aside for a moment and saute 20 whole cloves of garlic until they're just starting to tan. Then arrange the chicken evenly over the garlic cloves. Add in 1/2 cup of white wine and 3/4 cup of chicken broth, cover and simmer for about 25 minutes. When the chicken is cooked through, remove it (along with the garlic cloves) and reduce the sauce for five or ten minutes.

This simple meal is perfect with a little bread (the garlic will spread like butter) and a salad or green vegetable. Though Lee and I were dining as a pair, it would be a perfectly appropriate entree to serve to a small dinner party, provided you were looking for something a little rustic.

One note--the braise this chicken gets does no favors to the skin, leaving it pale and flubbery. The skin adds a ton of flavor during the cooking process, but I'd recommend skinning the chicken before serving. With the moisture and flavor imparted by the wine and stock, I assure you, you won't miss the skin a bit.

The next day, we made lovely little chicken salad sandwich bites with the leftovers.

Kosher for Passover

2007-04-09T06:46:00.000-07:00

In our house, that means a lot of salads. You'll also note that it does not equal keeping kosher any other way.

We had a really fun Seder (sadly, no pics) a week ago, to which our friend Rachel brought homemade matzo. Infused with rosemary, it was so delicious we ate it all weekend. The recipe, I'm told, came from The Bread Bible. If the matzo is any indication, this looks to be a book worth picking up.

Maple-Glazed Salmon with Nutmeg Zucchini

2007-03-19T04:40:00.000-07:00

Last week, MSC-certified, Alaskan wild-caught sockeye salmon was on sale at Whole Foods. Naturally, we didn't want to do anything too much to it, since Alaskan sockeye tends to have delicious, rich flavor. Jenny found this great recipe for a maple glaze, so when I got home from work, we fired up the broiler and got started on this extremely simple dish. The glaze is nothing more than maple syrup, hoisin sauce, and mustard. We coated the salmon before putting it under the broiler, basted it again about halfway through, and I drizzled just a little bit of glaze right when we took it out of the oven.

For the side dish, we made nutmeg zucchini. Again, a very simple dish. This is grated zucchini lightly sautéed in a little bit of butter with salt, pepper, and a dash of nutmeg.

Both recipes came from a recent cookbook acquisition, Cooking Light Superfast Suppers, which is filled with delicious, low-fat recipes for weeknights. As busy as we've been lately, it's been a big help.

Tuna and Spinach Sandwich with Olive-Lemon Mayonaisse

2007-02-26T09:35:00.000-07:00

Watching Giada on Food Network several weeks ago, we spied this tuna sandwich that she was making with some kind of olive-mayo dressing and tuna that's been packed in oil. Not a traditional tuna salad, mind, but tuna chunks with a layer of mayo above and a bed of greens below.

Since we like a good sandwich (and since I like pretty much any sandwich), I made a version of this for lunch. It came together really easily, and it tasted great.

We started with a small ciabatta, which we split into enough pieces for four pieces of sandwich. I can't remember exactly what kind of tuna we used, but we did get it packed in oil. I drained it in our colander but didn't rinse. The oil added some really good flavor. For the greens, we used baby spinach.

To start the dressing, I pitted about fifteen black olives and dropped them into the food processor. Then, I added the juice of 1/2 a lemon and some salt and pepper. I processed until smooth. Then I mixed in a spoonful of store-bought mayonnaise (unfortunately, it wasn't until after I made this sandwich that I decided to try making my own mayo from scratch; remarkably simple, there'll be a post about it soon). The result is a bright lavender-colored dressing that really brightens the sandwich.

For easy transport, and to keep the bread fresh, I wrapped the sandwiches in parchment first. This kept them from getting too dry and crispy.

I ate mine at home and added a crisp apple and some rice pudding to balance it out.

Cranberry-Walnut Power Bars

2007-02-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

We're always on the lookout for good portable snacks, especially something that can give us a little afternoon energy. Last month (in Food & Wine, I think), I spotted a recipe for cranberry-walnut power bars from Heidi Swanson. They were, as with a lot of things I've been cooking lately, extraordinarily simple. And they should be just as easy to manipulate next time we make them.

First came the dry ingredients. These included cranberries, toasted walnuts, oat bran, rolled oats, puffed Kashi cereal, and diced crystallized ginger. Next, I boiled brown rice syrup with vanilla. When the syrup was hot enough, I pulled it off the stovetop and poured it over the dry ingredients.

After stirring to incorporate everything, I pressed the mix into a greased 9" x 13" Pyrex pan. (If you try making your own power bars, make sure you press down hard at this step so you'll have firm, chewy bars that will hold together nicely.) They cooled for about 45 minutes. I cut the whole batch into about 16 bars and wrapped each individually in plastic wrap to keep them fresh. We stored the bars in some Tupperware and ate a few as snacks when we weren't sick from the flu.

I'm already planning to make these again, possibly with chocolate chips and soy nuts or dates and figs. I suspect you could make two half-size batches of dry ingredients and have two flavors of granola bars at the same time.

Black-Bean Burgers with Lime-Pepper Fries

2007-02-13T08:45:00.000-07:00

Turns out, vegetarian burgers are even easier to make than meat burgers. Thus begins our obsession with black-bean burgers.

One can of black beans gave us four burgers. Just rinse the beans and mash to desired consistency. In go some herbs and spices and an egg to hold them together. I cooked these on our cast-iron grill until browned on both sides. At the end, I topped each burger with a couple of slices of avocado. We spooned salsa on them at the table. Simple, quick, and delicious. On the side, we served some oven-baked fries, tossed with lime zest and pepper.

Out of the kitchen.

2007-02-12T07:06:00.000-07:00

The one-two punch of a brutal stomach flu and preparing for a vacation has made the kitchen a quiet, lonely place this past week.

So, instead of the usual cooking photos, I invite you to share some of our culinary adventures from the weekend. Lee and I spent four days in Tucson for a pre-wedding getaway, where we feasted on a variety of organic, local foods at Cafe Poca Cosa, ate the most amazing goat cheese and shrimp quesadillas ever at Barrio, and snacked on fry bread sandwiches at a little cafe on the Tohono O'ldham Indian Reservation.

Check out vacation photos here.

Moroccan-Style Potato and Egg Sandwiches

2007-02-04T06:18:00.000-07:00

I spotted these sandwiches in Gourment magazine and couldn't resist making them. The original recipe called for Portugese rolls, but, for some reason, I had a hard time tracking those down around here. At one nearby bakery, the guy behind the counter responded with "what are those?" At Whole Foods, though, I found some really nice ciabata rolls.

The recipe itself is a cinch. Basically, hard boil enough eggs for everybody to have one. Sauté some sliced onion, potato, and cubanelle pepper. Then, when everything's done (vegetables are soft, eggs are cooked and quartered), stuff the sandwiches. First, hollow out the rolls. Then, make a bottom layer of two egg quarters. Pile some of the vegetables on top of the eggs. Top the sandwich off with two more egg quarters. We sprinkled a mix of cumin, cayenne and paprika on ours. Next time, we'll either mix that in as we layer the filling, or else we'll put them out on the table so we can add more when we get down to the bottom of the sandwich.

They made a great, quick breakfast, and they'd probably make a great brunch food, too.

Butternut Squash Soup

2007-01-31T05:38:00.000-07:00

In addition to cooking a lot more in the new year, we've also been reading more and more. A couple of weeks ago, on a flight to Maryland, we picked up Food & Wine, Gourmet, and Saveur (featuring the much-discussed Saveur 100).

Anyhow, in F&W, there was one article about locavores (folks who eat local food as exclusively as possible). I didn't know there was a name for that. Jenny and I pretty much always try to eat locally grown foods, and when that isn't possible we buy as much organic as possible (the one place we get tripped up is wine; Illinois wine is simply undrinkable). In the locavore article, there were a few recipes from a guy in Vermont, including one for butternut squash soup that sounded simple and delicious. And, really, it's just about the simplest soup I've made in a long time.

Just onions sautéed until soft and brown, then cubed squash simmered in stock for about 40 minutes (until soft). Then you blend the soup, whisk in a little heavy cream, and that's it. I sprinkled a little salt and freshly cracked pepper over top just before we served it.

The original recipe called for smoked cheddar and cooked apples over the soup, but we sliced them up on the side instead. I liked the snap of the fresh apple, and the soup had enough flavor that it didn't really need the added ingredients.

For dessert, we had a bread & chocolate 3400 Phinney bar from Theo Chocolate (a States-based organic and fair trade chocolate company). It had a wonderful blend of saltiness and creaminess and would nicely balance out the rosa pfeffer bar we ate last month.

Vegetable Penance Soup

2007-01-22T20:41:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend out of the kitchen, visiting out-0f-state relatives. But two flights in two days means a lot of eating on the go, and today we felt the need for something fresh, light and easy.

Enter Vegetable Penance Soup. Basically: saute a medium-sized onion and a few cloves of garlic in just a dab of olive oil, then add some vegetable broth and every vegetable you can find. We used broccoli, cauliflower, chard, zucchini, carrots and cabbage. Then add in some fresh herbs (we used a couple bay leaves and a sprig of thyme) and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper. Simmer until the carrots are tender and eat a generous bowlful.

Olive-and-Herb-Crusted Pork Chops with Collard Greens and Goose-Fat-Fried Potatoes

2007-01-19T09:23:00.000-07:00

So, we've been kind of quiet this week, mostly because both of us have been fighting off a nasty flu. We finally kicked it with a little leftover avgolemono, but almost an entire week has gone by since we ate this dinner.

I'd tagged a recipe on Chow that came from the Niman Ranch Cookbook. It was for lamb chops with an olive-and-herb crust, and it sounded totally fantastic. Cut to us with some rotted lamb a couple of days later, either the result of a bad batch from Whole Foods or else we just waited too long to freeze and thaw it after leaving it in the fridge for the first few days.

But I'd already mixed up the bread crumbs and the olive paste (incidentally, both took about 5 minutes in the Cuisinart, and the taste far exceeds the effort). And so we went back to the supermarket, this time opting for some bone-in, center-cut pork chops. We followed the cooking instructions in the recipe, which called for a little searing on the stove and a longer cooking time in the oven. We've seen this on America's Test Kitchen before, and it really is an easy way to get the meat cooked pretty evenly (see below).

To accompany them, I thought we'd use some of our reserved goose fat and fry up a couple of new potatoes. If you ever have reason to cook a goose, I can't recommend highly enough the use of goose fat on potatoes. They fried to a perfect golden brown, and the outside had a superb crispiness that I've never gotten before with oil.

To cut through the meat and fat, I cut up an onion and tossed it into a fry pan with just a tad of oil. Once it cooked all the way down, I splashed in a little leftover claret (which stained the onion red) and stirred in a bunch of chopped collard greens. Then I put a lid on the pan and turned off the burner. The remaining heat cooked down the greens and helped infuse them with some of the oniony wine flavor.

Now, the pork chops cooked pretty well, though we found some reddish spots near the very middle (despite our digital thermometer telling us we were well cooked). If/when we make this again, I'd use smaller chops so I could better manage the cooking time. Also, I think I was too gentle on the chops when pressing the olive mixture into them. We ended up losing a little bit in the pan, which I scraped off and piled on top for extra flavor (surprisingly, it didn't char), but it would have been better seared into the chops.

Chicken curry with rice

2007-01-17T20:53:00.000-07:00

Tonight, we ate a wonderful meal that was half bottled and half fresh. Williams-Sonoma has some wonderful bottled curries, for those of us who have yet to attempt serious Indian cooking. We simmered chicken breasts with one of their curries and some frozen broccoli and okra until the chicken was tender and delicious.

The bottled curry alone, perhaps, is not post-worthy. But the basmati rice that accompanied our dish was so lovely that I must share it. Basically: prepare the basmati rice according to the package, adding one whole vanilla bean and one cinnamon stick to the water. When the rice is finished, fish out the vanilla and cinnamon and you're done. The rice is unbelievably fragrant and delicious without being overpowering.

Yum and yum.

Hot cocoa

2007-01-16T14:47:00.001-07:00

Well, winter has finally hit Chicago, and for Lee that means one thing: hot chocolate (I'm more of a coffee drinker, myself).

There are a few varieties of hot chocolate mix around our place, most with spices of some sort. But once Lee fought his way through the blustery cold, he was in the mood for a classic, rich drink.

Here's what I cobbled together from ingredients on hand. It came out pretty well, I'd say.

Hot Cocoa for Lee
2 tablespoons of sweetened cocoa powder (like Ghiradelli's)
1 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup of whole milk
1 cup of skim milk

Heat the milk in a small pot and whisk in the cocoa powder once things warm up. That's it.

The two types of milk are probably not necessary: mostly, I used the whole milk to bolster the richness--skim would not have worked with the bittersweet chocolate. The mix of cocoas is the crucial detail here. The result: a perfectly grown-up, perfectly classic hot cocoa.

I even had a couple of sips.

Spicy Udon Noodles with Tofu

2007-01-14T19:29:00.000-07:00

It started getting a little cold in Chicago this weekend, so we decided to make a batch of spicy Asian noodles to get us through the weekend. We made a fairly basic udon noodle dish out of Cooking Light with some tofu, snow peas, and mushrooms.

In general, I thought the recipe came out pretty well, but there were a few things that I would do differently next time (and there will be a next time; we love our udon around here). The recipe called for me to add chili pepper, garlic, and ginger at the same time that I added the broth. Instead, I'll probably sauté them for a little while first, so they release their oils and flavors and make a richer broth. I think we'll also make a little less broth (we used 3 cups, but 2 would have done it for the full recipe).

Overall the dish was very tasty. And we used the extra spot on our bowls to keep a blob of chili paste handy to spice up our noodles.

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Four-Herb Tomato Sauce

2007-01-10T20:14:00.000-07:00

About a week ago, while putting together this week's menu, I started clicking around the recipe posts on the newly launched Chow. One that caught my eye immediately was this one for autumn squash ravioli with sage brown butter sauce. Seemed like a nice mid-week dinner that wouldn't take too much effort to throw together. By the time we got done with it, though, we'd turned it a little bit on its head, for the better I think.

The squash I stuck to pretty much as written. This morning I roasted two halves of the butternut squash in the oven and mashed the cooked insides together with vanilla and nutmeg. Then I let it sit all day.

By the time I get home, Jennifer and I had already decided to open a bottle of Francis Ford Coppola's claret with tonight's dinner. So, I figured the whole dish would be better with a red sauce. We had one box of plain tomato sauce and a few packages of fresh herbs: parsley, sage, rosemary, and oregano.

I started with half a red onion and two cloves of garlic. Those sautéed over medium heat while I added the fresh herbs. Then, the tomato sauce got dumped in, along with some chopped mushrooms, for texture. We simmered the sauce for maybe thirty or forty minutes, to let the flavors really mix together. By the time it was ready, Jennifer said she could smell it out in the hallway.

The ravioli was a cinch to put together, mostly because we used wonton wrappers. We tried a few different shapes, just to get a feel for what we'd serve in different contexts. For a dinner, I'd definitely stick with big squares. But for a cocktail party, we made some little rectangles that would work very well. We poured a little bit of sauce over it to serve and paired the whole dish with some of the leftover kale and cabbage.

In the end, the sweetness of the ravioli matched the herby sauce amazingly well. And the claret played expertly off the peppery sauce. This was easily my best meal this week.

Chicken Strips with Blue Cheese Dip and Kale-Cabbage Saute

2007-01-10T19:59:00.000-07:00

We have a few foods that we like to go back to from time to time. Some dishes that are nice and easy, and that cook up pretty fast. One thing that pops up every few weeks are chicken strips (from a recipe that we found in Cooking Light).

They're very simple. In one dish, mix milk with some hot sauce. In the second, paprika, red pepper, black pepper, and salt are sifted into flour. Heat some oil (we use organic canola) in a frying pan. Dip the chicken into the milk, then roll it around in the flour. The whole batch cooks up in around 15 minutes.

The dip is one thing we keep toying with, and this time around we discovered a wonderfully creamy blue cheese at Whole Foods. It made a chunky, flavorful dip that blended well with the spicy chicken strips.

For the side dish, I put together a kale-cabbage sauté, also from Cooking Light. We love leafy greens, and this was a neat twist on a coleslaw-like dish, served hot instead of cold and without mayonnaise. There is a little bit of fresh ginger and jalapeno in the dish, but I might increase each the next time around.

Scones

2007-01-09T05:45:00.000-07:00

I forgot how easy it is to make fresh breakfast breads, even during the work week. But yesterday I hopped out of bed and went straight to work on a batch of traditional currant scones. The recipe that I used included eggs, and you can see that the scones ended up with a slightly cakier texture. This seems to have worked out well for freezing them, though we plan to make a future batch without eggs to get a more biscuity scone.

Avgolemono & Greek Salad

2007-01-07T20:17:00.000-07:00

After receiving the America's Test Kitchen big book of chicken and poultry recipes, I was looking forward to making a true chicken stock from scratch, something I've never tried before. When Jennifer requested her favorite soup, avgolemono, I thought that would be a perfect place to start for a rainy, windy winter's day. I decided to pair it with a simple Greek salad, once again dipping into Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.

First, the avgolemono. Made of about 4 pounds of whole legs, one diced onion, two bay leaves, and 12 cups of water, the stock simmered uncovered for three hours. I only poked at it every once in a while to skim off the foam and fat that settled on top.

According to America's Test Kitchen, you can simmer up to five hours to get a fuller chicken flavor, but we were getting hungry. So, I strained the solids and discarded them (the chicken at this point had really good texture but hardly any taste; we might have been able to save it by turning it into chicken salad, but neither one of us thought it would be worth it). Then I added a cup of arborio rice, which simmered for about 20 minutes while I prepped the rest of the ingredients: 1 cup of fresh lemon juice, 1/4 cup chopped parsley, and four eggs whisked together. When the rice was tender and plump, I whisked the juice/parsley/egg combo into the soup. I whisked as quickly as I could to keep the eggs from cooking into egg-drop strands. There were still some slight bits of white, but overall the soup was thick and creamy.

The salad was really basic, and I stuck to Bittman's recipe word for word, mostly to see how it would come out. He uses all the usual suspects (lettuce, olives, feta, mint) and one unexpected (radish). A little olive oil and fresh lemon juice on top finished it off.

Black-Eyed Pea Dip with Toasted Pita

2007-01-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

We rang in 2007 with black-eyed peas, bacon and collard greens for lunch. Black-eyed peas, eaten before noon on New Year's Day, are considered good luck.

I had quite a bit of leftover beans and decided today to make a dip with them. I served them with oven-toasted pita chips. Perhaps we'll wrest a little more luck out of this year, yet.

Black-Eyed Pea Dip
Drop two cloves of garlic in the food processor, pulsing until they're finely chopped. Then add about two cups of black-eyed peas (if you're using canned peas, rinse and drain them first. Better yet, use freshly cooked peas. They're so inexpensive!) and process until creamy. Add one teaspoon of natural peanut butter, the juice of one small lemon, and salt, pepper and Tabasco to taste.

Toasted Pita
Cut pita rounds into triangles. Spray the bottom of a jelly roll pan with nonstick spray, then arrange the pita triangles on a single layer in the pan. Brush the tops of the pita with a lightly beaten egg white (I suppose you could also use more cooking spray) and bake them in a 450-degree oven for about five minutes. If need be, crank the oven to broil for the last minute or so.

We ate it with Escarole and Fennel Salad with Pears and Gruyere and called it lunch.

Pork Tenderloin with Risotto and Green Beans

2007-01-04T18:22:00.000-07:00

Lee and I had a pork tenderloin around and have been trying to find the best use for it. I saw a recipe online for pork tenderloin in a caper-olive sauce, but we didn't want the weight of a sauce--especially since I was making a risotto to accompany the meat. Here is what we did, instead.

The Risotto
Chop some vegetables (I used one onion, a couple cloves of garlic and some celery) and saute them in olive oil over medium heat until they start to soften. Then add about a cup of rice. I usually use arborio, but in the midst of daydreaming about grad school applications, added basmati instead. Surprisingly, it worked. After everything mixes together and the rice starts to turn translucent, deglaze the pan with some dry white wine (about a cup). Turn the heat down to medium-low and stir the mixture frequently with a wooden spoon. Meantime, take out a container of chicken stock. When the rice has absorbed the liquid, add about half a cup of stock and stir. Repeat this process until the rice is creamy and tender, with just a bit of bite left in the center. How much liquid this takes will depend on your rice and your kitchen, so be sure to taste the rice from time to time. Finish your risotto with a little olive oil or butter and perhaps some parmesan cheese (we added a couple ounces of parmigiano-reggiano at the end, grating it right over the pan with a microplane).

The Tenderloin
A little olive oil in the pan - sear on all sides, then turn down the heat and cover, turning every few minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 160. We didn't add a thing to the tenderloin--not even a dash of salt.

The Tapenade
Lee made an insanely delicious tapenade with one chopped garlic clove, a bit of chopped parsley, some kalamata olives and some capers. He finished the whole thing off with two teaspoons of port. It was incredible.

We served the tenderloin over risotto with some tapenade on top. On the side, green beans with toasted pine nuts. It was a successful meal, rice blunder aside, and everything came together pretty quickly once the risotto was finished.

Cheese Omelet with Salsa Fresca

2007-01-03T19:52:00.000-07:00

Tonight, we both wanted something simple. I proposed hot dogs (we like the uncured beef franks from Wellshire Farms), but Jennifer thought we'd be better off with cheese omelets. Yes, she was right.

Right now we're eating Organic Valley's organic extra-large eggs, from cage-free hens that have been fed a 100% organic vegetarian diet. We usually look for at least cage-free, but these were a real find. They've got full egg flavor, and seemed to hold together pretty well.

I grated some Whole Foods cheddar, and Jennifer took charge of the omelet cooking. Then, I spooned some leftover salsa fresca, also from Whole Foods, over on the small side of our Vessel Fusionware dishes. A couple sprigs of cilantro and a sprinkle of fresh-ground salt and pepper finished off the presentation.

Black Bean Soup

2007-01-02T18:42:00.000-07:00

Here in Chicago, the weather feels more like autumn than winter, but we've been craving winter foods just the same. Taking my cue from a recently acquired Williams-Sonoma cookbook, I made a fragrant, simple black bean soup for dinner tonight.

After soaking about two cups of black beans overnight, I made the dish on the stovetop. I chopped the vegetables (two onions, one red bell pepper, one seeded jalapeno, two cloves of garlic) in the food processor, then sauteed them in a stock pot with some cumin and oregano. I used just a couple tablespoons of olive oil.

Once the veggies were soft and the spices fragrant, I added the beans, one hamhock, and enough water to cover everything. The soup simmered on the stovetop for about two hours, until the beans were cooked through. I drained out some of the water and reserved it, then started processing the soup until it had the desired texture. I was going for a thick base, with a few whole black beans mixed in.

We then topped the whole thing off with a wonderful salsa crema - a fresh tomato salsa mixed with sour cream and lime juice. A little dollop of the crema with a sprig of fresh cilantro rounded out the meal very nicely.

The soup turned out well, although next time I would skip the hamhock in favor of two or three slices of well-chosen bacon. I think this dish could easily be adapted to the crock pot - just saute your vegetables first. In fact, I would guess that the soup would benefit from the longer cooking time of the crock pot. The flavor certainly matured by the time we reheated the soup for lunch the next day.

Pan-Seared Chicken Breasts with Sweet Potato Fries

2007-01-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I made pan-seared chicken breasts in thyme-peppercorn sauce with steamed green beans and brown sugar-glazed sweet potato fries. The chicken is really simple: just pound two half chicken breasts until they're about a quarter of an inch thick, then sear them on each side for three or four minutes in a bit of oil. Set them aside, and sprinkle a little flour in your pan (a teaspoon, maybe) and start scraping up the fond. Deglaze the pan with half a cup or so of chicken stock and maybe a quarter of a cup of half-and-half. Stir in a couple of teaspoons of dried thyme and a few peppercorns.

The fries were a great find from Cooking Light.

In other news, Lee and I have decided to try alternating the menu planning. We share the cooking duties, as it is, but we hope we'll cook more often if we take turns taking charge of things. So I'm playing executive chef this week. I hope he'll post his meals next week--Lee's an excellent cook.

Jen

A Year in the Kitchen.

2007-01-01T19:27:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year!

I thought it would be fun to document some of the things we cook in 2007.

Lee and I kicked off the new year with a roast goose, which we shared with some wonderful friends at a New Year's Eve dinner party. We bought a frozen goose from Whole Foods and, following Mark Bittman's recipe from How to Cook Everything, we roasted the goose, uncovered, in a 350 degree oven for 3 hours, pricking the skin about every twenty minutes. Geese have very thick skin, and pricking it allows the excess fat to drip off, leaving a tender, juicy bird with crackling skin.

We stuffed the goose with chestnut sausage stuffing and seasoned the skin with salt and pepper. Rounding out the dish was a plum and port wine sauce, which was good enough to drink from the pan.

This was our first time cooking and eating goose, and we were thrilled with the result! I think it may become our new holiday bird of choice.

Jen