I decided to read up on Anson Mills and check the Cooks Illustrated taste test for grits, as I’ve been searching for them for some time after having them at SCRATCHbread.

Turns out the grits are freshly milled and must be kept refridgerated or frozen. Because they’re so perishable, very few stores carry them. I’d been mistaken and was keeping my eye out for Arrowhead Mills, which has the blue bag.

Arrowhead got the runner up, and scored much better than Bob’s Red Mill and Quaker Oats, and is more rare here probably because Bob’s Red Mill is a smaller company (with a classier website) and people like that more, where as Arrowhead seems to be more corporate. Now that I’m looking at their website, though, I can’t even find their grits. Maybe they stopped making them?

Anyway, we’re in New York, and I always want to see if I can find something locally rather than order it, so I called up the Brooklyn Kitchen, and they confirm carrying Anson’s Yellow and Blue grits. That got me wondering: I bought some blue grits there, once, from the refridgerated section. Could it be?

Ah, but it is. Here I’ve already bought them, already had them, but so long ago I faintly recall. And now we know.

The review and website indicate that cooking time is much more significant than regular grits, requiring an overnight soak and 45-90 minutes cooking time. Sounds like these grits might be destined for the slow cooker.

An agent walked into my office with an issue of AM New York (that free newspaper they give out on the subway) and presented it to me, saying “I knew you’d like this, because you like healthy food.” I could launch into a diatribe here, but suffice it to say most of my real estate agent peers are not known for their health conscious eating, and so my penchant for delicious and wholesome foods is often commented on in a joking (albeit sometimes envious) manner.

The ad in question was for Graze, a healthy snack delivery vehicle, compliment of our friends in the UK. I signed up immediately, excited about the prospect of getting new snacks in the mail every week. I was not aware that I was one of the first (and limited) subscribers in the Graze beta. Exclusivity is fun, but this is really amazing and I want my friends to be able to get in on it, too.

Shortly after signing up, my first box came in the post, and I could not have been more excited. I tore into it with vigor and, but with enough caution to squeeze out some nice photographs, as is my want.

The snacks are varied and come in a variety of categories. You can indicate on the website how much you like a particular snack, and you will receive more, less, or none based on your preferences. Lately I’ve found myself leaving the items from the ‘all fruit’ category alone. I think I might be a little burned out on dried fruit at the moment, so I think I’ll suspend those for the time being.The snacks come in cute little packages with names and phrases that draw you in, like “Guilt Free High Tea” and “Eat me quick, I’m fresh!” that make them impossible not to love.

One might imagine that you’d end up with a ton of variations on trail mix, but they’ve actually gotten quite creative, even presenting a combination of a poppy seed cake and a cup of tea.

This idea is fantastic, but it wouldn’t hold up without flavor. Luckily, the snacks deliver and every package holds a wallop of delicious tastes.

They even gave me these nice little promo cards to hand out out, which I did avidly before discovering the invites are limited. If you’re interested in getting in on the Grazing, let me know and I’ll get you fixed up as soon as more invitations are available. In the mean time, come by and grab a bite.

I’ve been on the hunt for some time for the coziest coffee shop / lounge in NYC, particularly in Brooklyn. It seems like cafe culture has been building up for some time, but I’ve yet to find a place with the perfect mix of excellent coffee, a nice window to look out of, and cozy seating (couches?). Something is always missing. There are some places that have these things, but their atmosphere makes the spaces uncomfortable for one reason or another. Do you have a favorite Cafe or Lounge in the city? What do you like about it?

This (brutally intense) cup of delicious tea came from a serendipitous discovery of the “Taste” section of the Stone Barns app.

• 3oz Whole Gingerroot (Young is better, but mature is fine), sliced
• Star Anise
• Cinnamon
• Cloves
• Cardamom Pods
• Nutmeg
• 4 cups filtered water
• Honey

Stone Barns, by the way, is a farm in the Hudson River Valley that is home to Blue Hill Restaurant, which sources its food from… you guessed it, the fields right outside. There’s a branch in the West Villiage, as well. I’ve not been to either, sadly, but I have been to the Blue Hill Café, which is also at Stone Barns, which is amazing. I got what was without doubt the best butternut squash soup of my life, and a few tips on how to perfect it. It’s a beautiful place.

The pursuit of a ‘perfect omelette’ may be folly when compared to the rustic beauty of natural disorder.

• 3 eggs
• Fat of your choice (butter, oil…bacon grease!?)
• Red onion, sliced
• Spinach
• Corn (frozen)
• Avocado, scoop-sliced
• Salsa (garnish)
• Paprika or Cayenne Pepper (garnish)

This recipe comes courtesy of Alton Brown, and is one he used to do battle with his gut and return to being fit. It’s altered slightly, as all recipes should be.

• 1 (4.375 oz) can sardines
• 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
• 1 tbsp sherry vinegar
• 1/4 tsp lemon zest
• lemon wedges
• cracked black peppercorns
• 2 slices hearty country bread
• 1/2 ripe avocado
• coarse sea salt

The magnificence of this morning’s light was irrefutable. I woke up with thoughts of playing a video game (I just got Guild Wars 2 to play with my younger brother) but one step in the breeze that whips through my house though open windows told me I had to relocate and read. I sat myself down on the living room couch with all the different magazines, papers, and books I’d been lugging around intending to get to, and I read for a short time. Then… Something called me into the kitchen. Maybe it was thirst? Maybe my body just knew. I walked through the refreshing breeze and into the flood of brilliant warm sunlight, and my day took new form.

I’ve been wanting, for a time, to transform my eat-in kitchen into a more devoted cooking space with a nice breakfast nook, island and stools. Perhaps I’m asking a bit too much of the space, but I’ll get to that another time. Today, I slid a few chairs into the brightest part of the kitchen, nearest the corner windows for maximum exposure to light, wind and view. Some days I have a craving to be outside, but I know that being so close to it and still being indoors can still be great, perhaps even better. I dream a dream of a home integrated with the outdoors, the line between created and existing blurring out of sight.

A tiny studio house in the woods would be the perfect place to relax, write given the inspiration in the woods and tastes of the land. These things I crave for my future, in a time when my life is more devoted to food and writing, with that ever-present penchant for home design.

The first choice of reading was Garden & Gun, a magazine I unceremoniously borrowed from Champion Coffee (and it will be returned when I finish, mind you. In fact, I am writing this very passage in the neighboring backyard of Milk & Roses. I just spotted a rabbit out of the corner of my eye, and then noticed the little rabbit house in the back. How does one miss such an amazing thing? Too focused on getting to the writing, perhaps. I haven’t felt such a desire to write in quite some time, and thought I feel I’m getting far off topic here, being that I’m writing all of this in a parenthesis, I need this flow to be captured. I’ve wanted to write more and more lately as mention of books, publishing and giving talks and universities comes up. The thought of doing so just seems to suit me. Will it happen? It doesn’t matter, I have enough fun doing it just for the sake of itself, there’s no worry as to what comes of it.). The design and writing in this publication are fantastic. I can’t help but be excited about all of these elements of southern life that I so previously have shunned. Yes, I was raised in Mississippi and I wanted nothing more than to escape it and all its trappings. Now, I’m beginning to see the beautiful side of country living. I like New York’s approach to The South. It breathes a character into it with more style than I ever observed while actually living in it. I feel like now I have sufficient experience to do it right, or at least to craft it into something I could really appreciate.

New York seems to have a fond fascination with The South and the country that has been growing for some time. Farm-to-table and rustic stylings are common themes of my favorite eateries and bars. These aspects evoke a warmth of home that one does not quite get from the chic and minimal (thought I do enjoy those a great deal). These aspects are also not specifically appointed to The South so much as the lands beyond the lanes, no matter where they lie. I’ve have for a long time a fascination with New England, as well, and as time goes I am finding how to integrate my favorite aspects of each into my life and being. For now, though, I’ll return to what I have learned in these pages.

The first thing that struck me was the beauty of Beretta’s 686 Silver Pigeon 1 on an advertisement five pages in. I’ve never cared about shotguns. I’ve never cared about hunting. In fact, I had quite a bit of distaste for the deer hunters I’d always encountered in Mississippi. They and I were very far from similar in any what whatsoever. I cannot imagine I would ever dine with someone who wears full camouflage to a marketing seminar, a college course, said dinner, or…well, anywhere that wasn’t the woods. However… this beautiful instrument is one I would very much like to have above my mantle in a rustic country home. An article further in about master engraver Lisa Tomlin has a quote from her that captures my intrigue:

“Even people who aren’t interested in guns or knives are enthralled by these embellishments, and the fact that they exist on an item like a rifle just adds to the intrigue.”

This line was written for me. In the very same pages that housed the images that got me excited in the first place. How did they do that? How can it be so well put together? Now you begin to graze my fascination with this magazine. I can’t believe how good it is.

Another section I thought I would never care about: Quail hunting. It’s the wealthy countryman’s sport, no? Complete with beautiful, smart dogs (another area in which I was previously disinterested) and the aforementioned highly styled shotguns. I merely grazed the article, trying to prevent myself from becoming any more interested in the sport than I need to be at this point in my life. I do have a love affair with quail that could easily get out of hand. Why quail? It began at Snackbar, in Oxford, MS, after a particularly life altering dish (Thanks Vish.). It opened up the possibilities to poultry alternatives to chickens that have grown far too large and bland in wretched industrial farming. Now, I tend to find myself ordering quail, pidgeon, and all manner of birds when they pop up on the menus of my favorite establishments. The point is, I have to watch it or I may take my food sourcing to the next level at what would likely be incredible monetary expense. Speaking of expensive sports, golf was also mentioned in a short article about Pete Dye and the courses he’s built.

For the food aspects of Garden & Gun that of course win my heart, there was an article on Sorghum Molasses. Molasses is another item I never gave the time of day. It stuck me as bumpkin food. My, I really was growing a healthy distaste for The South. Stay anywhere you’re unhappy for too long and this seems to be the result. I knew of sorghum being made at a tiny farm just off the Natchez Trace Parkway, but I had no interest in trying it at the time. For me, the quest for sweeteners has always been about Pure Vermont Maple Syrup. Now that I have a healthy supply and have experienced the flavor (and it is, without doubt, fabulous), I am open to discovering new and different flavors in other syrups. This is where sorghum comes in. Luckily, a taste test is soon to be under weigh, as I tasked my brother with picking some up for us to try out in baked goods when he arrives here next week. I also read that a Vermonter makes sorghum and sells in at the Union Square Greenmarket on Saturdays, a claim I will certainly investigate this coming weekend. I’m most excited about trying it in baked goods.

“Purer than molasses and more southern than Maple Syrup, it’s a soulful alternative to honey and agave”

I’ve also had a growing penchant for eating increasingly locally. I enjoy that NYC is a port city and one can find products from the world over, but I think a healthier method, and a better way to become very engrossed in where you are, is to eat what belongs there. Part of this may have come from being fed up with paying premiums for lamb, when I know that’s what you get in Greece and Turkey just because that’s what’s there, not because it’s exotic. I can wait to have it while I’m there. Here, I’m going to stick to what is done best in my back yard.

Speaking of what is made in my backyard (on a global scale), there’s an article about Pappy Van Winkle featuring Julian P. Van Winkle III. The basic summary is this: Pappy is so expensive because all they want to do is make it right. And that takes time and focus, resulting in incredibly low production in comparison to the demand. Is it worth the price? No. is it good that someone cares so much about making bourbon the way they feel it is meant to be made? Absolutely. For me, though, I’ll likely never buy another glass/bottle.

Speaking once more of backyards, this yard at Milk & Roses is perfect. PERFECT I TELL YOU. How long have I been here? Three Hours? Four? Luxuriating. Indulging. Accomplishing. More days like this, please.

1 or 8 – Japanese – Williamsburg, Brooklyn

1or8 grabbed my attention some time ago when I was reading about quality sushi in the city. That was some time ago and I don’t quite recall the others, but the distinct name stuck with me. I read that the name applies to gambling and means “all or nothing”. A fine approach to dining, think.

The design of the space really struck me. Crisp whites surround and clean Japanese design is present. The acoustics and music, sadly, did not contribute to the clean atmosphere quite as I was expecting. The music was not raucous or invasive, simply not as elegant as I felt would match the look of the space.

Being a sucker for specials and exotic ingredients, I was compelled to get the shiso leaf and yuzu mojito. It was spectacular and opened the door to two ingredients with which I was previously unfamiliar.

In a place where sushi reigns, I felt the best way to appreciate some expert sushi chef work would be in the form of nigiri. Perhaps I just chose poorly, but I suspect nigiri is not for me. When I dine out I want an explosion of complex flavor, and the very mild slices of fish just do not align with that goal. These two specialty rolls, Crab and Dragon, however, delivered a cascade of flavors I was very excited to embrace and that I certainly recommend.

I often do not plan to get dessert, as I try to limit the amount of sweets I take in, but I would much rather enjoy sweets after a meal than as a mid-day snack. Fighting the latter battle we’ll get to later, but for now let us talk about ultimate dessert pairing: coffee. In the same manner as my eschewing sweets during the day-to-day, I have had even more success in eliminating coffee. This, too, will get its own post in time, but I must point out this one place in which I am most comfortable enjoying an espresso or cup of coffee. If I don’t stop writing about it now I’m going to end up on a massive coffee/dessert tirade, so let’s skip on.

Visuals sell me, as I’m sure you know by now, and the image I saw on 1or8′s website featuring this flan made me far too excited about it to pass it up. Plus, Black Sesame Sorbet? Who could deny such a delicacy? Be that a it may, I’ve grown to not really care for tofu in its various forms, so the flan was, I have to say, less than exciting for me.

In all, 1or8 was delicious, beautiful and a pleasure to dine in. I’m sure I’ll be back for the rolls or even to try the omakase when I’m feeling the need for a dining experience truly spectacular.

With every second the stalls at our markets and and the shelves in our stores bustle with products flowing ever more rapidly through our society. We are met with more flavors and tastes than our individual human lifespans will allow us to experience. Thankfully, we have the capacity for being selective: We can choose how we will address this massive abundance, and today I have made a decision on a single region: Wine.

When you live in a large city you’re likely to encounter wine stores like warehouses, with more styles and winemakers than one could comprehend, that even those who dedicate their lives barely touch. I know my life will never revolve around wine to so great an extent, and only now do I begin to touch the surface in earnest. So, how have I chosen to address the expanse before me? I will specialize. I will become an expert, to the extent that I am able, in white wine. Vin Blanc. Vino Bianco. (I’m also trying to learn some French and Italian, but that’s a note for another time.).

I’ve had many ask me “If you ever were to open a restaurant, what would it be?” and while my primary answer is “Incredibly expensive, very few seats”, I had an idea for a wine bar occur to me. I’d call it Bright White and it would serve only white wines (with the occasional rosé) and highlight the possibilities of pairing whites with all manner of foods. It would also, by nature, consist of the lighter fare that I feel should make up the majority of a healthy diet, with the occasional stupendous pairing of a rich, powerful white wine with a hearty dish. You know it’s possible, even if you haven’t experienced it first hand, and wouldn’t it be exciting to sit down, knowing you were about to experience something exciting and new? It would also have reasonably size portions, both of food and wine, because I often feel like the only way I’m going to get appropriate proportions at a restaurant is to make them myself.

So, why the need for an announcement here, you ask? For one, a written idea is always stronger than one simply floating in the head. I’ve heard a quote on occasion that was likely attributed to Confucius, something along these lines:

The faintest ink is stronger than the greatest thought.

Not just for this reason, but also because I want all of my friends to know of my goal. I want encouragement, excitement and participation. I want people to get involved, to check up on my progress, to help me in my goals. I gain knowledge for one reason: So I can share it. On that note, I’ve had also many people tell me I should write a cookbook. This idea, too, has received very serious consideration, and you may well be seeing a post soon saying that I’ve begun such an endeavor. Perhaps that, too, with encouragement, will come to fruition. Exciting times are among us, friend. Where will you be when it happens?

Having spent far too much time not cooking lately, I decided the first step to increasing productivity both in the kitchen and at work was to add structure to my week in the form of a menu. Since I’ve been greatly fascinated with Mario Batali’s “Mario Batali Cooks” app (thanks to Gwyneth Paltrow mentioning it in GOOP), I decided it was fair time to put the tricks and recipes I’ve learned from it to use. So, on this past rainy saturday afternoon I plunged into both the app and my journal with a focus on vegetables and came out with a list of dishes that had my mouth watering. Here, I’ve sorted the list into a menu for the week.

While, of course, this menu is already off track due to not going home until much later on Saturday evening, I have managed to cook every day since then. Why no updates? Because I’m stingy, that’s why. Honestly, I just forgot to take pictures. The first complication was in not being able to find these prized ingredients:

• Ligurian Salt Packed Anchovies
• Pantellerian Salt Packed Capers
• Lenticchia di Castelluccio di Norcia

After a great deal of debate, research, and years of reasonable fear, I picked up a mandolino. I also went for the Benriner after reading reviews on Cook’s Illustrated, getting a recommendation from an employee at Whisk, and seeing it was the same one Batali uses in the app. It makes the cut. Yuk yuk yuk.

Finally, for the progress on the menu. So far I’ve made the Zuppa di Cavolfiore and last week I made cipolline in agrodolce, but I plan to make it again. I know there was some revision I had in mind, but it’s left me now. This wouldn’t be a problem if I posted everything I cooked, of course. That’s where you come in. I task you with keeping on me about getting these things cooked, if you happen to have my personal contact information. If you don’t, you probably know someone who does, or you can post here. Get involved. You know you want me to cook things you can ogle.

Among my friends, I have noticed, I am not the only one quite fond of peanut butter. I’ve arrived at many a friend’s house to a guilty look and a hastily hidden spoonful of peanut butter. I’ve taken to converting as many as possible to fresh ground peanut butter thanks to it being so readily available. Now that I constantly have a stock of fresh peanut butter at home, I find myself putting it to use much more often. When I was hit was a craving for PB cookies, I knew I had to make the most of it. My first inclination was to go to Hana Natural to pick up the few ingredients I needed, but then I remembered: ‘I’m in my car in the middle of Brooklyn. I can go anywhere I want.’ I think you know what happens next. New grocery store exploration!

On occasion I have passed Brooklyn Fair, but it was not until this night, after my roommate had reported to me being shocked by their massive beer selection, that I found myself in the ideal time, place, and state of mind to step inside.

I love it. I would gladly move to downtown brooklyn and shop there all the time. The selection of quality ingredients is massive and the feel of shopping is very pleasant. You can get a little lost in the layout if you’re not careful, but there’s an element of childhood hide-and-seek in the aisles, which makes every turn seem like a wonderful discovery.

So, while I’d hoped to save a few dollars off the convenience store prices of Hana, I instead was taken by the urge to make my cookies with the fanciest ingredients I could get my hands on. So, here we have them:

Peanut Butter Cookies

• 2.5 cups white whole wheat flour
• .5 tsp baking soda
• .5 tsp baking powder
• .5 tsp salt
• .5lbs european cultured butter
• 1 cup dark muscovado sugar
• 1 cup raw natural cane sugar
• 1 cup fresh natural peanut butter
• 2 brown eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup roasted salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Cookbooks. Do you love them? Depend on them? Hate the thought of having them in your house?

For a long time, I fell into the latter camp. I wanted to go on my own inspiration as much as possible, and I felt I could gather all the information I needed online. While the internet may well provide an inexhaustible resource for any information one desires, it fails to be an endearing as something you can feel and touch. We’re sentimental creatures, in spite of all claims to the contrary. We like things that are firm and real, and we grow attached to them. The is certainly something to be said for the feel of a book in one’s hands, the look of print spread before you and the crisp sound of a turning page. Digital mediums may take a mighty foothold, but there will always be a fondness and a need, somewhere, for books.

So I found myself in TJ Maxx, hoping to find christmas presents for friends and family when I stumble upon a pile of heavily discounted cookbooks. I ended up with three. And no presents for anyone else. I’d like to think I’m not the only person ever faced with this problem.

Chief among the books was this copy of The Pleasures of Slow Food. Any long-time reader of the blog can tell you that I have fully embraced the Slow Food movement and will gladly talk it up to anyone who will listen. What could be better than stopping to enjoy one of the most important things you do every single day? But it’s not my goal here to convert you to slow foodism. I’ll leave that to Michael Pollan. I will, however provide you with a little inspiration. When flipping through this cookbook I spotted a single picture that told me I needed this book in my collection. Little did I know this same image would catch the eye of friends who would later pick up to book, so the time until the recipe came to life in my kitchen was particularly short.

Let’s get right to it, shall we?

Cod Braised with White Wine, Potatoes, and Escarole

• 1lb salt cod
• 8 cups water
• 2 cups dry white wine
• 1 cup + 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, sliced thin
• 4 russet potatoes cut into 1/4″ half-rounds
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
• 2 leeks (whites only), rinsed and sliced thin
• 1 head escarole, torn into 1/2″ pieces
• 4oz boneless, skinless cod fillets (one fillet per serving)
• 1 meyer lemon

Of all the things I love about my neighborhood, this grocery store may well top the list. Its beautiful bright lights are a beacon of hope for a cleaner, healthier life right at a trusty L train stop (of course!). Many a late night I’ve found myself walking the sleepy residential streets, dark until I round the corner and then suddenly I am awash with the vibrancy of a familiar herbal scent of Hana Natural Foods.

The interior is clean, open and airy. The shopping experience is wonderful and though most items command a price higher than other groceries nearby, the feeling of shopping at Hana is such an improvement in atmosphere you could easily equate it to the cost of atmosphere in fine dining restaurants. The quality of products available is also phenomenal; nearly all the produce is organic and at the peak of freshness. The avocados are always logic defyingly perfectly ripe, as if they have some sort of magical avocado curing operation in the back. I have never seen one overly ripe, probably because they fly off the shelf before getting a chance. I tend to be a parameter shopper, hitting only the produce and what very little dairy I need, but here I enjoy venturing into the middle eyes to ogle delicious sardines and holistic cereal. I’m not even near my house or hungry right now, but writing this up has got me wanting to go shop. I should probably stop now, before I slip any further into… is there a word for this? Retailitis? Compulsive Browsing? I’m so hooked.

Who says I can’t make a fancy four course meal featuring enchiladas? I dare you to say it, for I have this evidence to the contrary:

In a special holiday cooking magazine from the editors of Cooks Illustrated I came across a useful guide to making arugula salad. The formula is powerfully simple. When you only have three ingredients, you know you’re on the right path. Whiskey Sours, anyone?

• Arugula (Peppery)
• Something Sweet
• Something Salty

For the second course a very simple potato leek soup was in order. This, too, fared from the pages of cooks illustrated. The focus of the recipe was to make a very creamy soup with lots of potato and leek flavor without, and this is the lovely part, any cream!

Leek greens are simmered in chicken stock until they impart their flavor while an onion and the leek whites saute in butter. The leek greens are strained from the stock and discarded while the stock jumps in with the onion and leek, followed by a diced potato and the herbs. The mixture is then simmered until the potatoes are nice and tender then pureed with a slice of toast added to give the texture that little something extra. I didn’t have any bread, so I just, y’know, made a loaf.

I rolled some flax seeds into the middle of it, because all these flax seeds aren’t going to eat themselves. The loaf didn’t last very long against my guests.

Before I made my last batch of enchiladas I was struck with a craving for the enchiladas my father used to make. When I told him about it in a text message I received this unexpected response:

I feel this dish is more a casserole than traditional enchiladas. It’s sort of like a tex-mex lasagna, if you will. As much as this enchilada night was fueled by a craving for the enchiladas of old, I wasn’t interested in making a special trip to the butcher. I elected, instead, to make it with black beans and a mix of toasted spices (cumin, coriander, black mustard, black pepper). I discovered that the Tortilleria down the street (mentioned in the last post) sells blue corn tortillas! I was so excited when I saw them on the counter I got way more than I needed! I also made Salsa Roja instead of using canned sauce and used pepper jack instead of shreaded cheese. The grating disc on my food processor is messed up, so I got fed up with it and just put the blade to the cheese. Crumbles, shreds, what’s the difference?

Looks like it came out pretty well to me!

For the desert course, a friend brought a delicious little lemon pound cake, but it was eaten so fast there was no time for pictures. Is there a better way to wrap up a meal?

There are a few items that I am very fond of experimenting with at grocery stores. Chief among them: Crackers. Salsa. For an upcoming dish, though, I decided it’s time to take the salsa making into my own hands. I’ve actually never made a proper salsa before, so this was a fun new adventure for me. It was also so incredibly easy it became obvious that buying salsa at the store really wasn’t saving me much time or effort.

To whip up a similar batch of salsa you’ll need:

• Fire Roasted Whole Tomatoes
• Fresh Lime Juice
• Garlic
• Red Onion
• Cilantro
• Chilpotle Peppers in adobo sauce

Anyone who has ever been shopping with me can tell you: I am decidedly not a “one-stop-shopper”. Just watch my activity on foursquare and you’ll see me pop into one store or market after another in search of all my ingredients. Part is the search for the best ingredients, but I also rather enjoy the little bits of travel and exploration involved in visiting multiple shops and markets. I could spend a whole day shopping if I were not careful. Particularly fun right now is the spice shop at the Union Square Holiday Market, but I’m in no need of spices just now. If you, however, happen to be in the city, I suggest you swoop by and take in the beautiful sight of mounds piled high of every spice imaginable.

Today’s Haul:

• -Union Square Greenmarket-
• 5 Ears of Indian Corn
• 1 Ear Yellow Popping Corn
• Red Cipollini Onions
• New Parsnips
• Butternut Squash
• Collard Greens
• Ronnybrook Farms Creamline Whole Milk (whoops, not pictured)

• -Whole Foods-
• Columela Artesano Extra Virgin Olive Oil (I’ve been lusting after this since it topped a Cooks Illustrated taste test)
• Organic Green Lentils
• Garden of Eatin’ Blue Corn Chips

When the invitation to a coffee party hit my desk, I knew only on trick would do: It was time for me to make biscotti. What may have been most exciting about these cookies was the reception. “I thought this was the kind of thing that was only made in a factory” was one interesting response I received. I urge you to make some yourself and see just how excited your friends get!

Orange Biscotti

• 12 oz all-purpose flour
• 10 oz sugar (I used turbinado, which made for very coarse cookies)
• 1 oz Baking Powder
• .5 oz salt
• Zest of two oranges
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp orange juice
• 3 eggs

1. Whisk together dry ingredients, adding zest once the others are combined.
2. Whisk wet ingredients in another bowl
3. Add wet to dry and combine into a stick dough, then turn out onto a floured surface
4. Work flour into dough by hand until no longer sticky
5. Divide into small loafs, long and broad.
6. Bake until golden, roughly 25 minutes
7. Remove to a rack to cool.
8. Move to a cutting board and cut the loafs diagonally.
9. Place slices on baking sheets and return to oven until golden (~6 minutes)
10. Flip slices and cook until that side is also golden (~6 minutes).
11. Remove to the rack for the final cooling.

I must admit that this party was some time ago, as was the time that I made this, so I don’t exactly remember all the variations I made from the original recipe. I do recall using quite a bit more orange juice, so there was probably quite a bit more flour to balance that out. You’ll find what works best for you while you’re working on it. Now, about that coffee party…

There was a delicious spread of coffee sides. So many, in fact, that I think the sweets on offer may have eclipsed the ‘coffee’ aspect of the party, but I made certain to have a little sip of coffee to go with every bite, and also to try every coffee available.

This got me thinking… perhaps I should have a coffee party of my own? To ensure that the coffee remains the major player, I think I might try a variety of brewing methods and tools, in addition to having everyone bring a blend of coffee to begin, and then treats can be secondary. A very, very close second.

For your consideration, I’ve read up on recently on variety of brewing methods and taken these notes:

• Aeropress: Wet filter. Pour hot water over 6 heaping tablespoons of grounds in the press. Wait 2.5 minutes, stir and place the lid on the press but do not press down. Wait another 3 minutes and then press. Ground between espresso and drip.

• Inverted Aeropress: Set aeropress upside down, add coffee, water, stir. Steep 2 minutes. Stir, top with rinsed filter and cup, invert and press.

• Vietnamese Coffee Filter: Add coffee, cover with filter. Add a small amount of water to swell beans. Wait. Then, Fill up filter and add lid. Condensed milk can be placed in the bottom of the cup prior to brewing.

• French Press: 1.5 grams to 1 oz water. 4 minutes. Stir coffee after 1 minute, add lid.

• Chemex: 3 heaping TBps make a divot in center of coffee grounds. Add a small amount of coffee and let bloom. Then, add coffee in a ring around the outside. Once bloomed, add coffee in circles around the rim, moving inward. Once finished, swish coffee for aeration.

I’ll have to find a Vietnamese coffee filter between now and then. Shouldn’t be to hard if wander around Chinatown. Oh, and speaking of China, let’s not forget that there was a little bit of tea being sipped up at the party. I should have a tea party, too!

Every. Day.

The trick to oatmeal, supposing you like it to have a little bit of bite and not just be sloppy mush, is to use less than a 2:1 ratio of water to oats. I find that 1.5:1 lands me with oats that still have tons of body, but are pleasantly gooey. Another caution: get your seasonings in early so you need not over stir the finished oats, lest you break apart everything you’ve worked for.

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

• Oatmeal
• Water
• Salt
• Cinnamon
• Cloves
• Honey
• Diced Apples
• Slivered Almonds

1. Bring salted water to a boil
2. Add Oatmeal, apples, and spices, and reduce the heat to a mild simmer
3. When the water has all cooked away, sample the oats for tenderness and serve to your preference. I drizzed it with honey and tossed on some almonds!

ENERGY!

This is the only thing I’ve eaten today and I feel like I’ve had 20 cups of coffee. I’m seriously losing it. I think I need a drink. I hadn’t planned on posting this recipe, as you can see from my iPhone picture of it in a plastic container, but when I felt this surge I knew it had to be shared.

Black Quinoa

• Black Quinoa
• Water ( 2x Quinoa)
• Sliced Almonds
• Dried Berries
• Honey

Serving suggestions: eat less than you think you need.

It’s no secret that I enjoy a good cooking challenge, so I encourage my friends to bring any assortment of edibles with them when they visit so that I try to make a meal. Some push it to the extreme and try to bring the most wild assortment of goods imaginable, where as others are more interested in a meal that’s certain to be to their liking. I believe this is what my friend Regina went for when she brought me this spread.

“It’s pretty straight forward”, she said. “A nice autumn-y selection”, I believe she said. For anyone that doesn’t know, I never really got excited about the seasons in the past, but this year it’s really gotten into me and I’ve been incredibly excited about autumn! I want to decorate my house with all manner of autumn flair and I’ve been seeking inspiration everywhere I can. Maybe even from you? We’ll get to that in the comments. For now, here’s an amazing table spread from HGTV that got me very excited.

Now that the table is set, shall we cook?

Mandorla di Riso con Verdure Arrosto

• Sweet Potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
• Green Beans, trimmed
• 1 whole head garlic
• Sliced Almonds
• “Wild Pecan Brown Rice”

After a stressful day about town and many attempts to find a drink in the early afternoon to soothe Patrick’s nerves I sent him to Huckleberry Bar ahead of me, so that he might investigate what I only had knowledge of via the Yelp! app. I came along shortly after the car repairs were finished at Salerno and was very delighted at the dark wood bar by the window and beautiful decor.

As always, I like to start any visit to a fine bar by chatting with the bar keeper. I ask for suggestions on flavorful drinks and good starters, and I often like the start with something light to ease into the journey. Gin was on my mind, and Ian (I learned everyone’s names by the time I left, of course) suggested, among others, the Silver Lining (pictured above)

Silver Lining

This “Salt Solution” came from a dropper in a small vial, and may well have just been salty water to enhance the flavor. whatever it was, it did the trick. This cocktail had only the slightest touch of bitterness, just enough to tease the tongue without causing the lips to pucker. Perfection.

Somewhere amid these two drinks Regina arrived and I lead her to the bar. Regina had been asking for some time about elderflower and I, having no shortage of love for St. Germaine, was eager to have her try some. I troubled Alex for a short pour of the potent liqueur, which she informed me would be no trouble at all. Regina, quite pleased with the pleasant taste, went for The Queen’s March and a side of house marinated olives.

The Queen’s March

• Templeton “Prohibition Era” Rye Whiskey
• Elderflower Liqueur
• Creme de Violette
• Fresh Lemon Juice

Sortly afterward, through amazing coincidence, Sarah walked right in front of the window on her way to a nearby bike shop and spotted all three of us with shock, amaze, and a little righteous indignity at not having been invited. There was a moment of confusion in which Patrick and I both thought the other person had invited her, but it turned out to truly have been serendipitous. Once Sarah settled in, she and I chose our cocktails. For the final round I spoke with Trevor, whom Alex informed me was the “house Tiki drink expert”. There was a cocktail I’d been eyeing that contained coconut. My fear was that it would be, like most ‘Tiki drinks’, painfully sweet and lacking all spirit characteristics. Trevor (or Trent? Some name along that vein. I should have written this post days ago.) quelled my concerns and produced for me an amazing cocktail, the ingredients of which I’m afraid are not listed on the website’s menu and are lost to me now. I had a picture of it, but with the fading light and my still poor ability with the camera it was much too blurry for presentation. Sarah’s cocktail selection also eludes me, but I did suggest to her the Green Thumb, which she may well have gone with.

The Green Thumb

• Siembra Azul Blanco Tequila

• Homemade Cucumber Syrup

• Fresh Lime Juice

• Peychaud’s Bitters

Have you crafted any cocktails of your own lately, or been to a bar that served you something amazing? Leave your own mixology stories in the comments!

Click to view high resolution

I stumbled across what I believe to be a new cupcake shop while blowing time. My car was undergoing some minor repairs and Patrick wanted to grab a beer to calm his nerves after a stressful day, and our walk took us by Brooklyn Cupcake and I felt a powerful urge to explore their selection. I asked which I should try if I only had one. The verdict? Raspberry Chocolate. The cake was moist, with a raspberry jelly center and an incredible cream cheese frosting, much better than any typical cupcake icing. I was very impressed. I urge you to explore it, should you have the option. The little post cards get you 10% off, so buy some for the whole office!

Where have you had your favorite cupcake? What kind was it?

Click to view larger image.

I was invited out this morning for brunch, but the combination of inclement, the L being inoperable, and the invitation coming right as my friends had ordered their food told me today was not the day for Harefield Rd. I did, in spite of these odds, google the restaurant and found the inspiration for my breakfast.

Patrick, my roommate and a friend from years so ancient I cannot recall, is very fond of making burritos at all hours of the night. This habit tends to lead to a perpetual store of black beans,  yellow rice, and avocado. There were also tortilla shells, but I left that part out of today.

Sarah lent me her Nikon D70, which I’ve been struggling to master. The pictures I’ve shot so far are only a marginal improvement on what I take with the iPhone 4 (the majority of images on this site were taken with the iPhone), and sometimes the iPhone produces better images. So, I’ve got a lot of practice and learning to do. As a bonus to you, though, I’m going to upload high definition food porn for those who, like me, eat with their eyes. Just click on the images to be transported to your new desktop wallpaper.

Now, let’s eat:

Lazy Huevos Rancheros

• Chicken Chorizo
• Blackbeans
• Yellow Rice
• Salsa Verde
• Eggs (over easy)
• Cilantro
• Avocado

Someone left some chicken chorizo over here, I assume after a party (maybe the Hurricane Brunch, which I’ve yet to blog about), so that got extracted from its casing and broken up, followed by the addition of the black beans and rice. A little salsa later and they were warm enough to hit the plate and await the eggs, which I fried up next. A few slices of avocado and a sprinkle of cilantro were all this dish needed to make a very fulfilling breakfast. I didn’t even add salt! put it all on a tortilla if you’d like. Maybe even roll it up for a huevos rancheros breakfast burrito?

Should I have some sort of tagline to finish my posts? I’m open to suggestions. Leave ‘em in the comments.

After looking over Snackbar’s menu while telling a friend about the restaurant I started to develop a craving for Okra. Luckily the Union Sq. Farmer’s Market provided and 4 dollars later I had a bag full of freak okra, yellow beans and purple beans as well as a purple bell pepper.

Lesson: Cooking purple beans turns them green. Cook them as little as possible or not at all.

It was suggested to me that this recipe could do with some simplification. I think next time I’ll stick with just the okra, beans and corn, even though the cipollinis were very satisfying.

Okra Succotash

• Sliced Okra
• Sliced Yellow and Purple Beans
• Corn Kernals
• Cipollini Onions
• Diced Bellpepper
• Diced Sausage

This dish is a very simple matter of heating all the ingredients in a little olive oil with the spices of your choice.  Instead of the method I used, I would suggest this order: Sausage, Onions, Okra, Yellow Beans. Then, when everything is heated through, toss in the purple beans and serve!

In cleaning off the photographs stored on my phone I came across quite a few dishes I made that I never blogged about. Perhaps I didn’t think the dish would make that interesting of a post or I just forgot to get around it. Here I’ve collected all of those images with the best description I can remember / make up. Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Oat Sandwich Bread. I’m getting a little bored with sandwich bread. Enriched bread takes a little more effort, but I think it far more worthwhile.

This white bean soup came from the Food & Wine series I did a short time ago. It appears to have celery and onions.

Wilted Spinach with Sautéd Mushrooms and Bacon got tossed with some little Eden Farms Kumat pasta that I was given at the Renegade Craft Fair, as well as some leftover penne. I timed the pasta cooking time better than I expected, given that I had no idea how long to cook the kumat pasta.

A shreaded carrot and curry pesto took those chickpeas to new heights.

This roasted cauliflower got extra punch from fried spiced breadcrumbs.

I had a large dinner party a month or so ago in which I made this rigatoni and followed a fava and marinara recipe from the Frankie’s Spuntino. I became very ill that night from something unrelated, which made me not want to blog about this one very much, haha.

Looks to be Chili and a Quad. Looks like a wintery comfort, but was probably made in the spring anyway.

This lovely drink was born from ingredients that all happened to be on the table at the same time. Sparkling Cider, Muddled Raspberrys and Mint leaves are topped of with a little white rum. A refreshing summer drink!

I haven’t had oatmeal in a long time, and this picture is making me crave it big-time.

Tim brought mint from his garden for us to have these lovely Mojitos. The Moroccan glasses couldn’t be more perfect.

I used the pasta maker to make some fun long macaroni for this dish.

Chipotle Lentil soup with thyme infused oil.

I seem to recall the greens on this being a little gritty in spite of considerable washing. I’ve been even more (perhaps too) thorough in my vegetables washing ever since.

I made the hashbrowns in this image while my younger brother, Dustin, made the beautiful pancake.

The ‘gaspacho salad’ in this picture (right side) was inspired by an item of the same name on the salad bar in Garden of Eden, a grocery store near Union Square. I saw something in it that looked like avocado but was not, and felt that its absence was a terrible mistake. I corrected that.

The soup, I believe, is blended asparagus.

I was very excited about making Dal Makhani after my trip to Patel Brothers for ingredients, but it didn’t really turn out as incredible as I like it. When it gets colder outside I’ll give it a few more tries.

The sponge for this chiabatta sat around for a few more days than I had intended, due to me being too occupied to make the bread…but that just added more flavor, so you’ll hear no complaints from me.

Every time I juice oranges I try to find uses for the leftover orange peels. This time, it was candied orange peels. Blanch the peels and coat them in sugar.

Let them dry and candy on a rack or parchment paper. They’re done when they harden up, pretty much.

Of course, you could dip them in chocolate. It’s a pretty good idea.

This Banh Mi salad was made out of a leftover Banh Mi Sandwhich and any vegetables I could find. It was pretty successful, given its origins!

I finally got my hands on some red quinoa and the first use was in this amazing granny smith apple, walnut and red quinoa breakfast salad.

I never liked tomatoes.

Sure, I’d eat tomato sauce and salsa all day, but once the chunks got too big we started treading a very dangerous line. I would also even get tomato slices on sandwiches as I felt the red color added incredible depth, but I was much less fond of any bite that was tomato heavy than those less so, and if a tomato happened slide most of the way out it was very likely to be discarded. Eating straight slices, unaccompanied? I needn’t look at the plate twice: it did not exist to me.

So, why past tense? You already know. It’s the one thing that ends the debate between vegetable and fruit: freshness. Eat a tomato from a grocery store and the bland, plasticy flavor you begrudgingly accept tells you that this thing must be a simple vegetable. Pick a cherry tomato from the vine, however…

I’ve taken to shopping at the Union Square Farmer’s Market after work as I have to pass through that particular station to get home. While leaving the subway and coming back could be considered a hassle, I feel that gathering a few choice ingredients from one of the best sources in the city  is a great way to decompress after work. It also keeps you stimulated enough to not go home with nothing to do and find yourself sitting on the couch four hours later in a daze.

I trust anyone that visits the  market will be hard pressed to ignore the brilliant, alluring color of the cherry tomato variety pints. I was unable to tear my gaze away from all of the colors thousands of years of culture and evolution have taught me to associate with ‘surely delicious beyond reason’. As the world disappeared around me I reached for one beautiful specimen and tossed it into my mouth. I was rewarded not just with the satisfying pop and gush of juice that some imitators wish desperately they could capture, but also by a sweetness and depth of flavor I had never known from a tomato previously. To my surprise, the wonder did not end there. After securing the most diverse pint I could construct I came across a large bin filled with small, papery, pentagonal prisms that held my curiosity. A nearby sign told of “Ground Husk Cherry Tomatoes” that possess a taste reminiscent of pineapple. The little fruit hidden inside did not fail to deliver on this point and in so doing earned itself a place in my desk snack phalanx.

While I have found myself to be much more fond of the smaller varieties of tomato I certainly appreciate the rich color and flavor of the heirloom tomatoes my friends treated me to from their garden. I brought one to work to put on my sandwich along with porchetta, provalone, paper thin red onions and green leaf lettuce. Obviously an entire tomato is not going to fit on a single sandwich, so I was left with raw slices. Oh no. I tried to give them away to the friends at work I always try to coax into trying my snacks, but there were no takers. I obviously couldn’t put them in the fridge for later – the cold destroys everything good about tomatoes. So, there they sat… mocking me. So, finally, I ate them raw and unaccompanied. They were, I must admit, wonderful. Things have changed.

I still don’t like tomato soup.

I’ve been meaning to organize some time on sunday for me and Chris to make baked goods to take to our respective offices, but so far it’s only fallen through. As the woman that trained me is leaving our office tomorrow, I felt I needed to get at least one dose of goods in before she goes. Whether or not I’m able to start the ‘bake sunday / bring to work monday’ project is yet to be seen.

Oatmeal Cashew Muffins

Dry:

• 5oz all purpose flour
• 2oz wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup rolled oats
• .25cups turbinado sugar
• salt
• nutmeg
• 1 cup ground cashews

Wet:

• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup cashew nut milk
• 3 tbsp olive oil

Strusel

• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp flour
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp ground almonds

1. Sift first four dry ingredients into a large bowl, stir in remaining dry ingrediends
2. Combine wet ingredients an another bowl, pour into dry ingredients
3. Mix lightly until just combined. Do not over-mix.
4. Using a #40 disher, place batter into a greased muffin pan.
5. Make strusel in a blender or food processor by adding all ingredients and pulsing. place atop muffins.
6. Bake for 15 minutes at 400°F, turning once.
7. Turn out onto a linen towel and let cool before serving (or indulge your temptations)

Notes:

Next time I’ll use slightly more sugar, perhaps 1/3 cup to give it just a tiny bit more sweetness. Or, I may try using honey. I’ll also remember to add vanilla extract, which I sadly forgot this time. If I happen to be juicing oranges at the same time again, I’ll add significantly more orange zest. I may also add a tiny bit of cocoa powder to the dry team in order to support the baking soda a little more. I’ll also not forget to add raisins, or I’ll add some other fruit. Maybe a tiny bit more salt wouldn’t hurt, too, but how much you use is up to your own discretion.

In closing: I had to pick up a few pieces of equipment for this recipe- namely a sifter and some spray oil. I opted for one of those your-own-oil pump sprayers, which worked very well. I also ended up with all of these lovely things:

F is for Flavor in this dish that was born my favorite way of making new recipes: Using up whatever is at hand. I particularly enjoy this when it is the form of a challenge at a friend’s house, but this is simply a case in my own kitchen. I picked up a fennel bulb recently because I thought it was necessary for one of multiple recipes I’d planned to use (from the recently mentioned Food & Wine series) but after shuffling through them I was unable to find a single recipe calling for fennel bulb.

I also picked up multiple pods of fava beans when I stumbled across the first fresh ones I’ve seen in person.

I remember always hunting for favas to no avail when living in the south and it is certainly one thing that I can indicate as bringing me happiness in NYC.

One of my biggest factors in choosing where to move was ingredient selection and I have certainly not been let down. I have had a little trouble finding red quinoa at a reasonable price, but I’m not giving up.

The other major player in this dish is cherry tomatoes, which were inspired by a simple pasta that Amy told me about her making a few weeks ago. Amy said she’d be starting her own blog sometime soon (She never posted on here, in spite of having an account. Same goes for Chris, actually, but now that I live with him we’ll likely cook everything in parallel) so I’ll post a link to that once she does.

Fennel, Fava, Farfalle

• Fava Beans, blanched and shelled
• Fennel Bulb, julienne
• Shallot, sliced
• Cherry Tomatoes, halved
• Thick cut bacon, sliced
• Basil, chiffonade
• Farfalle, al dente

Cook the bacon in a pan until the fat renders, then add the shallot and fennel. Cook until the shallot is translucent, add tomatoes and some salt. When the tomatoes soften slightly removed from heat and toss with farfalle pasta and basil. Serve with a sprinkle of cracked black pepper and grated Pecorino Romano.

I’m not certain I can find a way to describe how I arrived at this dish. I picked up some slab bacon at Tops on the Water, which I was very excited about using. So, that part of this dish was a certainty. Next up was poached eggs, also something I was craving. Where, exactly, the pico de gallo entered the picture is any man’s guess.

Pan fry that thick bacon. What fun to cut it any way you want it!

A little shallot, cilantro and lime for something similar to pico.

Sizzlin’

Three eggs with individual transports wait for the journey to the heat.

First the egg, then the shallots.

The cilantro hides the goodies underneath like and Easter Basket, but one covered in BACON!

I decided the lime didn’t fit well with the dish and actually removed them before serving. The guests I served them too asked if I was recreating a dish from Marlow & Sons, haha.

Chris picked up some beets at the Union Square farmer’s market a number of days ago and having used the beats already, it was getting to be high time the greens were used. A quick search for beet green uses online found multiple variations of this recipe. It seems that most recipes involving greens are fairly interchangeable, so I’m certain you could use any you have available.

Sweet Heat Beet (Greens)

• beet (or other) greens, chopped
• thick cut bacon (sliced)
• chopped shallot
• sliced garlic
• sugar (I used Demerara, which is my preference)
• crushed red pepper

Saute shallots in oil over medium heat until translucent, then add garlic and red pepper flakes. When the garlic becomes fragrant add 1/4 cup of water and a tsp of your sugar and allow to come to a boil. Add the greens and cover. Cook until tender.

Moving to Brooklyn/Queens (right on the border) has got me searching for new places to get my groceries. A little hunting found me the Marie Hernandez Farmer’s Market, open on Saturdays. It was pretty small, having only three vendors when I showed up, but the goods offered were just what I needed. It was omelette time and wanted some veggies to bring in some extra nutrition. I found a lovely selection of farm fresh eggs, milk, thyme, garlic scapes, yellow squash and shittake mushrooms. A lettuce vendor provided me with a surprisingly large bag of kale and some red lettuce the name of which eludes me. I also picked up a bottle of orange blossom honey which I’ve been putting in my tea, and it’s delicious.

Omelette

• Eggs
• Anything you want

Prepare your eggs by whipping air into them (for more detail on egg technique, ask Mr. Breakfast). Pour eggs into the center of the pan and distribute evenly across the surface of the pan. I prefer a smaller pan for omelettes, but the only one available was 12″, so we got thin omlettes. Once the bottom begins to set, add your ingredients to one half of the omelette. With the insides still a little gooey, slip a flexible spatula under the side of the omelette sans ingredients and flip it over the ingredients to make a pouch. Invert onto a plate and enjoy!

Hunger, Craving and Refrigerator Clean-Up meet in one pot when we drop in the following.

Black-Eyed Pea Soup 2

• Red Onion
• Shallots
• Garlic
• Local Celery(!)
• Carrots
• Red Cabbage
• Chipotle Pepper
• Black-Eyed Peas
• Chicken Stock
• Dried Thyme
• Dried Oregano
• Bay Leaves

I tossed these ingredients in a pressure cooker one at a time with a minute or so between each addition, in the order shown. I then locked the lid on the cooker and let it simmer for somewhere around 45 minutes to an hour. Who’s keeping time? Someone probably should be, but who cares; It turned out great!

An unconventional recipe caught my eye during the Food & Wine spree. We start by topping pizza dough with mashed sweet potatoes and onions sauteed in balsamic vinegar.

A little mozzarella, feta, prosciutto and herbs later and it meets the most heat our oven can give.

A tip from Gwynth Paltrow had me moving my pizza stone off its home in the bottom of the oven and a bit closer to the top so that the pie could be hit with the broiler once in the oven. I’m not certain it made that much difference, but it sounds good in theory.

Look at those massive bubbles!

Out came what may have been the most filling pie I’ve ever eaten.

A couple of notes:

- The recipe called for a store bought dough. We couldn’t be bothered to go to the store so we just had to make our own :p

- The recipe also called for sopressata, of which we were also lacking.

- I diluted the mashed potatoes with water to make them easier to spread

- Put your herbs under the cheese so they’re protected from the heat

I went on bit of a pillaging spree with an issue of Food & Wine that my ex left when she moved out. The magazines had been sitting around for a long time collecting dust and I felt the best way to deal with them was just to rip out recipes I actually thought I’d make and then recycle the remainder of the magazine. I read a few of the articles but I cannot really recall them now. Hopefully I learned something. Anyway, the second part of the paper cleanse is to actually use the recipes, blog about them, and then recycle them also. Here I’ve made short work of the first two that caught my eye.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cabbage and Walnuts

• Quartered Brussels Sprout
• Shredded Red Cabbage
• Dried Cranberries
• Thinly Sliced Garlic
• Toasted Pine Nuts
• Shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano

Vinaigrette

• Lemon Juice
• Honey
• Dijon Mustard
• Cayanne Pepper
• Chile Powder
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil

This beautiful salad could not be simpler.

- Toss the sprouts in oil, salt and pepper and roast until crispy & tender (~15 min).
- Mix together the first five ingredients of the vinaigrette then slowly add the oil.
- Toss cabbage, Brussels sprouts, nuts and cranberries in the vinaigrette.
- Lightly toast the garlic in a skillet with a little oil. Pour over the salad.
- Top with Parm shavings.

Roasted Cauliflower

• Cauliflower
• Roast it
• With balsamic vinegar

Masala Stuffed Okra

This picture is actually from a few weeks ago when we first made stuffed okra from an Indian cookbook that I believe was titled “Royal Indian Cooking” or “Royal Indian Cuisine”. Absence of the book and my failure to post the recipe before now meant I had to look elsewhere and that lead me to this recipe. It’s pretty straight-forward as far as masalas go. You simply make a paste out of diced tomaotes and the spices and stuff split okra. It’s amazing.

Much like the Udon I made recently, cooking soba was a simple matter of dropping noodles in broth. For this round we had:

Buckwheat Soba Noodles
Home made Chicken Stock
White Shrimp
Hardboiled Egg
Green Onions
Mushrooms (Enoki?)

Some beautifully simple things are born out of a process of great deliberation and focus. Some happen simply because there is just no alternative. This, I am afraid, falls into the latter category. Spinach and Tomatoes seem to always be on hand in my refrigerator, and prosciutto is certainly not an oddity. It was only a matter of time until they fused between slices of bread to form wondrous eats. But in order to be friend ‘alla Margherita’, our Italian flag needed a little white to go with the red and green. What could be more perfect on herb toasted bread than a runny poached egg?

You’re not really trying to think of something else, are you? You’re wasting your time. Go poach some eggs.

Black Pepper Focaccia
Tomato, Red Onion & Parmesan Focaccia

Having access to The Breadmaker’s Apprentice, a stand mixer and a digital scale means that I have no excuse for ever buying bread. In an effort to do what any reasonable person should do and use the tools before me, I crafted one of Amy’s favorite treats: Focaccia!

The first I wanted to be lazy and simple with, so it got the salt and pepper treatment. Focaccia y pepe, anyone?

The next day I rounded up a couple of ingredients to make this one a little more pizza-esq, and we ended up with:

• Red Onion
• Tomato
• Gouda
• Parmesan

It’s like a sponge filled with olive oil! I’ll take FIVE HUNDRED PLEASE.

Look up recipes for Udon soup and you’ll notice some common themes: very few ingredients. That’s a sentiment I can get behind, so I heated up a little home made chicken stock, tossed in some dried porcini mushrooms and celery. Those got to be friends with a little soy and fish sauce, and when it got nice and hot in went the noodles. A few minutes of heat is all it takes for the noodles to be ready. I like to top my udon off with a hard-boiled egg and a dash of paprika for color. Maybe some scallions, next time?

Udon

• Chicken Stock
• Dried Porcini Mushrooms
• Celery
• Soy Sauce
• Fish Sauce
• Udon Noodles
• Hard-Boiled Egg

You know how chili goes: you take whenever you can find and attempt to make something akin to a thick tomato soup with it. This batch was born from the leftovers of a cheap beer tasting. The things we managed to pump out of the cabinets to add to it? I can hardly remember. Here are a few:

Black Beans
“Chili Hot Beans”
Amy’s Chili
Lots of beer
Canned Whole Tomatos
Carrots
Onions

Were there other ingredients? Oh, I’m sure. Probably a bay leaf or two, smoked paprika and ancho chili powder. But if you’re trying to make chili by following a recipe, you’re not doing it right. Just reach blindly and throw it in the pot. I suggest you forget about it for a while, too. That tends to make it taste even better. Absence makes the heart grow fonder?

I’m taking a course on how to make books by hand, and here I’ve got for you my collection as-of midterm. Above is a Five Hole Single Signature. Most of my books use BFK Rives paper or some paper that I tore out of a sketchbook. Almost everything is made with scraps I’ve found in the printshop or things I’ve found elsewhere, because I’m broke. But, being broke does not mean one cannot craft wonderful things!

Next, a hard cover single signature:

This next book I made out of some cocktail napkins and a bit of straw-like material that I found in the same drawer in my kitchen. Someone told me the name of it, but I’ve since forgotten.

Probably my most exciting and successful book is this Screw and Post cocktail book I made using the cover from a hundred-year-old chemistry handbook.

I had to reinforce the spine as it was starting to come apart when I removed the original block.

This next book has got a little secret for you.

It’s filled with books! Tada! Let’s see what’s inside.

This is a valentine’s day card I made for my girlfriend at the time. She really liked Anthropologie so I made this out of one of their catalogs, along with some imagines of nice houses that we both liked.

Next up is a dinner invitation that I made using a single-cut method. The art professors like to call these “One Sheet Wonders”. I wanted it to be as simple and small as I could make it so I could make a bunch.

Turns out the USPS isn’t so fond of anything smaller than 5′x3.5′

The party fell through, but I still made the spaghetti squash. I wasn’t into it.

This was a fun little hard cover book, with a multi-cut insert that featured some sort of hard gel flower shapes that don’t much care for being folded.

This was one of my first books. It’s made mostly out of clippings from Architectural Digest.

I really enjoyed that some of the images were upside down, but other pages were right-side-up.

Most of the people that picked it up just let it fall open, however.

A little walkway on the back side finishes it up. This side of the book is actually oriented in the opposite direction from the front cover, which you can kind of see in the previous picture.

Here’s a tiny three hole single signature.

For taking tiny notes, perhaps?

This is my only book with a cloth cover so far. It’s hard to keep clean.

It uses a “maze” multi-cut single sheet, which generally results in surprise and frustration in anyone who opens it and cannot quite determine how to get it back together.

Here are a couple more with no real backstory:

Vinter: Castle Rock
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2009
Appellation: Willamette Valley, OR

Very good, balanced. Somewhat sweet with a slightly tart finish.

I saw on a friend’s blog a numbered list of things she had done since her last entry. I really liked the idea, so I felt I’d try it here. It would be difficult for me to attempt to recall all the things I’ve cooked in the significant time between my postings, but if I were to talk about other events it may not be so hard to come up with some major points.

1. Amy

Tomorrow will mark seven months that I have been dating Amy (if you start counting at the first ‘date’, in which she came over to eat cookies I made, as things moved very quickly from there. One friend destined the pace of our ingratiation as a ‘Whirlwind Romance’). It is the longest and most prosperous of any relationship that I’ve had and I expect that it will continue to grow as close and passionate as it has since the beginning. The only possible complication is the coming crossroads, which leads us to:

2. Graduation

This semester I am taking all of the courses I need to finish my Real Estate degree, earning me a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Mississippi. Some may wonder why my studies have been such as opposed to culinary art, and I tell them this:

- Chefs I know told me not to go to the culinary schools in MS, and I could not afford to go any elsewhere.
- I like kitchens, but residential kitchens rather than industrial. I wonder how else I can get involved in some beautiful kitchens? Ah-ha, work in real estate!

Really there’s much more to it than that, but I like to use that segway when talking about the move from one to the other. Really I am a quite domestic person and I love home design, architecture and decoration, but I also like money, investing, and offices, so somewhere in the middle of commercial and residential real estate I’ll find a happy medium (and hopefully making a happy maximum.

3. Book Binding

I wanted to take a branch away from all the business I’ve been studying At UM. I was lucky to find a bookbinding glass in which I could learn to make something neat and useful. I wanted to take a cooking class, but they are all reserved for Hospitality Management Majors, so that was out. I’ve been doing a bit of physical journaling lately and felt that making my own journals would be awesome, so here I am taking at it. I’ll likely make a post about my finished products in time.

4. Journaling

As I just noted, I’ve been writing more. It may not necessarily be wonderful or anything that’s ever going to make me a dime, but I feel it’s a good habit to have. People have told me in the past that I write very well to which I suppose there must be some truth if you’re still reading. Maybe one day I will write some books or articles about something when I get excited enough about it. For now it’s just practice among mediums. I’ll be honest in saying I most enjoy my posts here as I am a very visual person and I like seeing the pictures and all the other little additions. I do have a physical journal I just write nonsense in, a pocket notebook with little quotes and one liners that would only be funny to a very select group, and the fabled travel log which catalogs all of my traveling and eating with Amy. I also got an app for the iPhone called Awesome Note that I’ve been attempting to use more. We’ll get to that in the next section.

5. iPhone 4

My family got me an iPhone 4 for Christmas after my iPhone 3G started to go unbearably slow. I wondered if it was somehow corrupted by my use, if the OS was bogged down intentionally by Apple to sell iPhone 4s, or if it was just always sort of slow and I never noticed until I’d had better. I don’t doubt the latter, as I can also recall that at one point in my childhood I thought Instant Ramen Noodles were good *shudder*. So, here I am with what some say is the best phone on the market at present (I’ve heard there are plans to release another version, but I’m not a new tech junkie that buys indiscriminately.) and I am very happy with it. I’ve been making an attempt to get the most utility out of it I possibly can by trying to do more and more with it and less with a laptop. I may not be building spreadsheets, but I can certainly write my blog, schedule my time and read a book, among a million other things. Verizon made an add recently that played at how amazing the iPhone is, but questioned the network it is on. I’ll not get into AT&T woes, as I’m also with them on the first point: the phone itself is wonderful.

On a side note, I do with the edges were titanium and not stainless steel. It’s a sad world for us with metal allergies.

6. Work Station

I used to have my computer in a TV cabinet that made for uncomfortable computing and took up much more space in my room than I realized. I started the redesign by liberating my monitors of their plastic housings and got down to just the metal framing. I then I invited by brother Kevin, who had extensive construction experience, over to help me with a mounting solution. I’d looked into just hanging them with screws and drywall anchors, but was very uncertain of how well they would stay. He assuaged my doubts of the scrawny screws and light anchors as we picked up the necessary supplies and fastened the monitors to he wall in the beautiful, if utilitarian, fashion you see above. It brings me immense joy every time I use it.

That should have you about caught up on major things. Coming up next is finishing school and finding a job somewhere I’d like to live. Hopefully that won’t prove terribly difficult.

Having just acquired the WordPress app for iPhone I felt the need to test it out with a new post. I’m not certain how I’ll go about adding the topic thumbnail aspect of my theme on this medium, but I imagine I’ll work it out at some point.

On that note, I’ve not been posting much lately because this blog is so visually driven and I continuously forget to take pictures of my food, mostly because my digital camera is not easily at hand. I recently got an iPhone 4, which I do always have on had, and we’ll see how the camera on that stacks up.

I read a friend’s blog today that contained a post with a numbered list of things she had done since her last entry, and I was very inspired by it. Expect a post like that soon!

I got it into my head once that Sean Connery is crazy about chicken parmesan. This mostly stems from the fact that if you imagine him saying “I’ll take the chicken parmesan”, it sounds about amusing and incredible (like most things he says, otherwise). This dish came to life out of my desire to test out a red wine-cornstarch slurry as a frying base. I also wanted to eat something with chicken. Seems like a pretty natural choice, don’t you think? I decided to go with a lighter ‘sauce’ by just sautéing some onions and carrots, and adding blanched tomatoes for a few seconds before spooning it on top of fettuchini noodles and my panko-wine-encrusted chicken breast. It was pretty amazing. I probably shouldn’t have gone for that second shaking of salt, though. Mmm….salty.

Chicken Parmesan

• Red Wine
• Cornstarch
• Panko Breadcrumbs
• 1 Heirloom Tomato
• 1/2 Yellow Onion
• 1/2 Carrot, diced
• 1 Chicken Breast
• Olive Oil
• Noodles (al dente)

Begin by placing some cornstarch in a bowl (maybe one or two tablespoons, I just used what was left in the bottom of the box). And then covering with red wine and mixing it up until the cornstarch has dissolved. Then, coat your chicken in the slurry and then roll in Panko. Fry the chicken in a thin layer of oil, and in the mean time heat some olive oil in a pan and sauté your onions and carrots, then add your tomatoes and cook for a few minutes, not allowing the tomatoes to break down too much. I blanched my tomatoes and then skinned and seeded them, but if you’re feeling lazy you don’t have to (but it might not be as tasty). Toss the veggies with the noodles and then top with your chicken (sliced mine beforehand) and there you have it. Enjoy!

I told you in my previous post that I’d secured a position at a local restaurant. That restaurant is The Bungalow Restaurant & Bar, and the position is Chef de Cuisine. Or, it would be if I had an army of minions to command. In truth, I run the kitchen with aid by my brother’s girlfriend, and part owner Rochelle.

The three of us run the restaurant together, and have incredible fun while we’re at it. Having that amount of control over the menu is exciting, perhaps even intoxicating. Well, not really that magical, but it is pretty nice. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So, if you’re reading this and you ever pass through Oxford, MS, come by and give me your money. You won’t leave unsatisfied. The purist in me will see to that.

Made too much steak for your dad’s order? Got some Arugula that’s half way to the badlands? Got an excess of mashed potatoes? Then you, sir or madame, are more than half way to making today’s special dish: Rocket Steak Salad! (Arugula is known as ‘rocket’ in many countries.) I poured a quickly whipped up lemon red wine sauce over the dish, but I think a little balsamic vinaigrette would have done the job quite nicely, as well.

Rocket Steak Salad

• Stuff

Eat it.

I don’t know if I ever really got around to mentioning that I’m the head chef at The Bungalow. I’ll make a post about it in just a second. Moving on to the things more relevant to this post, Rochelle and Kevin bought tons of shrimp and tasked me with finding a use for it. I was pressed for time and guests had already arrived, so I went with something very quick and simple: Shrimp Scampi. It comes together so quickly, it is (or can be) light and filling. Some people like to make their noodles swim, but I’m more in the school that noodles should only ever be coated. Less waste that way. One of my customers actually commented on this, and said that he knew I wouldn’t make it like that, and was very happy that he was correct. The other major area of excitement today was that a friend lent me his Canon 40D and multiple lenses, cheif among which was a 100mm macro lens!

What’s up shrimp?

The fun has only just begun, I assure you. Expect to see much more frequent updating. Well, of The Bungalow page, if not so much here.

Basil Shrimp Scampi

• 10-12 Shrimp, tails removed, patted dry
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 3 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 Tbsp Thai Basil, sliced
• Noodles (Fettuccine is all we had), al dente

Melt the butter in a pan with short, steep sides, and when the foaming subsides, add the garlic and brown lightly. Add shrimp, salt & pepper. Cook until opaque (2-3 min) and then add basil, followed by the noodles. Stir or toss to coat, and plate. I topped it with green onions, mostly because they were within arm’s reach. Other sources of color (like the paprika and red pepper flakes, in my case) would not go amiss. I think I might swap the paprika for some form of chili powder next time around, see how a little kick does it. It can’t go wrong.

P.s. Watch your butter. If it turns brown, you failed. Start over. Life is brutal, eh?

I’ve been searching for some time for a high quality Blanco Tequila. The best things available locally are Patrón and El Mayor, which leave a little to be desired. Patrón is smooth, yes, but it is overmarked far beyond its fair value. So, while I was in Buster’s (Memphis, TN) a few days ago, I decided to ask the attendants what Blancos they were a fan of. I had a unanimous vote of confidence for Riazul. They did not lead me astray. The stuff has a brilliant agave flavor that shines right over its soft smoothness. It is certainly a good buy, and I’d suggest it to anyone no matter how much or how little they care for tequila. To break it in, we of course go for the iconic tequila cocktail:

Margarita de Luxe

• Juice of 2 Limes
• Juice of 1/2 Valencia Orange
• 2 oz Cointreau
• 4 oz Raizul Silver Tequila

Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, shake vigorously, and pour over ice into a rocks glass. Garnish with a lime. Do not salt the rim. Salt is used to counteract repulsive enzymes in poor quality tequila. You will not be having that problem here. All you have is pure, magical delicacy.

Aimless shopping lead me to pick up some Morning Star Farms Veggie Crumbles, which is some sort of vegetable based ground beef substitute that has its own unique flavor of which I’m quiet fond. A few days later, I happened to be passing the breads in another store, and noticed for the first time: Whole Wheat Tortillas! Why yes, sign me up! So I grabbed a few, and those also sat around at the house until I got the inclination to cook them up. That inclination came last night, when there was a disparity between what I wanted to eat and a hungry friend wanted. So, she brought the wings which she was desiring (which were pretty tasty. I’ve been trying to master removing the bones from a chicken wing in order to be left with an all meat tender, and I’ve been really having fun with) and I made these tacos to feed my desire for mexican food (I really wanted a chimichanga, but do I ever need them? No.). They were simple, quick and healthy. Oh, and delicious. Did I mention that part?

Veggie Whole Wheat Tacos

• 1/2lb Veggie Crumbles (Morning Star Farms, in my case)
• 1 Yellow Onion, diced
• 4 Garlic Cloves, diced
• 1/2tsp Cumin Seeds
• 1/2tsp Coriander Seeds

Being by toasting the Cumin and Coriander seeds in a dry pan, until they darken, and then remove them to a mortar and pestle. Add some oil of your choice to the pan (I used toasted walnut oil) and add the onion. While it cooks, grind the seeds down to a rough ground consistency. Once the onions are translucent, add the garlic, cook for about two minutes more, and then add the fake meat. If it’s frozen, wait for it to thaw, and then add your ground spices. I also used this fancy fajita seasoning that a friend gave me while traveling, but you could add anything you’d like. Salt, of course, is always an important addition. Once your (false) meat is warmed through, you’re ready to spoon it into a warm tortilla and add whichever toppings you’d like. I used mexican crumbling cheese, kalamata olives, and arugula. Some salsa or pico de gallo might have been nice, but they tasted wonderful on their own. Have fun experimenting!

When my brother moved back home from New York (for a short stint) he brought with him all of the spices he had acquired from indian supply stores. When he moved off again, he left this box with me. I’ve been doing my best to get rid of all of my powdered spices (in favor of whole spices) before they lose their flavor, so I’ve taken to just picking something out of the bin and throwing it in whatever I’m making.

For this particular set, I decided to just use whatever that was that had fallen out of the corners and piled up in the box. I think it was some mix of ground cloves and cinnamon, with a little bit of garam masala. So, after I’d made up my mind to use that, I moved on to mise en place.

I started off by cooking a few strips of bacon while I sliced up all the other ingredients, as always, started with the aromatics and moved on to the other vegetables. I ended up not using the edamame.

My, my, this was starting to smell wonderful. Time to add the spices, then a few more minutes to meld, and finally served over short brown rice and garnished with green onions.

Ingredients:

They’re in the picture! The objective is to just throw whatever you’ve got in there. So go wild with it.

For quite some time I’ve been wanting to incorporate more Indian style cuisine in my diet, and I’ve also been wanting to use lentils more often. I’d had a bag of red lentils sitting around in my pantry for far to long, and when I stumbled across a simple recipe online, I knew it was time to put them to use. It’s been quite a while since I made this, and while could try to remember exactly what I did, it would be easier just to send you to the recipe I based mine off of, and let you make your own variations. Enjoy!

Everyday Red Lentil Dal

The heat has come. With the scorch bearing down, we seek a means to cool ourselves from the inside. What better way of delivering the chill, as well as lovely nutrients, than a chilled soup? Enter Vichyssoise: everything you love in your winter soups, but thin with a soothing cool. It may not be the most beautiful dish on the table, but what it lacks in visuals it most certainly makes up in flavor.

Vichyssoise

• 2 White Sweet Potatoes (diced)
• 2 Leeks (whites only)
• 4 Cup Chicken Stock
• 1 Cup Cream
• 1 Sprig Thyme
• White Pepper
• Salt
• Chives

Thinnly slice leeks and sweat on very low heat, not allowing them to brown. Once they’re translucent, add the potatoes and sweat for a few minutes, and then add the stock and thyme and simmer for 30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Add Salt and pepper, and then chill. Add cream and top with chives.

“Cook the bacon. ALL of the bacon.”

As you wish, sir.

Mmmmm, texturrreeee

Suggestion: Call all you friends, tell them to bring over whatever ingredient they want, and you’ll do your best to make a dish using as many of them as possible. I got lucky on my first party of this sort and ended up with a tomato based pasta. It also included chickpeas, tofu, green onions, zucchini and many other vegetables that I can’t even remember.  I’ve been putting off this entry because I didn’t want to go upstairs and photoshop these pictures. How sad is that? Anyway, my delay isn’t the point, the point is this: have a random ingredient dinner party; you’ll love it!

I’ve always been told that it’s a lot of fun to make sushi, but I had a tendency to talk myself out of doing it, thinking things like ‘it’s going to be impossible to get the rice sticky’ or ‘I can’t get any decent fish around here’. While the latter certainly is true in my landlocked area, there is no shortage of vegetables, so why not just make veggie sushi? After poking around a bit, I also found some guides to making perfect sushi rice. Some even detailed how to have to continually fan the rice while folding in the vinegar until it cools to room temperature. I decided to forgo the fanning stage, and still turned out some pretty tasty sushi. I also like how versatile it is. Recipe: Rice, Nori, anything else you want. Works for me. This batch was filled with roasted red and yellow bell peppers, asparagus, cucumber, avocado, and carrots. I felt like it tasted a little bland, though. I’d like to look into getting some different nori to see how that affects the landscape. Until then, I can be satisfied that I’ve learned the method, and will no longer have to worry about talking myself out of it!

I received this wonderful book in an online secret santa gift giving, and I’ve been a little slow about pulling the knowledge from its pages, but on this night I made the plunge and whipped up a batch of the ‘chicken paste’ to use as a marinade for chicken satay. I’m going to admit this nerdy fact for your enjoyment: I was inspired to make kababs because I overheard some NPCs in Mass Effect 2 mention wanting some.

I’d give you the recipe, but that would be discrediting the work of this lovely text, which you should pick up yourself, I dare say. There are more than just recipes in these pages, and a great deal that you can learn about working with spices. It will certainly help you to get the most out of your dishes, by teaching you things as simple as when to add certain spices for the most effect and many other little tricks that will radically improve that little kick we all enjoy from time to time.

This recipe came to me in the form of a text message when I asked a friend what she’d been cooking lately. After listing off a few other items, she included a dish of the same name, and my misinterpretation of her recipe lead to my making this particular variation. You see, when she told me that she marinated it in “Rose Lime Juice” I got the impression that she meant the juice of limes infused with rose petals. So, that’s what I made. Later I learned that she was talking about this. I tossed the marinated fish in a mixture of panko, dried onions, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and then popped it into the oven to bake for about 10 minutes at 350°F. The fish was served over saffron basmati rice, accompanied by a salad composed of sautéed green beens, grape tomatoes, arugula, and avocado. Would cook again.

Sometimes I’ll wake up in the middle of the night, to sounds of rattling and clanking. Is there a shackled ghost around the corner, waiting to tell me tales of past lament? I journey through the corridor and down the stairwell to the kitchen, and I find the source of the sound. My neighbor and friend of many years has raided my kitchen, and is hard at work feeding his cravings. Lately, he’s been trying to perfect his omelette technique. I joined in the fun, and we’ve been pumping them out on a steady curve of improvement, providing more proper flipping and less flops. He’d prepped a lot of different ingredients that I ended up piling together for the final round, among them I recall bacon, sautéed shallots, wilted spinach, tomatoes, Parmigiano-Reggiano and cilantro. There was only one steadfast rule: three eggs per omelette, and nothing is to be added to the eggs. Keep it simple. It’s a rule I tend to ignore, but here it certainly works.

The thing I like about the traditional BLT is the simplicity of the name. There’s not much fooling around about what the ingredients are, as it’s displayed so simply in the name. Here, of course, the story is the same, with a few minor changes. First off, it’s more likely for me to have spinach on hand, as I find it to be more versatile than lettuce, and I was looking to use up some other leftovers, including the end of a loaf of bread and some garlic and red potato aioli. Also a favorite of mine on all sandwiches: oregano. Never say no to oregano!

So good, it will make your bowl EXPLODE! Suggestions to avoid this catastrophe: don’t make this soup. But, if you must, then know what you’re getting yourself into…

Roasted Garlic & Butternut Squash Bisque

1 Head Garlic
2 Butternut Squash
2 Cups Chicken Stock
1 Cup Cream
Rosemary
Thyme

Chop up your Squash into little cubes and slice the garlic in half. Put everything on a sheet pan and cover in olive oil, then bake at 350 until tender
Then, remove the garlic from the paper and place along with the squash in a pot, and then cover with the chicken stock and herbs, and bring to a boil, then use an immersion blender to puree it. Add the cream and serve. Or drop it.

Choosing to make this dish for dinner went through a bit of evolution and a few different possibilites. My little brother requested “Pasta with some sort of meat”. Some initial thoughts were to use some marinara I’ve got left, but I made that batch too sweet and kind of want to throw it out anyway. I considered Chicken Parmesan, but I try not to deep fry foods when I don’t have to. My mind went next to chicken and rice, but he’d asked for pasta, so I finally landed on this, Chicken Tetrazzini.  In reading about the origins of the dish, I discovered that it traditionally has nuts and thin noodles. Whoops. Who cares?

Chicken Tetrazzini

1lb Boneless, Skinless Chicken Salted and Cut into bite sized pieces
4 Cloves Garlic, Diced
2 New Vidalia Onions, Sliced
1 Cup Crimini Mushrooms, Sliced
1 Red Bell Pepper, Chopped
1 Green Bell Pepper, Chopped
1 Yellow Bell Pepper, Chopped
1 lb Pasta (Traditionally thing, but we used penne)
2 Cups Chicken Stock
1 Cup Cream
1/4 Cup Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

The trick here is to get things about half cooked before they go into the oven. I seared the chicken cutlets to give them a little satisfying browning, and I cooked the pasta until it was just a step before the tackiness was gone. Then, Dump everything into a dutch oven, season with some fresh herbs and a little salt and pepper, and toss it in a 350 degree oven for about 30 to 45 minutes.

I had a sandwich at my favorite restaurant in town a few weeks ago, and after having made a potato bread and aioli for some other events, I felt that I had the means to recreate it. I wanted the pepper to be broken in half, roughly, so I got the idea to run the peppercorns over with a rolling pin. I covered them with a bit of plastic wrap to prevent them flying off, and the process was both simple and successful. I then coated the fish in the peppercorns and gave it a light frying while I toasted some olive oil brushed bread slices. Between them goes the fish (Salmon, in this case), a bit of aioli and a few pieces of spinach. Suggested alternatives: Thinner bread, grilled fish.

Mmm, golden and flaky. All the things that fast food restaurants lie about having, but they’re so easy to have! You just coat that boy in oil (stuff some herbs under the skin for extra flavor) and broil it on a bed of vegetables until it reaches about 165°F. And then, you use all the bones and leftover veggies to make stock. A lot of stock. Maybe too much. I’ve got to do something with this stuff…

This dish was inspired by more Tastespotting surfing, in which I found this interesting blog about budget eating. It breaks down the price for every ingredient and values the dish by price. It’s certainly a thing to pay attention to in a down economy. Anyway, it gave me some new ideas for a dish that we’ve been having in my house for a while, and I decided it was high time I got better at making tofu, so after doing a little research, I found that a trick to improving the texture is to dry fry the tofu to completely remove the moisture. Then, it can be marinaded and packed with flavor, without losing its shape. It went wonderfully, and I will certainly be using the technique pretty much every time I ever make tofu again.

Thai Peanut Sauce

3/4 Cup Natural Peanut Butter
1/2 Lime (juiced)
1 Tbsp Grated Ginger
1 Clove Garlic, minced
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1/2 tsp Sesame Oil
1/2 tsp Fish Sauce
1 Tbsp Brown Sugar
6-7 Sprigs Cilantro
Water to texture
Sriracha Sauce to taste(heat)

Mix all ingredients in a food processor, and add sriracha sauce a little at a time until it has the heat you want, and add water until it gets to a consistence that you like (don’t make it too runny, or it won’t make a good noodle coating).

Thai Peanut Butter Noodles with Tofu

1/4lb Pasta Noodles (I used spaghetti)
4 Cloves Garlic, Minced
6 Green Onions
2 Tbsp Butter

Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the noodles, then, in a skillet melt the butter and add the garlic and onions. After about 1 minute, add your marinated tofu. When the pasta is al dante, add your Thai PB Sauce to the skillet, mix it up, and then toss with the noodles.

Then, you can add a side if you’d like. I’ve got some Bacon and Green Peas here, but you can do whatever you’d like. My older brother makes this dish from time to time, and I think he almost always uses kale or mustard greens.

The following is a series of entries made in my pocket journal on January 5, 2010, while I attempted to escape from New York.

-

The PATH train station at the World Trade Center site. It’s empty and lonely, save a few workers and the distant sound of construction. Metal bounces in the distance one way, a jackhammer is hard at work in another, but neither have visual queues. These phantom sounds are supported only by flickering lights and occasional sparks cascading from places unknown. It’s like every urban apocalyptic empire you’ve ever seen dreamed up, only it’s right here. Reality But more feet can be heard in the corridor; some glimmer of life can be seen when other passengers descend the stairs, here to bake with me under the heat lamp that shields us from the immense cold that lies just beyond the threshold of our station. It’s not much of a world out there, I tell you. Not much of a world.

-

Lines are down due to a bridge in the distance experiencing a ‘failure to lock.’ I can only imagine that the gears are frozen in place, caught on the carcass of some beast that exploded in a shock wave of absolute cold , sapping all heat and encasing everything it contacted in ice. The wasteland is no kind of place to be trapped, yet here we are, in stasis, waiting helplessly while any manner of evils could be closing in on us, from all sides. I would like to have faith that some force will brighten our world and free us from our imprisonment… but I see no light in the distance of this tunnel. Only time will tell what is to come… but time… we do not have.

-

I know now what awaited me there. I could have stayed there until I drew my dying breath, but that is not how I will have my story end. If there will be no one to help us, then I will go alone.

-

I stepped off the platform and out in the the dark, frigid unknown, but I was not concerned with what dangers could lurk in the shadow, for I knew what I was leaving behind – A slow and certain death. With that as the only other option, what is there left to fear? So onward, through whatever lesser evils I must face. Here in this time of trails, we are taught the lesson of enduring.

-

Finally, after some great trek I found myself in a minute safe haven, surrounded by like-minded souls: glad to be alive, and ready to continue the journey. When our next means of transport arrived, we set forth to see where we might be taken next, with hopes that it would truly see us there.

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Another empty corridor I walk as I stumble through this, trying to make some sense of vacant stares and strange markings… perhaps this fellow could help…

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Escape! The man has come through and put me on the path to a new land! Gone will I be from this blighted crystal clutch. I am to be lifted away by twisting engines and sculpted steel. Aloft for a time as we retreat to warmer climates. There’s a future out there for us to grasp, we just need to know what we’re reaching for.

I began my previous blog on New Years, 2008, and destiny would have it that I’d be inspired to make a new blog just around New Years 2010. I found this beautiful theme online and I knew I had to make it my own. Thanks to yichi for making something so beautiful that I couldn’t resist. So, after a little tailoring, setbacks and some practice entries, I have gotten it ready for its public presentation, and here it is. Expect to see the majority of the blogging about food, with a few excerpts from my journals and a little bit of poetry here and there. Be looking forward to the next entry, when you get to read about the trouble I had in escaping New York.