porky dickens

something to believe in

2012-02-09T14:23:00.003-05:00

I believe in salads. I really do. I actually kind of have to and I think we all should. I know that some people hate on them, but I truly think that people who “don’t like salads” haven’t had the right salad yet. If you’re going to embrace eating vegetables, you need to sex up your salads a bit. What I love about this particular salad is that it feels very hearty and seasonally appropriate and it’s filling to boot. The warm vegetables make the dressing pop and the soft sweet potatoes are complimented by the crunchy, salty parmesan laced throughout. It’s a winner.

WARM WINTER SALAD with PARMESAN CRISPS
and RED PEPPER JELLY VINAIGRETTE

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 small to medium onion, peeled and sliced
Mixed greens and baby spinach
Olive oil

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

2 parts olive oil
1 part Balsamic vinegar
¼ tsp. Dijon or whole grain mustard
1 tbs. red pepper jelly
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss diced sweet potatoes with a drizzle of oil and salt and pepper on a baking sheet. Set to roast in the oven for one hour, turning once at the halfway mark. About 40 minutes in, slice your onion and heat a skillet over medium heat with a tablespoon of olive oil. Sauté onions for a few minutes and then lower the heat, cooking onions slowly until caramelized for the remainder of cook time on the potatoes.

The veggies can cook largely unattended, just be sure to give the onions a stir every few minutes. Meanwhile, make the dressing and the crisps. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat pan liner. Grate parmesan into little piles directly on the pan and set aside. The crisps cook in the oven in just under five minutes. So, pop the cookie sheet in the oven at any point in time while the veggies are finishing. Check them; when the cheese is melted and they are golden colored and browned on the edges they’re done. Let cool for a minute or so and then simply lift the crisps right off the pan. These would also be delicious in Caesar salad or as a tiny, edible base for an appetizer.

To make the dressing combine the vinegar, red pepper jelly, mustard, a pinch of salt and some fresh ground pepper in a bowl. Whisking continuously, drizzle a thin stream of olive oil into the mixture until emulsified. Alternately, combine all of the dressing ingredients in a small jar, clamp the lid on and shake like the dickens then dump the finished dressing into the bottom of your salad bowl. Place the warm roasted potatoes and caramelized onions right into the dressing, top with greens and toss together thoroughly to coat. Plate the salad and top with two parmesan crisps. This makes two entrée sized or four starter sized salads.

there will be meat

2012-02-02T14:58:00.003-05:00

A whole meal of food. That’s what I’ve got in store for you today. Are you excited? There is also meat involved, which is a rare thing at Dickens HQ these days. See, we’ve decided to be “mostly vegetarian” which means we mostly eat vegetarian (and sometimes fish) most all of the time. It’s going swimmingly because we’re pretty committed, but we’re also not inflexible with it. Like if I come to your house and you’re serving meatballs, I’m not going to refuse the plate. They are after all, my spirit food.

Likewise, when this past Sunday came around and I volunteered to make dinner for my whole family in celebration of my dad’s birthday, I wasn’t going to make them quinoa and eggplant. My brother hasn’t laid a hand on me in decades, but I think if I tried to pull some bullsh!t like that he’d slap the taste out my mouth. Plus my dad, in addition to being a living legend and friends with dudes named Space, is at his core a man’s man and there’s one thing you make a special man’s man on their special day: BEEF. All capitals, that’s right.

A few years ago my friend Adam made me some braised short ribs for dinner. I don’t know that it was the first time I ever ate them, but it was the first time I remembered them. While I was drinking the juices out of the bowl, I had him run down his technique for me. It didn’t seem too complex. Mostly hands off, slow and low, whole bottle of wine, things I could get into. I took his blue print and cross referenced it against recipes by Tom Colicchio and the Pioneer Woman to come up with what I did here.

RED WINE BRAISED SHORT RIBS
with PARMESAN MASHED POTATOES and ROASTED BABY VEG

Red Wine Braised Short Ribs:
(serves 6, I doubled this to serve 12)

5 lbs. beef short ribs, cut in half into approx. 2” sections
Kosher salt
Black pepper
3 tbs. vegetable oil
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1 medium onion, peeled and diced
2 large or 3 small shallots, peeled and minced
3 tbs. all purpose flour
1 tbs. tomato paste
1 750mL bottle of dry red wine (Cabernet is perfect)
1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise
4 sprigs fresh thyme
Scant tablespoon dried oregano
2 cups lower sodium beef stock

Optional garnish: chopped flat leaf parsley

Generously salt and pepper short ribs on each side. Heat vegetable oil in a Dutch oven, or a large braising pan (with an oven-proof cover) over medium-high heat. Working in batches, brown the short ribs on all sides and set aside onto a plate or cookie sheet (takes about 8 minutes per batch). Add onion, carrot and shallots to the pan and sauté together until fragrant and the onions begin to brown (about 5 minutes). Add tomato paste and sprinkle flour into the pan, stirring constantly until well combined.

Return the ribs to the pan and pour in the whole bottle of wine. I used a Chilean Cabernet: Viu Manet. Nice and inexpensive but a totally decent Cab. with good flavor for cooking. Bring the pot up to a boil and then reduce heat and let simmer for 25 minutes, until wine has reduced by half. At some point during this process, preheat your oven to 350.

Nestle the split head of garlic, the sprigs of thymes and oregano into the pot and then cover with beef stock. Clamp the lid on and transfer the whole pot into the preheated oven. Let bake at 350 for 2 ½ hours.

Parmesan Mashed Potatoes
(serves 11, just barely, use less of everything for a smaller batch)

1 bag russet potatoes
Butter
Salt
Pepper
Half and half
Grated parmesan cheese

Scrub, peel and chop potatoes. Place into a large pot and top with cold water. Place on a burner and bring to a boil. Let boil until potatoes are tender, then drain the water off and return the potatoes to a pot. Add 2 generous pats of butter, a splash of half and half, some salt, pepper and a handful of grated parmesan. Mash completely, taste test and add more butter, cheese, salt and pepper to taste. If the mashed potatoes are dry, splash in small increments of half and half until they reach your desired consistency.

Roasted Baby Veg.*

Baby carrots
Cippolini onions
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Optional: aged Balsamic vinegar

*I like to abbreviate the word vegetable to “veg” and when I do so I say it in a British accent. Paul was on a business trip in England once and this dude was talking about vegetable tempura in his distinct accent and kept saying “Battered Veg” in a very dramatic way. Paul shared the story with me and now it’s stuck itself inside my brain. I live like this on a daily basis.

Scrub the dirt off your baby carrots and run a peeler over them once just to clean them up a bit. Chop off the greens, leaving just a bit so that you still get that cute, Bugs Bunny effect on the carrots. Set aside. To peel the Cippolini onions: heat a pot of water to boil on the stove and while it’s warming cut a small X in the top of each onion (not the root end). Once the water’s boiling, toss the onions in, for just about thirty seconds and then take them out and give them a quick run under cold water. The peels will now just slide right off; trim off the root end and they are ready to roll.

Toss the prepared vegetables in a baking dish with a generous drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and if you’ve got some, a drizzle of aged balsamic. Roast in a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes.

If you’re cooking this meal all at once: roast your vegetables with the ribs, for the last hour or so of cooking. During the last half hour or cooking, make your mashed potatoes. When the ribs are ready, remove the pan from the oven and use a spoon to skim excess accumulated fat from the top of the pot. If you don’t like chunky gravy, you can set the ribs aside, filter the juices through a sieve and then cook the pan juices down a bit in a skillet, before then adding the short ribs. But I really don’t think you even need this extra step at all.

To serve: fill a large, shallow bowl or lidded plate with a scoop of mashed potatoes, top with a few short ribs and a big ladle full of the accumulated juices. Garnish with a touch of parsley and toss the veggies on the side. Bingo bango, birthday party.

Simplify and serve these short ribs with a green salad and lots of crusty bread for soaking up the juices. This meal seems like it’s a lot of work, but I can tell you, if you’re cooking for a normal amount of people (say 4, 6) it’s really no big deal. I was cooking for 11, so I made a double batch. It was a decent amount of work but I enjoyed it. These short ribs are soooo delicious and impressive and almost impossible to screw up. Perfect dinner party fare that can finish cooking with no effort by you while you entertain your guests and serve cocktails and appetizers.

low maintenance

2012-01-26T14:09:00.003-05:00

You can add cauliflower to the list of things I was decidedly “not into” growing up. Along with most other vegetables and pretty much any food that wasn’t a chicken finger. I am so glad that my taste buds have matured with age (even if my sense of humor hasn’t).

In the winter, it’s tough to get psyched about vegetables like you can in spring or summer. And I am at a ahem, dietary point where I needed to be amped up on veg. One particular specimen that I’m glad to have welcomed into my repertoire is cauliflower and I’m really glad I did. It’s dense and satisfying and needs very little done to it to make it into a tasty side dish, or a creamy soup.

This particular soup is absolutely perfect mid-winter food. Hearty, thick and warm, but fairly low calorie and low maintenance in terms of preparation. I thought it might be a little “one note” in terms of flavor so I jazzed the finished product up with a bright Sun-dried Tomato Tapenade and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

SLOW ROASTED CAULIFLOWER SOUP with
SUN-DRIED TOMATO TAPENADE

One head cauliflower
2 large shallots
3 cloves garlic
Butter
Olive oil
Milk or half and half (optional)
Salt and pepper
Chicken or vegetable stock (32 oz., or about three cups)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Use a large knife to trim off the stem and green leaves of your cauliflower, but keep the head whole. Take a few small pats of butter and smoosh it into the cauliflower; then roast for 1 ½ hours or until a knife cuts into the middle of the head with no resistance. I tented foil over mine to prevent it from getting too brown. It still got a bit of color, but not too much. I didn’t want the resulting soup to be brown, because letsbeserious, who wants brown soup?

Once your cauliflower is roasted through, remove it from the oven and let it cool slightly before chopping into large chunks. If it’s nice and roasted, it will pretty much fall apart at the sight of your knife. In a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat, warm a generous drizzle of olive oil and a pat of butter. Mince shallots and add to pan, sautéing until translucent and fragrant. Add garlic, adjust the heat down just a bit so it doesn’t scorch and let cook another minute. Add your cauliflower to the pot and pour the stock in to cover. Turn the heat up a touch, add a generous amount of salt and pepper and let simmer for 10 minutes so the flavors combine.

Reduce heat to low and puree the solids into the stock using an immersion blender. If you do not have an immersion blender: puree your soup in batches in a blender, being careful not to over-fill it, because hot liquids expand. Once pureed, return the soup to your pot and pour in a splash of half and half and a pat of butter to thicken a bit. Season to taste with more salt and pepper.

Sun-dried Tomato Tapenade

½ cup sun-dried tomatoes, coarsely chopped
2 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. sherry vinegar
Salt, pepper
Pinch of sugar

Combine all ingredients in a blender or small capacity food processor. Pulse until it becomes a thick dressing. Can keep refrigerated for a week. I originally made this as a salad dressing a few days prior to making the soup. By the time soup day rolled around it had thickened a bit to be less like a dressing and more like a tapenade. I swirled it into the hot soup and the brightness of sun-dried tomato and sherry vinegar was just perfect with the creamy soup.

Makes approximately 5 servings. Top hot soup with a swirl of tapenade and grated some parmesan cheese. This soup sticks to the ribs and is filling, but has very little fat (and can be made completely dairy free if you’re into that sort of thing- just skip the butter and half and half). A perfect creamy winter soup for lunch or dinner. Pair with a simple green salad and some crusty bread to bulk it up into a full meal.

photographs, nut butter, metaphors

2012-01-19T13:58:00.004-05:00

When I was growing up the wall next to our staircase was covered in framed family photos. Not unlike anyone else’s stairway I would presume. One photo in particular was the only professionally posed photo that my family had ever sat down for. It was taken, after hours, in the Cole School gymnasium on a week night in the middle of the winter.

It is your standard family photo, my sister and I perched on blocks, my mother, father and brother artfully arranged at varying heights over our heads. Some of us are smiling; some of us are making a European- style serious face. The only thing different about this photo is the twenty-something man seated next to my mother, holding her hand. His name is Brian and he was a former student of my dad’s and he was, at the time of the photo, living in a U-Haul in our driveway and at times crashing on our couch. My parents, never lacking for sense of humor, thought it would be completely hilarious to have Brian not only come to our family photo shoot but have him tenderly hold my mom’s hand. Like him and my dad were some kind of brother husbands or he was our eldest half brother. I can’t remember what life circumstances brought him to our cat-hair covered couch; and, having grown up in a house with an open door policy when it came to guests, didn’t think much of it at the time. I was six years old, I had a cat named Ashley, I enjoyed the literary works of the Berenstain Bears and a dude named Brian lived in my driveway. It was the way it was. I didn’t know normal looked anything different from this. I was after all in the same household where a guy nicknamed Space dug an eleven foot hole in the woods next to our driveway in an attempt to make an off the grid underground-shelter-cum-paintball-lair. I should mention he did this not only with my dad’s consent, but assistance and outright enthusiasm.

Years later when I was in high school my friend Becky was over looking at the family photo wall and she was all “Jess did you guys have a foreign exchange student? Who is this dude holding your mom’s hand?” I started to explain that he was just a friend of my dad’s who lived in our driveway for a while. As I explained the history of how Brian made it into our family photograph I realized the image itself was like a metaphor for my entire childhood.

So here I was again today thinking about metaphors as I prepared this Coconut Almond butter in my decidedly jury-rigged Cuisinart. About how the way we do things often illustrates our approach to the world at large. In order to trick the safety switch on the top of my food processor into thinking the cover is on the column, I wedge a kitchen knife into it and then cover the opening at the top with a dish towel to keep whatever I’m pulsing from spritzing out all over my face. Today, because I need to run the processor for upwards of ten minutes, I have scotch taped a barbecue skewer in place to hold the switch. It looks awkward and little ridiculous, but it works for me.

Sure, I could easily go online and order the twenty dollar part that would make all of this rigging unnecessary and ultimately, make my life a little bit easier. Just like my parents could have had a “no dudes living in our driveway” policy while their kids were growing up. Yeah, it might have been slightly more stable and traditional. Smarter even. But where’s the fun in that?

COCONUT ALMOND BUTTER

Almonds
Sweetened, flaked coconut (or unsweetened if you can find it)
Cinnamon
Honey (optional)

Here I used equal parts almonds and coconut. You can measure it out if you need to. If I had to guess, it was probably about two cups of each, which yielded me one small and one large Ball jar of finished Coconut Almond Butter.

Heat oven to 325. Spread almonds in one layer on a baking sheet. Line another cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread a thin layer of coconut flakes. Send both pans to the oven, stirring occasionally until toasted (about 10 minutes in my oven). Parts of the coconut will be golden brown and the nuts will be fragrant.

Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Add coconut to the bowl of a food processor and process for quite a while until the flakes are pulverized. You can continue to pulse until the coconut becomes soupy, liquid coconut butter, but since I was adding the almonds, I didn’t think it was necessary. Add the almonds and process until it starts looking like a slightly thicker, more textured version of natural peanut butter. Add a dash of cinnamon and a drizzle of honey and process a bit more. When it has reached a spreadable consistency, scoop into jars, label and date.

Perfect for whole grain toast topped with sliced banana. Or stirred into oatmeal. Or in a breakfast smoothie. Or right off the spoon.

what works

2012-01-12T14:39:00.003-05:00

I’m here today to talk about scones. Scones are (in my mind) an often overlooked bakery item. They’re not nostalgic like chocolate chip cookies, indulgent like a slab of cheesecake or hip and trendy like a miniature cherry pie or a new wave Hostess styled cupcake, but dude, look me in the eyes when I say this: scones are freakin’ good.

My mom got me a subscription to Saveur for Christmas and I ate up the whole first issue in one sitting. I like that it’s part travel magazine, part food history, part food-food. And they put all the recipes at the back, which I just kind of dig. It means that I can snip out a one to two paragraph recipe with all the details I need without cutting out text that sprawls onto two pages and a giant photograph of a scallion or a lemon or whatever (I’m looking at you, Bon Appétit).

What’s nice about a text only recipe is that it’s simple and it works. Kind of like scones. I had a little extra time on Tuesday afternoon and I didn’t even have to open my pantry door to know that I had all the fixings for these easy scones. There’s really not much to them besides flour and butter and a few other supporting players. The Saveur recipe suggests eating them with jam and clotted cream, but since I am not a fictional British nanny, I have no clotted cream on hand. I ate them with salted butter and a slather of homemade apple butter that a coworker gave me. I paired the scone with some cinnamon tea and I can’t recall a more satisfying snack in recent history. Do yourself a favor and battle back against these chilly grey January days by rustling up a batch of warm scones and making a nice cup of tea. It works.

SIMPLE SCONES
(from Saveur)

5 cups flour
½ cup sugar
5 tsp. baking powder
2½ tsp. kosher salt
14 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
2 cups milk
Salted butter, jam, and clotted cream, for serving

Preheat oven to 450. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add butter and rub into dry ingredients with your fingers until crumbles form (I always see the term “pea sized” used to describe when it’s done, but I’ve never quite achieved that myself; what I do is rub together until all the large chunks of butter have whittled down a bit and the whole bowl of flour smells real buttery). Stir in milk until dough forms.

Transfer to a heavily floured work surface and pat into a square that’s approximately an inch thick; cut that square into 16 smaller squares. Using a floured spatula, transfer squares to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silpat liner; bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes (when I halved the recipe*) cooking time was about 8 minutes less, so be sure to check on them. Serve warm with butter and jam, or maybe even a drizzle of honey.

*This recipe makes 16 scones. Since I didn’t think having 16 buttery scones around the house while I’m trying to eat healthy was a good idea, I halved the recipe right down the middle. It yielded 8. I enjoyed one out of the oven, one for breakfast the next day and then smartly took the remaining scones to work and doled them out to coworkers.

Perfect for brunch: (a tip that is partly from each of my two fave blogs Orangette and Smitten Kitchen) many scone recipes bake up even better when you freeze the scones before baking. If you are hosting people for brunch, or just want to jazz up your Sunday breakfast, make a batch of these on Saturday and freeze the separated scones overnight. In the morning pop the frozen scones right in the oven and wow everyone with fresh, hot baked goods, with little effort required.

time to get radical

2012-01-08T21:36:00.003-05:00

I’ve been wearing my fair share of elastic waist pants recently. There is a great danger in wearing leggings, tights and/or jeggings (not that I own jeggings). You eat a lot without noticing that your pants are constricting on your body. This is what’s good about jeans, they don’t move with your waistline expansion. Sure, if you slam back a burrito your skin ends up looking like a relief map of the Andes when you remove your constricting pants, but at least you’re not ignoring the constriction all together. And while I’d like to blame my post holiday bloat on leggings-related over eating, I have no one to blame but myself. From November through New Year’s, I repeatedly abused my body with sugar cookies, champagne and prime rib. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good time. But it’s time to get radical.

Now you may or may not know that I used to be fat (I can’t believe that MTV show stole my phrase) and I’m not saying I’ve undone years of hard work through one indulgent holiday period, but I am feeling the high fat, high sugar, wine-is-a-food-group style eating I have been doing. It’s time to get radical. I need to get my body moving and increase my vegetable intake tenfold.

So that is why, even though it is completely cliché to lead off the New Year with a broth based soup chock full of greens, I am sharing this recipe here. It’s not going to win me any friends, it’s certainly not a contender for the most beautiful food I’ve ever eaten, but it is super detoxifying-ly healthy. Give it a try if you’re into that sort of thing. If you’re not into that sort of thing, I’m probably going to make a nice, tasty baked good on the next go ‘round, so I’ll see you then. Happy New Year. One of my resolutions is to stop being such a neglectful blog mom. So hopefully we’ll be seeing lots more of each other in 2012.

HERB, CHARD and FETA SOUP
(From Bon Appétit)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 pound Swiss chard leaves (center ribs and stems removed) or spinach, coarsely chopped (about 10 cups)
3 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves
1 tablespoon dried mint
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

GARNISHES

5 ounces plain Greek-style yogurt (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup mixed chopped herbs (such as parsley, cilantro, and mint), divided
4 ounces feta, crumbled, divided
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Fresh lemon juice (optional)
Olive oil (optional)

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, until translucent and soft (do not brown), 7–8 minutes. Stir in chard, broth, parsley, cilantro, fresh and dried mint, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until chard is tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper. Working in batches, purée soup in a blender until smooth. Return to pan. Alternately, puree soup directly in the pot with an immersion blender. If you don’t own one of these by now, I’m not doing my job.

Place 1/3 of yogurt in a medium bowl. Add 1/2 cup warm soup; whisk until smooth. Repeat process twice more, adding a total of 1 cup more soup. Whisk yogurt mixture into soup in saucepan. Stir 1/4 cup herbs and half of feta into soup. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and lemon juice, if desired. Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with remaining 1/4 cup herbs and 2 oz. feta. Drizzle with oil, if desired.

get to it

2011-12-22T16:05:00.002-05:00

Someone should tell my Pandora station that I loathe Michael Buble. Every five minutes one of his Christmas songs is jammed in there. But it's sort of okay because the last such offense was followed immediately by Stevie Wonder's Someday at Christmas, which I wrapped around myself like a warm blanket combined with a hug from my nana. If you haven't heard that one in your Christmas listening, please, get to it.

There is not much time around these parts, I'm cranking this post out as I finish laundry, wrapping, crafting, etc., etc. But this bark was pretty decent, so I wanted to share it in case you want something else to put on your To Do List right now (cha right). I used this recipe here. You should note that you do NOT stir the sugar once it boils, you just stare at it until it turns amber colored. This will make sense if you choose to make this. Also, don't feel bad if it doesn't come out the first time. My first batch was a bust, so I skipped the caramel part all together.

The end result of this bark is deep and very, well, adult flavored. Paul called it "manly" and I think that is an accurate description. I don't care for it too much, but if you are a dark chocolate lover, make it. It's simple and tasty. Next time, I will make it with milk chocolate, because I like my sweets a little sweeter.

Merry, Merry Christmas. Good luck with the rest of the scrambling and keep in mind that it's all worth it when you get to hang out with your loved ones and EAT, DRINK and unwrap presents! As Michael Scott says: "Presents are the best way to show someone how much you care. It's this tangible thing that you can point to and say 'I love you this many dollars worth'" Well I love you a million dollars worth. Merry Christmas! xoxo, jess

a little something something

2011-12-15T22:01:00.003-05:00

Tis the season for fancy spiced nuts. This project is for the Anti Marthas among us. I think everyone likes the idea of giving people a little something something homemade at the holidays; but not all of us relish the idea of spending a whole December Saturday holed up in their kitchen knee deep in melted chocolate. I mean, we all have better things to do right? Like boxing out people at the clearance ornament rack at Target or putting hexes on the first born children of the people that won’t let us in the line to pull out of the parking lot (just kidding, I'm super zen in the car).

These Thai spiced cashews are just the thing. Homemade enough to let people know you care about them enough to turn your oven on, but fast and easy enough to let you maintain your sanity. Extra bonus: they are also crazy delicious.

Let’s be honest with each other, shall we? When encountered with a bowl of holiday nut mix or even regular, non holiday nut mix of any sort we sit there and pick out the cashews. Maybe sometimes the macadamia nuts if we’re feeling adventurous. No? Anyone? Just me? Well anyways, I thought my favorite nut would be delicious with some Thai flavors mixed in. A little spicy, a little sweet, these are completely addictive and I need to make another batch before I eat all of my gifting ones.

THAI SPICED CASHEWS

One package roasted, salted cashews
One egg white
One tablespoon water
1 ½ tablespoons Sriracha hot sauce
¼ teaspoon cayenne
½ teaspoon Vietnamese cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ cup brown sugar
1-2 teaspoons granulated sugar, if necessary

Preheat oven to 300. Combine egg white, water and Sriracha in a bowl. Beat together with a fork to combine. Add cashews and use a rubber spatula to toss together in order to coat the nuts in liquid. Add spices and brown sugar, toss together thoroughly to coat.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat liner. Pour nuts into pan in one even layer, making sure to scrape out the extra “juice” on top of the nuts. Bake at 300 for 30 minutes, tossing every so often and rotating the pan to ensure even roasting.

These are delicious as is. However, I’m making another batch tomorrow for stocking stuffers and I want the second batch to be a bit spicier. So I’m going to slightly up the amount of Sriracha and cayenne. The guys in my life like em spicy. SPICY!

that magical time

2011-12-13T08:28:00.006-05:00

It must be the holidays because I’m writing this from my kitchen table, where I can hear the jingle jangle of two mental cats slowly dismantling my tree and eating all of my favorite ornaments. Yes, it’s that magical time of year where we increase our sugar intake six fold and rediscover the sheer joy of weekday morning hangovers. What better drink to mark this magical season than a beverage made of whole eggs and milk (and sometimes bourbon)? Eggnog is kind of messed up if you think about it. While I love the flavor of nog I can only drink about a half cup serving of it before I get short of breath.

So what I like to do with eggnog is drink just a tiny bit of it, but use the rest to bake with. Last year I whipped up an eggnog bread pudding with the last of my nog and it was amazing. These cookies are this year’s addition to my “Baking with Nog” series…they are a bit “rustic” looking (a/k/a lumpy and a little ugly) but I have to tell you, they taste delicious. Just like eggnog, only with the crumble of a cookie. You can’t beat that.

EGGNOG COOKIES
(found on allrecipes.com)

1 ¼ cups white sugar
¾ cup butter, softened at room temp.
½ cup eggnog
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg (plus a little more for sprinkling)
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Look how pretty the inside of nutmeg is. Like a fine wood grain:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees (my oven runs low, so I found 325 was a much better temp). Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg in a medium sized bowl. Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggnog, vanilla, and egg yolks; beat at medium speed with mixer until smooth. Incorporate flour mixture in batches until just combined. Do not over mix. Drop the dough by rounded teaspoons onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat liner and sprinkle a touch more nutmeg over.

Bake 20-23 minutes until the bottoms turn light brown (the cookies will still be quite pale). Remove from oven and let cool.

Store in an airtight container. These will keep for several days and in fact, they tasted much better two days after they were made.

I am spending the remainder of my day working on some edible gifts. If you have the time, I think including a couple homemade treats at Christmas is always nice. Here’s some inspiration for simple homemade edibles from Porky’s past:

Got someone who likes pickled anything? Whip them up a jar of these easy pickled red onions, hot and spicy pickled jalapenos or straight up pickles.

Giving a gift to your favorite lovable boozebag? They’ll love my Cranberry Moonshine. It’s perfect to drizzle into a glass of bubbly or spoon over vanilla ice cream for an Adult Sundae.

Sweet tooth? Last year’s Almond Joy Balls were super delicious and shockingly pain free for my first foray into making candy.

for love and cured meats

2011-12-06T11:56:00.004-05:00

The first time I cooked dinner for Paul I made cod wrapped in prosciutto. I thought it would read as impressive without being too labor intensive (I had to look cute and be able to flirt and cook at the same time). Last week, we sat down over pan seared pork chops and drafted the guest list to our wedding(!). This morning, I got up early to make him a prosciutto and pesto calzone for his work potluck lunch (like a total wife) and you know what? I secretly really it. The point is I’m not saying that cooking with prosciutto and related pork products is the key to romantic success, but I’m just sayin’ if you use them liberally, they might just get you hitched.

We have been engaged for two months now and neither of us can say the word “fiancée” without wincing awkwardly or saying it like Elaine from Seinfeld. I’ve found Paul has jumped straight to calling me “wife” while I prefer the more scientific sounding “Future Husband” (picture him in a space suit). I held off on writing a post about the engagement on here (not because I didn’t want to) so that we could tell friends the good news in person. This isn’t the last I’ll mention the upcoming nuptials, but details I share on here will be sparse, I promise. The last thing the world needs is another wedding blog to teach it how to spend thousands of dollars on bedazzled sea shell favors and the difference between light blue, baby blue, robin’s egg blue and periwinkle. Totally mental.

So enough about love, let’s get back to the salt cured pork, shall we? That’s what you come for right? I’ve been heavy into prosciutto ever since college, when I lived on Arthur Avenue (the real Little Italy) in the Bronx. A deli called Tino’s has always, and (hopefully) will always have the World’s Greatest Prosciutto, Mozzarella and Basil sandwich known by mankind, in this century or any other. This calzone is a take on that classic combination. If it works as a sandwich, trust me it will work rolled up and baked into pizza dough. I mean, really, what wouldn’t?

TINO’S PESTO and PROSCIUTTO CALZONE

Pizza dough (store bought or homemade, enough for one pizza)
Shredded part skim mozzarella or Italian 4 cheese blend* (approx. 1-1 ½ cups)
¼ lb. thinly sliced prosciutto
¼ lb. Genoa salami
Approx. ½ cup pesto (either homemade or store bought)

Olive oil or olive oil spray
2 tbsp. butter

*while I’m normally an advocate of buying blocks or cheese and grating it yourself (it’s cheaper, tastes better), in this case I do think that a bagged shredded cheese works well. Because it’s pre-shredded, it has less moisture, so your calzone won’t get soggy on the bottom. I like Cabot or Sargento is fine as well.

Preheat your oven to 400. Let your dough hang out at room temperature for a bit while you gather your ingredients; if you live in a drafty old house like me, place the dough near to the heat of the stove as it preheats, to give it a little help. Dust your countertop or cutting board with flour and roll out the dough to a wide rectangular shape. Use a spoon or spatula to spread a layer of pesto right in the middle of this rectangle (about half a store bought package or approx. ½- ¾ of a cup). Leave room at the front and back or your dough for folding over and a little edge on either side for sealing the ends. Sprinkle a layer of cheese on top of the pesto and then arrange a layer of prosciutto on top. You will only use half of the ¼ pounds of prosciutto and salami; I saved the rest and made another calzone with the same ingredients. It’s calzone-central around here these days. Also, I should mention, I pulled any large, fatty edges off of my prosciutto just so no one eating the calzone would have one of those experiences where they take a bite and pull the whole filling out with that bite (that’s the worst).

Following the prosciutto, sprinkle a bit more cheese and then layer slices of salami. Top this with remaining cheese (the most yet) and then fold the bottom half up and then layer the top half on top, using your fingers to pinch it closed. Fold the ends over and tuck them in, giving them a quick pinch to seal. Transfer your calzone to a lightly oiled cookie sheet and then microwave the butter in a small bowl or ramekin for about 20 seconds, or until it is liquefied. Use a brush to brush a layer of butter over the top of the calzone and then cut a couple small slits in the top of the dough for ventilation. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes*, or until the bottom is lightly browned, as well as the top. You may also be able to see cheese bubbling out of the ventilation holes. When you take it out give it a tap with your finger tips to make sure that the dough is cooked.

*My oven runs cool, so I ended up cooking this at 425 for about 12 minutes, but if your oven tends to run hotter, check it between 8 and 10 minutes of cooking.

QUICK MARINARA SAUCE (optional for dipping)

1 can diced tomatoes in sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small onion, finely diced
Good quality dried oregano and basil
Salt, pepper, sugar

I let this simmer while I prepared my calzone so that we would have a little something to dip it in. Tomatoes out of the can taste very acidic so you need to give them a little love. What I did was heated up a sauce pan with a generous splash of olive oil, added the onion, then the garlic and the can of tomatoes. I let it simmer a few minutes and then added about scant tablespoon each of the oregano and basil then a generous amount of salt, pepper and a big pinch of sugar to cut the acid. I turned the heat down and let it simmer for about an hour. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.

Serve on the side of the calzones. It’s a nice balance to serve sauce with this particular calzone because the prosciutto makes it pretty salty. These travel well and are delicious re-warmed in an oven or at room temp.

some assembly required

2011-12-01T11:23:00.003-05:00

On Sunday we had a Quiche Eating Contest, I mean Baby Shower Brunch, for my cousin at my aunt's house. I was told to bring an appetizer. But what exactly is an appropriate appetizer for brunch? I figured something with smoked salmon would be a good fit, so I threw these little bites together. I'm quite sure I saw a recipe of this sort on the internet somewhere a long time ago but what my mother heard was "she just made it up on the spot and she's a GENIUS!" Come to think of it that scenario describes every culinary achievement of mine my mother has ever crowed about. I think we know where I get my inflated sense of self esteem.

Regardless of that, these are perfect tasty little bites and here's why this appetizer is worth sharing here: you can pick up the ingredients at the store on the way to your party and assemble them there as you chat and catch up with the host(ess). At this time of year when time is at a premium, you can't get much better than that.

SMOKED SALMON POTATO CHIP BITES

one package Scottish smoked salmon
Small container sour cream
fresh dill
bag of kettle cooked potato chips. Either salted or salt and pepper*

*I prefer Kettle brand for these, the chips tend to be bigger than Cape Cods. But I prefer Cape Cods in real life because I gotta represent (throws up coastal New England gang sign that looks like a lighthouse).

This is more assembly instructions than an actual recipe per se, but here's how to put them together:

Take a single chip, smear with a touch of sour cream, top with a small slice of smoked salmon and a pinch of dill. Repeat times a million until you run out of salmon. I made a quick onion dip with the rest of the sour cream and served it with all the leftover chips. These things move fast, you may want to assemble them out of grabbing range of hungry people.

what i know

2011-11-22T17:46:00.004-05:00

Now that I am an esteemed wine professional, simply everyone wants to know what I’m drinking this Thanksgiving. And by “everyone” I of course mean that my mom said my Aunt Lisa asked her what I might recommend. The fan base is strong and growing rapidly. Since I’m still pretty green at the wine game, I can only tell people what I know. I’ve got some time yet before I’m explaining in great detail the wine makers of particular villages in Southwestern France or anything like that but I can tell you at this point in time is what I’m drinking and why I like it.

This Thanksgiving we’re heading to Paul’s aunt’s house and I’m bringing some nice cheese and crackers and three current faves: a bottle of bubbles, a red and a white. For the sparkler, I chose the Hi! Prosecco. I’ve never met a prosecco I didn’t like and this is one I sampled the other night at our Thanksgiving Wine Education Dinner is no exception. It’s the perfect drink to get the party started. For me whenever a cork pops out of a bottle of bubbles, whether it be a fine champagne (pronounced: cham panyah) some cava or prosecco it’s exciting. When I’m in mixed company I have to resist the constant urge to go “WOOOO!” when I hear a cork pop, because to me it’s the sound of a good time.

The white is a French blend called Chat en Oeuf (from my 7th grade French education, that’s “cat on egg” the phrase itself is a play on words). Full disclosure: I love it solely based on the graphic on the label of a fat, striped cat sitting on an egg. I happen to have a fat, striped cat sitting directly on my feet right now and if something reminds me of Bruce, well then my heart softens for it a bit. So yeah, I picked this wine because it reminds me of my kitty. I hope it’s tasty. I’m officially a crazy cat lady. Someone call the Sad Police.

The red I’m bringing I’m currently obsessed with. It’s a delicious, light, but nuanced Pinot Noir from California. Pinot Noir has been pushed by wine geeks as THE Thanksgiving Wine and honestly, that’s just because it works. There are so many flavors on the Thanksgiving table that you don’t want a giant, heavy red wine competing for your attention. You want something subtle and elegant. This Block Nine Pinot fits the bill for me. It’s delicious, it’s reasonably priced and the design on the front is really gorgeous. For me I need the bottle to look good too. It’s nice when you find something that pleases you from the label all the way to the finish.

As much as this holiday sort of snuck up on me, I’m really looking forward to Thursday. I have an enormous amount to be thankful for right now and taking a little time to reflect on that for which I am grateful, enjoy some wine and food and wash it all down with a gravy chaser sounds good to me! Hey remember, at this time last year I was getting ready to make the Worst Pie of All Time. So really, anything is an improvement! Happy Thanksgiving. xo, jess

the new normal

2011-11-17T18:16:00.004-05:00

There’s a lot of newness going on for me right now. I’m typing this post on my new computer, in a new place, where I have never written before, on a new day of the week where I never normally would have time to myself to work on a post. This is part of my new normal and I can report with full confidence after two weeks (plus a month and a half) of transitional life that the new normal is very, very good.

Speaking of very, very good, I looked at the calendar yesterday and realized that this time next week I will be sitting down to bust a grub at the Thanksgiving table (fist pump!). The foods and flavors of fall snuck right up while I was busy making Giant Life Changes. The good news on this front: the changes are all good and the flavors of fall are still delicious.

I got this recipe from a lady I work with at my new job. She was sampling both this soup and a butternut squash bruschetta last weekend and I tried both and swiped copies of the recipes. I just had one bit of constructive criticism that ran through my head as I scarfed down her samples: needs bacon. But really, what couldn’t benefit from a couple crumbles of salt pork?

This soup is a delicious fix to start off your Thanksgiving week right. It comes together fast and easy and is, for the most part, both healthy and filling, so you can save the bulk of your calorie consumption for putting the hurt on next Thursday. It would also make an awesome starter if you were serving a sit down Thanksgiving meal and wanted to include a soup.

PUMPKIN LEEK SOUP with CRUMBLED PANCETTA,
HERBED GOAT CHEESE and POMEGRANATE SEEDS
(adapted from a Real Simple recipe)

¼ lb. pancetta, chopped into a dice
1-2 tbs. olive oil
1-2 tbs. butter
2 leeks (white and light green parts only) cut in ¼ inch
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can pumpkin puree (not pie mix)
½ of a butternut squash, peeled, seeded and chopped into cubes*
6 cups chicken stock (store bought or homemade)
Salt and pepper

Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add pancetta to pan and fry until crisped. Remove the crumbled pancetta and set to drain on a folded paper towel. Set aside for future use. Reduce the heat on your burner just a touch, add a bit of olive oil and the leeks. Add the butter and sauté the leeks for about 5 minutes, until wilted and fragrant, add the garlic cloves and cook together another minute or so.

Add the cubed squash, your can of pumpkin and the chicken stock. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer and let cook until the squash is completely tender (about 20 minutes). Add salt and pepper (quite a bit of these- the original recipe called for 1 ¾ tsp. salt and a ¼ tsp. pepper) taste test for seasoning. Mine was plenty salty, because I started it with pancetta- which is an extraordinarily salty meat, especially when crisped up.

Reduce heat to low and using an immersion blender, puree the soup completely. If you don’t have an immersion blender puree in batches in a conventional blender and return to the pot. But, be careful! Hot liquids expand. Ladle the soup into a bowl and garnish with a few crumbles of herbed goat cheese, some of the crumbled pancetta and a few pomegranate seeds for color. Admire the colors (soooo pretty) and devour immediately.

Make this soup vegetarian: use vegetable stock instead of chicken, omit the pancetta and just sauté the leeks in oil.

Make this soup vegan: by changing the stock to veggie and omitting the pancetta, butter and goat cheese.

*chop the other half into cubes, toss with a little olive oil and roast them in a 400 degree oven while you make your soup. They are delicious on salads or, on a pizza, like I’m making tonight. I’m going to top wheat dough with some of the roasted squash, some crumbled gorgonzola cheese, caramelized onions and maybe, just maybe, some more pancetta.

ridiculous good

2011-11-04T10:04:00.003-04:00

A couple weeks ago I bought some almond butter because sometimes I like to think I’m the kind of person who eats almond butter and enjoys it. This is the same as when I purchase a tub of yogurt thinking that I’m all the sudden going to be the type of person who enjoys plain yogurt because it’s so gosh darn good for my bones.

The problem is I am not this type of person. I am the type of person who eats leftover Halloween candy lying on my futon watching terrible wedding industry propaganda (do people really like it when David Tutera turns their wedding into cirque du soleil? and basically takes all the things they have chosen so far and says: this is NOT good enough?) In my next life I will be more virtuous and I will eat apples and almond butter as a snack instead of Almond Joys and Rolos that have seen better days. And I will watch documentaries on important things or perhaps put down the clicker and read a book (that isn’t young adult fiction) but until further notice it’s stale candy and WE TV and you know what I’m more than okay with that. Self acceptance is an important trait.

So about the almond butter: instead of cleaning out my household’s peanut butter supply with one batch of these cookies (because Paul would abandon ship if I used the last of his Teddie’s. You don’t mess with a man’s breakfast), I decided to see what would happen if I halved the peanut butter and added part almond butter. You know what happened? Awesome happened, that’s what. These cookies are ridiculous good. Next Level. I mean it. And guess what? It turns out I am the kind of virtuous food hippie that eats almond butter, I just wrap mine in regular butter, brown sugar and chocolate chips. Which is fiiine.

SALTED PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES
(from this recipe featured on Orangette)

2 cups plus 1 tsp. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. kosher salt
2 sticks plus 3.5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
about 1 ¼ cup, packed, dark brown sugar
¾ cup plus 2.5 tbsp. sugar
2 large eggs
¾ cup natural salted creamy peanut butter
¾ almond butter
2 tsp. vanilla extract
Chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

A quick note about the peanut butter: you absolutely must use good quality natural peanut butter for these cookies. Even if you’re a Jif gal (or guy) in your day to day life. I strongly recommend Teddie’s. It’s a local company. The peanut butter is the best and it’s available at most major supermarkets (at least in Massachusetts).

Preheat the oven to 350°, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat liner. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, and whisk well. Set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter with the sugars until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. Add the peanut butter, almond butter and vanilla, and beat on medium-low speed to blend. Quick tip when working with peanut butter, or any nut butter (hee) for that matter: give your measuring cup a spritz of oil or butter spray before measuring, then it will slide right out.

Add the dry ingredients in three batches, mixing on low speed until incorporated and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the chocolate, and beat briefly on low speed, just until evenly incorporated.

Use a big spoon or ice cream scoop to scoop the batter on to your prepared cookie sheets. You want the scoops of dough to be pretty sizable (almost ¼ cup) and be sure to space them far apart- they will spread.

Bake for 15 minutes or until the cookies are puffed and a little golden around the edges- but the tops have no color. The key to successful peanut butter cookies is that you must err towards under cooking them. They will not look fully baked- but that is what you will want. Let them cool on the cookie sheets for a bit. They will not only firm up, but their taste will improve. If you try to move them while they are hot (or eat them- I did both) they will crumble and they also won’t taste “all that.” Patience grasshopper. These little guys are worth the wait.

Repeat with the remaining dough. Makes a good batch of cookies (about 20).

easy does it

2011-10-27T09:51:00.003-04:00

Teeny, tiny, easy. Did you know how easy it is to make pumpkin pie? I think that might be an expression: “easy as pumpkin pie” or am I making that up? I think it's actually "easy as apple pie" but that's ridiculous because compared to pumpkin, apple pie is a pain.

Anyways. The short story on these little guys is that I have some mini muffin tins that had never been used and I had a can of pumpkin in the pantry and some pie crust in the freezer. I’ve wanted to make miniature, bite-sized pies for a while and it seemed as though the stars had aligned.

PUMPKIN PIE BITES

1 (15 oz.) can unsweetened pumpkin
2 eggs
1 cup light cream
½ cup milk
¾ cup brown sugar
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. cinnamon

2 packages Pillsbury pie crust, or two homemade pie crusts, chilled

Heat oven to 375.

Follow the directions for pumpkin pie filling on the back of your can of pumpkin. I used a can of pumpkin from Trader Joe’s and their recipe was simpler than any of the others I’ve seen online. Here is the classic pumpkin pie recipe if you want to use that.

While I am usually an advocate for homemade things I have to say with this pie using the store made pie crust makes things a LOT easier. It’s much more pliable and forgiving than my homemade would be.

My measurements here might not be perfect because I naturally, didn’t take notes. If I were you I would cross check this recipe with the actual measurements on your can, because I can’t be trusted entirely.

Mix together all of the filling ingredients. Treat your mini muffin tins with a spray of olive oil or butter and lightly dust with flour. Roll out your pie dough on a lightly floured surface and cut into rounds (use a cookie cutter if you have one, I used a round glass). Press the cut circles into each muffin cup, trimming the excess off from the edge, taking care not to poke a hole in the bottom of the pie crust.

Carefully pour the pie filling into each little crust and set the pan on the middle rack of your preheated oven.

Bake for 25-35 minutes, checking for doneness after the 25 mark. They will puff just slightly, the crust will be golden and if you shake the pan, only the slightest jiggle happens in the filling, if any.

The finished product will be a bit cragged and rustic, but when they’re cooked up, they look so delicious it really doesn’t matter. These are so, so, so perfect to bring to Thanksgiving or a Halloween party. I have never been a huge fan of straight up pumpkin pie (too much pumpkin, not enough pie), but these minis up the crust to filling ratio and make pumpkin pie exponentially more delicious. Plus look at them, they’re adorable.

when I dip you dip we dip

2011-10-18T10:04:00.005-04:00

Friday night I went out with some girlfriends to celebrate me making Major Changes and Exciting Life Decisions. I anticipated a few glasses of wine, some food and fairly early night in bed; maybe midnight at the latest. Heck, I even planned on getting up early Saturday to exercise. Somehow we ended up dancing like a maniacs to gangsta rap, showing off some poorly choreographed dance routines and doing enough deep knee bends to sufficiently hurt myself. My joints are still recovering. My tootsie doesn't roll like it used to. Even though I think it does. Getting old is tough. Saturday night our friends hosted an Octoberfest-ish party, our attendance at which is why I made this recipe. Fall is SO fun.

My goal here was to make a *better* version of the traditional party onion dip. Think Lipton Soup Dip goes to finishing school. To do this I deeply caramelized a few types of onion, along with some fennel and shallots and thinly sliced garlic. For the better part of two hours. Is that mental? “All this for dip?” Paul inquired. I knew it would be worth it though. And I was right. He should probably get used to that.

Though the time stamp on this dip seems long, it’s largely hands off. Closer to the end of cooking you will want to tend to the onions more, as they start to get a little sticky. But really, this is the kind of thing you can leave slow and low on the stove while you get laundry done and relax around the house.

CARAMELIZED ONION DIP
(a party sized portion; half the portions for less people)

Vidalia onion, thinly sliced
Fennel bulb, cored, thinly sliced
White or purple onion, thinly sliced
1 lg. or 2 sm. shallot(s), thinly sliced
5 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced

Olive oil
Butter
1 tsp. herbes de Provence (or dried basil, sage, fennel seed and marjoram)
Salt and pepper
1 tsp. sugar

Sour cream (one 16 oz. container)

Cape Cod Chips for serving. Carrot sticks if you feel like it.

Heat equal parts olive oil and butter in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium to med/low heat (about 4 tbs. butter and oil combined). Add onions, fennel and shallots and stir well to coat in butter and oil. Reduce heat to med/low. On my stove, I kept it about at a three, but every stove is different. Keep the hear low and cover the mixture letting simmer for about 12-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables have purged their juices. Remove cover, add sugar, salt, pepper and dried herbs. Continue to sauté, with the cover off, for another 15 minutes. The onion mixture will just continue to wilt down, the juices will reduce and the whole pot will slowly take on a more golden color. Add garlic and stir to coat. Continue to cook on low heat, stirring a bit more towards the end of the process until the whole mixture is deeply caramelized. This last part probably was almost 40 minutes. So be prepared to be patient. And be prepared for your whole house to smell deliciously of slow cooked garlic onions for at least a day or two. Personally, I don’t mind that so much.

Once the mixture is ready removed from heat and let cool a bit. Combine the onion mixture with the sour cream in a blender or food processor. If you have an immersion blender, you can combine them in a deep bowl (but not a jar like I did it was a messy nightmare). Process or blend until well combined and then generously season with salt and pepper. When I say be generous with the salt and pepper at the end, I mean it. Because the fennel, onion and shallot have been deeply caramelized, they take on an almost sweet flavor. The sour cream (I believe you could also make this with Greek yogurt- worth a try) adds tang and then you just need a good amount of salt and spice to round it out. This dip is so delicious you will want to eat it with a spoon. All this for dip indeed.

what holds us back

2011-10-06T11:43:00.004-04:00

My life has been a little crazy lately. I have been making Major Life Decisions and having Adult Conversations. Admittedly, two intimidating things that I hesitate to act on due to my very nature. I am leaving my job, where I have been, quite comfortably for the past five years. So what, big deal? Well, I work for my brother and I have helped him through these years to organize and build his business, which is a small but busy law firm and when you work for family you have an allegiance and loyalty beyond the normal employee realm.

I’ve known for a while now that this is not where I want to be. I don’t knock the legal profession by any means, but I knew, inside of me, that using my brain power to draft lawsuits and order toner was not exactly in line with what I want for my life. For a few years I stayed bolstered by the thought that I “work to live, I don’t live to work” and that’s fine. “My job is not who I am” I would tell myself as I arm wrestled the Xerox machine and took out the garbage. That being said, there have been very clear pluses to being here: I have been able to pursue amazing things in my personal life, I have been able to teach yoga, to write this blog, and for those things, I really am so thankful for my time here.

After I got back from my vacation though I knew it was beyond time for me to have an Adult Conversation with my brother. I cried, because well, I’m a giant baby and that’s what I do and he laughed and told me, in the nicest way possible, to get the hell out of here. So we are interviewing replacements, and I have a new job lined up; a part time one that will allow me to learn more about food and wine and allow me to interact with people on a daily basis. Which is good, because I love people (and did you hear the part about wine?). This transition will allow me to teach a bit more, learn a lot more and maybe write some more and increase the amount of recipes that come up here on a weekly basis. But much more than this, this transition will actually make me work towards a career path that is in line with the things I love most. It will give me the gift of time, which is precious: time to figure out if I can make a living out of the things that give me life.

I’m scared. If we’re being completely honest, I’m scared shitless (pardon my French). I’m essentially hacking my income in half during the worst recession in our time. But I am so supported. I mean SO supported, in every possible way. Not one person in my life has questioned my decision. It has been met with enthusiasm and excitement and support. I am extraordinarily lucky to have the people I have in my life. They know what I am slowly figuring out, that sometimes even if you don’t know exactly where you’re going, that you just need movement, in one direction or another. I’ve realized through the past few weeks as I’ve worked through the steps to make this big change, that the only thing that has held me back until now has been me. It’s a potent thing this realization that we’re in charge of our lives. A little bit scary, a lot bit intense, but ultimately, completely right, completely mine and absolutely wonderful.

So I was thinking, how do I share this story and not make it just some random rambling about me, me, me? Because let’s be serious, you come here for the food. That’s why everyone in the history of time does anything, because they have heard there would be pizza, or cake. I realized that all this does in fact, tie in to cooking and specifically, this delicious dish I made this weekend. In the kitchen, we tend to hold ourselves back from making things that are unfamiliar or seemingly difficult. I know that my phobia of baking bread is rooted in the fear of failure and waste that might occur if I screw it up. And I know that I’ve never attempted to make a real homemade curry sauce because how could I possibly have all the ingredients for something so complex? But you know I had this acorn squash and I had these sweet potatoes and I just knew that they would be delicious in a coconut milk curry. So I looked up a few recipes and realized that everything I needed, had been in my pantry this whole time. Nothing to hold me back indeed.

FALL VEGETABLE CURRY
(adapted just slightly, from this recipe)

1 acorn squash or ½ butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed
1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into thin rounds
1 onion, diced
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 can chick peas, drained

Curry Ingredients:

3-4 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
2 tablespoons Sriracha hot sauce, or 1-2 red chilis
2 ½ tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. brown sugar
Juice of 1 lime (I used half a lemon instead)
½ tsp. turmeric
1 tbsp. rice vinegar (or substitute apple cider vinegar)
1 tbsp. ground coriander seeds
1 tbsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. fennel seed
1/3 purple onion, sliced (I used a white onion)
1 can coconut milk (I used light)

Optional Garnish:
Chopped cilantro
Scoop of Greek yogurt

Combine all curry ingredients in a blender, or large jar (if you have an immersion blender). (You can grind the turmeric, fennel seed, cumin and coriander seeds in a spice grinder first if you like, or with a mortar and pestle. I don’t think it’s 100% necessary, but I did because I didn’t want crunchy seeds in the end result). Blend together all the ingredients until smooth and set aside the sauce. You can refrigerate the sauce for a couple days, as I did this I thought that would be a great idea to have it in the fridge ready to go for a quick weeknight dinner.

Chop your vegetables and heat a little olive oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Sauté onion until fragrant and translucent, then add all of your vegetables and the curry sauce to the pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and let cook until vegetables are fork tender, about 20-30 minutes, maybe longer. Taste the sauce and adjust spices if necessary, if you want more heat, add more Sriracha, more salt, add more soy sauce, a little sweeter, add a pinch of brown sugar.

Serve over basmati rice, jasmine rice or cous cous. Garnish with chopped cilantro or Thai basil if you have access. I added a dollop of Greek yogurt to cool the heat, but this is also optional. This curry gets better each day you reheat it, just like a good soup.

all I've got.

2011-09-30T14:04:00.002-04:00

I've got nothing this week. I really like to post every week, but right now, I'm a little busy wondering if anyone has seen September? Because the only evidence I've seen that it even happened is the fact that underneath my desk the floor is littered with stems from Macintosh apples.

So I'm doing a total cop out post. A picture of a sunset. Imagine we are looking out at it together, talking about how bitchin' life is. Until then, it's all I've got.

very last few drops

2011-09-23T14:33:00.003-04:00

Today is the first day of fall. Although the weather feels a little bit more like a damp August day right now. It will catch up. Last weekend we squeezed the very last few drops out of summer with baked stuffed lobsters at Michelle's house.

It was a total feast with three different, delicious appetizers including some fried green tomatoes that I will be thinking about until next summer comes. I made dessert and I knew since we were having such a rich meal that something with fruit- a little teensy, tiny bit lighter, would do the trick.

This wasn't all that light, but it was so simple and pretty, I thought I would share it. Next time I would use challah bread or a nice brioche. My grocery store didn't have either, so I bought this thick, sweet, cinnamon swirl toast that is perfect for French toast, but it turned out, a little dry for this particular recipe.

If you like the specifics, the original recipe can be found here. But it's one of those things that's very simple to explain. Simmer some ripe berries with sugar and a little water for 10 minutes, until saucy.

While that simmers, slice your brioche or challah into 1 inch thick slices; lightly butter each side and sprinkle with a little cinnamon/sugar. Once the sauce is done, spoon onto a springform pan that has been fully lined with saran wrap.

Squish the bread in, then layer more fruit, then more bread, then more fruit. Three layers get wrapped over with the saran wrap and weighed down so the bread stays saturated with one or two plates. Refrigerate for 2-24 hours and serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream.

It was a very, very, very good summer. We certainly got the most out of it. Now it's fall and time to excited about boots and pumpkin flavored anything and red wine and eating soup. Happy first day.

a certified hit

2011-09-16T10:59:00.003-04:00

For a long time when I was little my older brother was determined to make me into an athlete. I was, to put it gently, a bit stocky, so I think that he hoped that underneath my dense build was the muscular core of a star athlete in training. Also, I think even though I had been born a girl he was optimistic he could partake in traditional little brother/big brother activities with me. As a result it was him, not my parents, that would wake up early on Saturday mornings and take me to my youth basketball games, blaring House of Pain to get me pumped up. And it was him, not my dad (who was more comfortable with an airbrush in his hand then a baseball mitt) who coached my youth softball team.

Unfortunately, all the Celtic rap and brotherly support in the world couldn’t help the fact that the only sports related move I had mastered by adolescence was getting the wind knocked out of me. I spent more time in the dugout sullenly nursing injuries and offering to go on runs to the snack bar for Freeze Pops then I did making victory laps around the bases. The religious fervor with which I would pray to not get any pop flies hit in my direction while tending right field, rivaled the most devout pilgrims.

So competitive in the athletic sense I’m not, but when it comes to bringing a dish to a party, there's part of me that wants, well, to win. “Win” in this sense means, see most, or all, of it devoured and garner at least 3 or more accolades from various party goers. Is that sick? Admit it, we all want to win in our small ways every once in a while.

I saw these little baby Nilla Banana sandwiches all over Pinterest a couple weeks back. Since, as a society, we are predestined to adore and covet all things miniature (see also: babies, puppies, minihorses, sliders, etc.) I oohed and aahed over them along with the general public. Saturday night as I was drifting off to sleep wondering what I should bring to my bestie, Erica’s housewarming party, I thought, “what if I made those tiny banana sandwiches and dipped them in chocolate?” Unathletic I may be, but I’ve always been pretty smart when it comes to snacks.

CHOCOLATE DIPPED NILLNANA SANDWICHES

One box Nilla wafers
About 4-5 ripe bananas
1 bag semi sweet chocolate chips

Parchment paper

Slice bananas and sandwich between two Nilla wafers. Gently squeeze, so they will stick to each side of your banana slice. You could stop there, but I went one step further and dipped them in chocolate. Once you have sandwiched all your banana slices set out two cookie sheets and line them with parchment paper. In a microwave safe bowl, heat the chocolate chips on high, for 30 seconds at a time, removing the bowl from the microwave between spurts and stirring well with a fork to distribute the heat; continue this process until the chocolate is smooth and dip-able. I think total I probably heated mine for almost 3 minutes, maybe 3 ½. One by one, dip the tiny sandwiches in the chocolate and set on the parchment paper to cool. Bring to a party, collect accolades.

Throughout the party on Sunday, I beamed silently with delight as I saw plates of my snacks get carried out of the kitchen and delivered to Erica’s grandmother and various other family members. You know it’s good when people are packing them away before the grill has even been sparked. I had a certified hit on my hands, no ice packs necessary. These are so easy it almost feels like a joke to share them as a “recipe” but trust: they are a huge crowd pleaser. Next time I’m adding peanut butter in between and also, maybe dipping them in coconut.

worth working for

2011-09-09T12:29:00.003-04:00

I figured that cooking lobsters was about as difficult as cooking corn. Boil water, add food product, allow to cook, drench with butter, eat. Turns out, not so much. I had truly underestimated the amount of work that goes into a lobster dinner. Be prepared; have back up, plenty of wine and a sense of humor. I hosted the families for lobsters Monday night to celebrate Paul’s birthday and these are the nuggets of knowledge I picked up:

After you let the lobsters out of the bag to crawl around on your deck, you will feel acutely more like a murderer. I thought I was alone in my pre-murderous guilt when Paul came in the kitchen and said “jeez, after seeing them crawl around like that I feel kind of sad about eating them now.” I mean how often do you see your food live right before you eat it? We get it Michael Pollan. Don’t worry though; somewhere around the time you melt 2 pounds of butter to dip them in you will get your appetite back.

It might be slightly less work if you get normal sized lobsters. The guys we got were mammoth two pounders and wrangling them into and out of the giant lobster steamer I borrowed from my aunt took muscles. My muscles were out of shape because I spent the week lifting nothing but dark and stormies to my mouth and then eating and sunning myself at the beach and then eating, sunning myself at the beach and drinking dark and stormies. Lather, rinse, repeat. It was an excellent vacation.

Have some man power available. Getting these men into the steamer you need three people: two to hold the beasts at the ready and one to cut the rubber bands off their claws before they meet their maker. Put them into the steamer head down (the “humane” way), close the lid, wince with guilt, and then melt some butter (the guilt melts with the butter, see above), set out some cookie sheets and dish towels to transfer the steamed beasts to when they’re done.

So when are they done? I could not tell you for the life of me how long it takes to steam giant beasts like the lobsters we got, because my mother, the Fish Whisperer, kept saying “my nose will know when they’re done.” and I was like “er, are you sure your nose is working, because from my view it’s buried in a glass of Pinot Noir?” (said under my breath of course, because I wasn’t about to alienate my sous chef when I needed her most and man, did she come in handy).

Less is more when it comes to how much water you put in the bottom of your steamer. I stupidly thought that I would want to fill it up as much as possible because I was worried it would all evaporate. But it’s a steamer, not an open topped pot. Also, lobsters purge some liquid as they start to cook and the bottom of your steamer will start to bubble salt water all over your range if it’s overly filled. This minor crisis will result in a quick show of muscles as you wrangle the top of the steamer off (with the giant lobsters in it), place it to the side, take the water vessel- which is brimming with melt-your-skin-off-hot sea water- very carefully and quickly to your kitchen sink, and ditch more than half of it. Just a hint, if you can: avoid this. Only fill the bottom of your lobster pot about 1/3 of the way. I felt like I was on an episode of Family Double Dare, only instead of getting green Jello on me, I was risking melting the skin off my legs if I made one wrong move. And I worked really hard to get my legs tan, so I wasn’t about to cover them up with some stupid bandages.

Keep everything else as dead simple as possible. Chowder which is already made by chowder making experts is the perfect appetizer; boiled corn goes on the side, crispy roasted potatoes can be made far ahead of time and left in a warm oven as an additional side dish. Have everyone serve themselves buffet style from the kitchen table and then take their plates (btw, buy the thick Chinet oblong plates they are sturdy and soak up lobster juice well) out onto the deck. If you don’t have a deck, eat on your lawn, or heck, on the freaking driveway. Whatever you do, don’t serve a lobster dinner inside of your house. We all ate outside and as it was, my kitchen reeked like a Gloucester loading dock until I fired up enough Nag Champa to resurrect Jerry Garcia and boiled a bunch of lemons. I can only shudder to think of what the funk would have been if we had wrestled our lobsters out of the shells INSIDE the house. Set up tables real casual-like on the deck (or driveway/sidewalk/lawn) have a couple bowls of drawn butter at the ready, a couple big mixing bowls for discarded shells and bring the trash bucket right outside and leave it behind your table. That way, when everybody is done, you can huck the trash right into the bag, tie it up and never let that stank back into your kitchen again.

It’s work for sure, but most things worthwhile are worth working for and a lobster dinner for your boyfriend’s birthday is, in my book, totally one of those things. It’s also the perfect meal to end a summer in New England with. If you’re planning on undertaking this task, I would highly recommend having an experienced Fish Whisperer with you. I will rent my mom to you if you’d like. I’m not sure of her current fee, but I’d be willing to bet she’d do it for two bottles of Clos du Bois chardonnay and the rights to any and all leftover lobster meat.

no matter how simple

2011-08-26T09:40:00.003-04:00

When fruit is ripe and in season, there’s really not much that needs to be done to it, since baking it with just a bit of sugar and some kind of topping, be it a crisp, crumble or cobbler, makes it sweet, gooey and delicious.

This is the perfect dessert to make if you’re having friends over for dinner and you don’t want to try anything too fussy. Just double the amounts here. You can make it before you even start your dinner prep and have it ready to go after you eat. Toss it in the oven while you relax with the rest of your wine on the back porch. A homemade dessert no matter how simple is guaranteed to impress.

EASIEST STONE FRUIT CRISP/CRUMBLE
(yields: 3 servings)

2 ripe peaches, peeled and cut into chunks
1 ripe nectarine, peeled and cut into chunks
Equal parts brown sugar and wheat germ
(I wager I used a scant ¼ cup of each)
About ¼ cup Quaker oats
Butter (about 2 tablespoons and more for the baking dish)

Sugar
Cinnamon

Slice and peel your fruit over a cutting board or bowl, so that you can add any accumulated juices to your baking dish. Butter a small oven safe baking dish. Toss the sliced fruit with a sprinkle of sugar and a pinch of cinnamon right in the buttered dish. In a small bowl combine equal parts wheat germ and brown sugar with some oats, add another pinch of cinnamon; mix together and spoon on top of the fruit. Cut your butter into small cubes and dot the top with it. Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes, or until the butter is completely melted, the top slightly browned and you can see the fruit juices bubbling. Serve with ice cream to balance out the fact that you included something as crunchy granola as wheat germ in a dessert; save leftovers to heat up and spoon over Greek yogurt in the morning. SO yum.

I’m off for vacation! Our plans for this weekend have been slightly derailed by the incoming hurricane. Damn you Irene! But we have a whole TEN days off through Labor Day. I am so excited to disconnect myself from both of my jobs and the internet/computer/facebook. I’m going to hopefully catch a few more rays of summer sun, read a couple books, spend some QT with the Squeeze and eat a lot of fried sea creatures and clam chowder, because that’s what you do when you’re down the Cape. Have a great Labor Day and I’ll see you in September!

banner days

2011-08-24T14:33:00.004-04:00

I'm terrible at conveying big news sometimes. I totally space out and forget and then I'll be like {GIANT GASP} "oh my god I FORGOT to tell you!" and whomever I'm talking to will think I just injured myself severely. So last Friday was like, the biggest bit of blog news in a while and I totally failed and neglected to share it here. If you're friends with me on facebook or a blood relative though, I trust you got my WAAAAAAAA!!!! WEEEEEEEE!!! posts and emails related to this.

A few months back I submitted my kitchen for a kitchen tour over on thekitchn.com. Which is, let me just say, probably my very favorite recipe source and online community for home cooks. After some delays, because they were doing their annual Small Cool Kitchens contest and posting contributor's kitchens, they ran my full Kitchen Tour on Friday! See it HERE.

So the Porky kitchen, in its full glory, as photographed by myself and my bosomest bud, Aja Amontea, was full blown featured on my very favorite blog. I'm not going to lie, I cried a little bit. Faith's write up about why I love my kitchen was so poignant and right on and because being in that space, cooking for myself and the people I love is so very important to me, it seriously made me ferclempt.

So check out our tour. I hope you enjoy it 1/100th as much as I did!

Also, speaking of people I love and good news on Fridays, two Fridays ago, actually for the whole length of the weekend, was the EP release celebration of Paul's band's second EP, Something Evil Something Something Bananas (I know. They are a stone cold pack of weirdos and I love them so much).

This music was something I heard from the beginning as Paul would come home from the practice space on Saturday afternoons and share with me an edit of the latest track and then when I heard it in full, I was so so proud of him, of them and what they had produced.

The boys came up with an insanely clever marketing plan for the release of their EP. They knew they didn't want to press a bunch of CDs because these days, who really buys CDs anymore? Tom, the guitarist, works at this really cool tavern up in Charlestown and as a result has become pretty tight with the two guys that run Fisherman's Brewery, which is in Gloucester.

Together with the Tavern, and the fellows from the brewery, Paul and the boys decided that they would release the EP as a special brew and put a download code on the side of each bottle. So in other words, this latest release is drinkable. You can drink your beer and then use your smartphone or computer to go to band camp and enter the code to download the album. Rock and roll in the digital age. What WILL they think of next?! I thought the whole thing was pretty rad, myself. Here is the link, if you're so inclined.

It's a very special thing to watch the person you love do the thing that they love and watching the shows to celebrate last Friday and Saturday night was the most fun I've had in a long time.

I promise next time we have two banner weeks, twice in a row, that I won't sleep on sharing the details here.

take advantage

2011-08-19T10:24:00.007-04:00

I think I’m pretty sure every meal I’ve eaten in the past two weeks has had corn or tomatoes in it, or both. Except for those meals where I’ve forsaken vegetables all together (like the mountain of fried seafood I had on Friday night). It’s my most favorite time of year to be eating. When "cooking" adds up to just assembling delicious things together and adding a little bit of seasoning. When I feel like I owe it to myself to eat as many tomatoes and kernels of fresh local corn as I can possibly take before they, and the summer, leave me for another year. You should do it too. Take advantage.

PESTO CHICKEN and HEIRLOOM TOMATO SALAD
with PESTO VINAIGRETTE

1 head Boston lettuce
2 tomatoes, chopped (heirloom or beefsteak)
3 slices thick cut pancetta or bacon, cooked and crumbled
2-3 tbs. toasted pine nuts
Fresh mozzarella torn or chopped into bite sized pieces
Grilled pesto chicken breasts, or boneless thighs

One container pesto, homemade or store bought
Salt, pepper
Olive oil
Juice from half a lemon

I made this for dinner last night. When I told my squeeze I was making salad for dinner he was kinda like “really, just a salad?” and then he saw me dumping crumbled pancetta and chunks of fresh mozzarella in the bowl and he was like “oh it's like a GOOD kind of salad.” I kept thinking of Manwich, the “sandwich that eats like a meal.” This is a salad that eats like a meal. Just add a slice of crusty bread on the side for sopping up tomato juice and dressing at the bottom of the bowl.

This, by the way, is how I feel about heirloom tomatoes:

Salt and pepper each side of your chicken and pound out to an even width. Rub with just a bit of olive oil and set over a grill on medium heat. Cook chicken through, spooning pesto on each side as you get closer to the end of the cooking process. Set chicken aside until you’re ready to eat. Feel free to add a little more pesto to the chicken when it’s all done.

Combine lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, pancetta, pine nuts and chicken in a salad bowl. In a separate bowl whisk together a few heaping tablespoons of pesto with some olive oil and the juice from half a lemon. Add salt and pepper to the dressing and the salad. Toss together; remembering to just use just a little dressing to start, you can always add more. Serve. Eat seconds, maybe thirds, definitely dessert. This salad would also be delicious if you omitted the chicken and added sliced avocado; or if you don’t have mozzarella, it would be great with gorgonzola or feta cheese.

SUMMER SQUASH and FIRE ROASTED CORN FLATBREAD

Thin crust pizza shell or flatbread
1 small summer squash
1 ear of corn on the cob
1 4 oz. package goat cheese
Juice from one lemon

Shredded or grated parmesan
Salt, pepper
Basil leaves, torn
Olive oil

You could surely make your own pizza dough here, but I must be honest, I used a Top This!* shell that I purchased at the store. It was totally overpriced, but I had a lot of things to do before getting dinner ready and sometimes the idea of saving money and being a stellar homemaker gets bulldozed by the idea of actually just doing the easiest thing possible when it comes to dinner.

The inspiration for this particular pizza comes two fold from one of my favorite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen. Last year (I think, wait maybe two years ago) she made this delicious, light, summery goat cheese-based pizza, which I promptly recreated. Last week, or say two weeks ago, she made these charred corn tacos which inspired me to make like a South American street vendor and drop my corn directly onto a flame. Preparation is so simple and the end result is light, tangy and so summery. This is the perfect topping for a super thin crust pizza, because you don’t want to over-top these particular pizza shells, or they end result will be a crispy edge and a very soggy center.

Peel your ear of corn and set it directly over the flame of a gas burner on medium high heat. Using heat-safe tongs turn and move the cob often, getting a nice char in spots, shifting it around periodically to cook all sides (Warning: it will spit and sizzle a little, but it’s not really that scary. Also, make sure your windows are open, since you will just be letting a gas burner burn in an open kitchen for upwards of a couple minutes). Let cool and then slice the kernels off the cob and set aside. While your corn cools, using a knife or (preferably) a mandolin slicer on the thinnest setting, slice your squash into whisper thin rounds.

In a small to medium bowl, mash your entire package of goat cheese with the lemon juice (a fork works perfect) and spread this as your base onto the pizza shell. Arrange the squash slices in a thin layer, overlapping the edges slightly until the pizza is completely covered. Scatter the corn over, and then a light layer of grated parmesan and some salt and pepper. Cook in a 450 degree oven for about 8-9 minutes. Or, if you are making your own pizza crust, maybe longer, at least until the crust is brown and the parmesan has melted. Scatter torn basil over, and serve immediately.

I made this variation and a standard margarita pizza for my friend when she came over for dinner. The pizza shells are so thin that this ends up being a fairly light dinner perfect for two people. Yes, that works out to a pizza each. Judge not.

*which I always want to call Top That! I can’t even type those words without thinking of this classic gem. You’re welcome.

the kind of thing that I'm into

2011-08-12T14:20:00.002-04:00

Most people, when they have 15 minutes to kill at their house would pick up a magazine, clean up a bit or watch a little tube, I pickle onions, because that’s the kind of thing that I’m into. These bad boys come together quick and they taste amazing. I must admit I underestimated them at first blush. I have been putting them on sandwiches all week and last night I draped a layer on my pizza. Mine aren’t all that brightly colored because the onions I got were pretty young, oblong shaped, purple onions that were essentially just white on the inside, but it you use darker red or purple onions expect your end result to be hot pink. Tangy and pretty. We like it.

PICKLED RED ONIONS
(from the New Moosewood Cookbook*)

4 medium red onions, very thinly sliced
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup water
3 tbs. brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. whole peppercorns (I used black and pink)

Fill a tea kettle with water and bring to a boil. While the water is boiling thinly slice your onions. If you have a mandolin slicer this is an opportune time to use it (I used the thinnest setting possible). Place the sliced onions in a colander and pour all of the boiling water over, let drain completely.

Combine water, vinegar, sugar, salt and peppercorns in a bowl; add onions. Transfer the onions and pickling liquid to a large jar, or two medium sized jars. You can let them sit at room temperature for a few hours to “quick” pickle them if you want to use them that day, or store in the fridge until use. Delicious in sandwiches, on a burger, in salads, on pizza, or with a cheese and cracker spread.

*I can’t BELIEVE this is the first thing I’m making from this cookbook. I bought it in May and I spent the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend reading the whole thing like some chicks devour a Twilight book, excitedly dog earring along the way and taking time to read aloud certain recipes to my sister over the phone. Paul was like “I don’t understand how a person can read a cookbook like it’s a novel, you haven’t put that thing down all day.” I was like, “there’s a lot a things you don’t understand, Buster, and if you’ve got any smarts in your brain you’ll stop talking about my new favorite thing in that tone of voice.” I know the Moosewood is old news, but it’s seriously amazing. I mean it practically makes me violent. I adore it and I’ll be cooking from it for a long, long time. If you are into vegetables or a vegetarian you owe it to yourself to own this thing.

we are wimps

2011-08-05T14:03:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago we were gifted with a few pounds of the freshest tuna you can get your hands on. It’s not every day that someone gives me a hunk of fish they caught themselves (for free!) so as you can imagine I was a little bit pumped. I had a few days to figure out what to do with it (tuna has to “bleed out” so that it doesn’t taste metallic and/or fishy). I was planning on tuna tartare, because it’s so delicious. I found an Asian style recipe of Ina Garten’s that looked great. I picked up some sesame oil and wasabi powder and headed home on Saturday afternoon to prepare it. We were heading to our friends, Trish and Steve’s to grill out for the evening and when I had told her of our unexpected seafood bounty she was all “BRING THE TUNA.”

Except I was… scared. I’ve never prepared or served people raw fish before. I inspected and sniffed at the fish like a crazy person. I paced back and forth and glanced at the recipe over and over, convinced that I would miss some crucial step that would definitely kill us and our friends, or at the very least confine us to the bathroom for the remainder of the weekend.

I called Paul to ask his opinion and he echoed my hesitation. We both agreed that while we would have no problem eating tuna tartare if someone else brought it to the party; we just weren’t comfortable being the raw fish purveyors in charge of everyone’s gastrointestinal well being. In short: we wimped out. We are wimps. Big time.

I decided on a much safer option: slicing the fish into thick steaks and marinating them. Though we would, to honor the fish as it should be prepared, merely be searing the tuna on the outside and leaving it rare in the middle, just the act of cooking the outside made me feel considerably less scared about it. Also, since I wasn’t grilling, it would be Steve’s fault if everyone was poisoned and their life ruined, right? I believe they call this “passing the buck.”

With the buck successfully passed I relaxed. The resulting tuna steaks were dynamite I’m quite sure they were so good because they were expertly grilled by our gracious host, but most everybody gave credit to me for the marinade, so I took that buck right back and basked in the compliments. I’m totally good at that. This marinade is ideal on tuna steaks but would also be great on portobello mushrooms, chicken, shrimp or steak.

WASABI SOY MARINADE

Soy sauce
Juice and zest from 1 lime
Toasted sesame oil
Olive oil
3-4 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1-2 tsp. ground ginger (use fresh grated if you have it)
½-1 tsp wasabi powder
4-6 scallions, minced

I sliced the tuna into somewhat equal sized steaks and placed them in a Ziploc, to which I added all of the above listed things. You’re going to want about twice as much soy sauce as you have sesame and olive oil, but essentially, all you want to do is make enough liquid to cover your steaks. The soy sauce, olive oil and lime juice will make up the bulk of your liquid, with just a small drizzle of toasted sesame. The garlic, ginger, scallions and wasabi will infuse the liquid and it really is all just delicious. Soy sauce is my marinade secret weapon. If you’re watching your sodium, there are plenty of lower sodium choices out there that you can use.

Due to the fact I made a last minute recipe change up, I had 4 super ripe avocados that needed to be used as well. Instead of making my usual guacamole recipe, I decided to stick with the Japanese “flavor profiles”- as the top chefs say- and try and make an Asian style guacamole. We called it gucamori, so that it sounded kind of Japanese. It was no greater or less than regular guacamole. In my opinion, if you mash up some avocados, that business is gonna be good, so if you like scallions and sesame seeds, try the guacamori, we had no complaints. If that sounds wack to you, stick with the traditional cilantro and onions or try my favorite party guacamole.

GUACAMORI

4 ripe avocados
1 jalapeno seeded and finely minced
2 scallions, minced
Juice from one lime
1-2 tbs. soy sauce
½ tsp wasabi powder
Salt, pepper
Sriracha Thai chili sauce to taste
Toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Combine jalapeno, scallion, lime juice, soy sauce and wasabi in a bowl. Scoop avocados in, mash with fork to desired consistency. Salt, pepper and Sriracha (or hot sauce) to taste. Serve with homemade pita chips.

Old wives tale or awesome tip? I read recently that if you want to keep your guacamole from turning brown en route to your dinner party or wherever you may be traveling with guacamole (bat mitzvah, pajama party, aerobics class) keep one of the avocado pits in the bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap (so that the plastic is actually squished onto the top of the guacamole, not simply stretched tight across the top of your bowl). Paul said he thought this sounded like an urban legend. But how many urban legends do you know about avocados? Alls I know is mine stayed pretty green. Not sure how this technique would pan out over the course of several hours, since I made mine right before we left the house, but, give it a try.

get up on this

2011-07-29T10:32:00.004-04:00

Making this salad may have been the only publicly acceptable thing I did this week while left to my own devices. Paul has been away for work so I have fallen into crusty bachelorette mode. This involves a good deal of (a) eating while lying down; (b) watching Bridezillas in my underwear; and (c) sleeping diagonal across the bed (usually a and b happen simultaneously followed shortly thereafter by c). Though it has been a lazy and enjoyable enough week, I was thrilled to have him home last night, there are only so many days of sloth a gal can take without the habits starting to stick.

Though I’m generally not a fruit in salad kind of person, save for that one peach salad from a little while back, I have had the good old watermelon feta combo before and found it acceptable enough. I was “talking” to my friend the other day on chat and she was listing off this delicious salad that she had just eaten (because discussion of lunch comprises 70% of what we talk about, with the other 30% being made up of equal parts: sequins, Bel Biv Devoe and kitten videos). I realized that my very own lunch had all the same ingredients, with the only difference being that the watermelon was on the side, not in, my salad of arugula, avocado, corn and feta. So I cut a couple hunks up and added them to the mix, and my mind was blown. Now I’m completely hooked. This salad is textured, juicy and fresh and tastes so perfectly like summer you need to get up on this immediately.

ARUGULA, AVOCADO and WATERMELON SALAD

Avocado, diced
Corn on the cob (2), kernels chopped off cobs and reserved
Watermelon chunks (3/4 cup)
2 Scallions, chopped (or chives or mint if that’s what you have)
Arugula
Feta cheese, crumbled

Olive oil
Wedges of lemon
Salt and pepper, to taste

This is hardly a recipe so much as it is assembly. Combine arugula, avocado, corn, scallions, watermelon and feta, drizzle with a touch of olive oil. Salt and pepper well, toss together gently; serve with a lemon wedge for squeezing over. Make this salad now.

don't cook

2011-07-21T09:19:00.004-04:00

Don’t cook. Not tonight and probably not for the next few nights. This is the kind of weather that begs for simple, fresh recipes, that are mostly just assembly and very little else. This salad, which I brought to 4th of July as a side dish, fits the bill quite nicely. The original directions call for you to briefly sauté the chickpeas in olive oil, which, according to the directions, makes them “creamy.” I don’t really know if that happened or not. I did cook them, but I think, given the heat index and humidity levels bearing down on us, that you could easily skip that step, make this salad without so much as breaking a sweat and enjoy it with some cold sandwiches, or some grilled protein. If you have central air conditioning and the idea of turning your stove on doesn’t sound crazy, well then, keep the sautéing step and please do invite me over.

I was delighted with this salad. It seems very humble and I was a little worried that it would be a little too healthy and boring for my crowd, but it was terrific. My hope was that it would be a nice alternative to standard potato and pasta salads that grace every cookout buffet from Mem Day to September. I love the idea of substituting protein rich chickpeas for pasta or starch. It keeps the salad light, but still very satisfying. It’s tangy and bright, with some nice heat from the red chili. This salad now has place in my summer anti-cooking arsenal. It comes together in about 10 minutes, improves in flavor if you make it the day prior to serving, and travels perfectly. It would be the perfect thing to bring to a beach picnic or your next cookout. Or, just to eat sitting in front of the air conditioner with your underwear on. Do what you’ve gotta do.

CHICKPEA SALAD with RED ONION, FETA and MINT
(this is a Jamie Oliver recipe, as found on Serious Eats)

1 small red onion, very thinly sliced
1 small fresh red chili, deseeded and minced
2-3 handfuls red or yellow cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped
Juice of 2-3 lemons
Extra virgin olive oil to taste
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 cans of good quality chickpeas, drained and rinsed*
3 tablespoons fresh mint leaves, roughly torn or chopped
3 tablespoons fresh basil leaves, roughly torn or chopped
7 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

Combine the onion, chili, and tomatoes with their juice into a bowl. Dress with most of the lemon juice and olive oil to taste (you want a good amount of oil to counteract the zing of lemon); season with salt and pepper.

In a small skillet, drizzle a little olive oil over medium heat and add the chickpeas. Cook for a few minutes until hot and creamy and just beginning to color. Add them to the bowl and allow to marinate and cool. (If omitting this step, simply rinse well and drain your chickpeas). Once cooled, toss the herbs and season again to taste, adding any remaining lemon juice if needed. Serve with the feta cheese loosely crumbled on top. You can store this salad in the fridge until you are ready to eat. Because I was serving it the next day, I didn’t add the basil and mint until I was ready to serve, because I didn’t want the basil to turn black. You can serve cold or let come up to room temperature before serving.

*they say “good quality” I used Trader Joes, I think they have a nice chickpea, although some canned brands are gross. The two brands I can whole heartedly endorse are Traders and Progresso.

**Also, for the love of god, wear latex gloves, or some kind of gloves when you cut hot peppers. I thought I would be "fine" because I am "careful" and for the rest of the evening after I made this, every time I touched my face, I would have a searing hot spot of burn for a while. Learn from the idiots in your life. I am one of them.

the juice is loose

2011-07-13T10:18:00.004-04:00

A friend of mine used to go to Red Sox games with his little nephew and when his nephew asked what kind of juice he was drinking (beer) he called it “Uncle Ted’s Baseball Juice.” Since I always got a kick out of that, this sangria is Auntie Jessie’s Beach Juice, if I may borrow the phrase.

The only annoying thing about this sangria is that you have to pour your pureed watermelon through a fine mesh strainer. Oh, and the other annoying thing is that it tastes like juice but punches you in the drunk button like grain alcohol, so if you get annoyed by stuff like that, it might not be the drink for you. Personally, I think that’s okay in certain circumstances, but you just wouldn’t want to gun back a couple mugs of this if it was say, your new boyfriend’s niece’s birthday party and your debut to his extended family, stuff like that. If you, like me, were at a gathering with people who have known you since you were in diapers and withhold judgment on holiday indulgence, by all means, giddy up. OR, alternately, cut the punch with some cold seltzer water; I like to do that with most sangrias anyways.

WATERMELON SANGRIA

2 lbs. seedless watermelon, peeled and cubed
1 bottle dry white wine or a light, dry rose
6 ounces vodka
4 ounces Cointreau or triple sec
Ice

2-4 oz. simple syrup (optional)
juice from lemon (optional)

I found an original recipe for this on Food and Wine and it called for citrus infused simple syrup to be added, namely, as much simple syrup as Cointreau. This will make your drink waaaay too sweet, since watermelon itself adds plenty of sweetness. Fortunately, having my suspicions about the amount of simple syrup and having a general distaste for too-sweet cocktails, I taste tested after adding only half the syrup the recipe had called for. WAY too sweet. I cut the sweetness by squeezing the juice from a lemon and an orange into the sangria to dilute it with a little tart-ness.

In a blender or food processor, puree the watermelon (in batches, if necessary) until smooth. Pour through a fine mesh strainer into a pitcher. Add the wine, vodka, Cointreau (or triple sec) and the simple syrup, if using. Stir and refrigerate at least two hours, or even overnight. Pour over ice to serve, top off with soda water to add bubbles and dilute if it’s too strong for your liking. I never got a good photo of individual glasses of this sweet nectar, because I was too busy taking pictures of my mom leading a parade of youngsters singing Grand Old Flag (true life). But, on ice, garnished with a slice of watermelon or wedge of lime, it's just as pretty as it tastes. Summertime in a glass. Just remember: NOT JUICE.

Also, in light of the photo above, I just wanted to add that today is my mom's birthday. I've gotten many things from my mom: my zest for appetizers, man sized tolerance for white wine and love for having fun; but most applicable here, this woman raised me to love the kitchen, and for that I thank her very much. Love you Piz. xoxoxo

back together

2011-07-08T10:57:00.003-04:00

My relationship to gazpacho has been strained at times. When I was young and I first discovered it, I was obsessed. Then slowly, over time, I grew to dislike it quite a bit, I may have even claimed to hate it for a while there. Maybe I had some bad ones, I’m not sure. Ones that were too spicy and essentially felt like slurping on a bowl of Bloody Mary mix rather than a fresh to death bowl of summer bounty, which is what a bowl of gazpacho should rightly feel and taste like.

A few months ago my friends and I went out to the Brimfield Fair, which was seriously awesome. If you have a house to furnish or even just like looking around antique shops at all, you owe it to yourself to go at least once. It’s like cool stuff overload. The thing is the Brimfield Fair is stupid huge and you need two days to even try and see it properly. And you are on your feet all day, shuffling slowly and staring left, right, left, right to take it all in (we dubbed it “the Brimfield Shuffle”). All that work means lunch is truly important and needs to not only satiate your appetite, but also give you a little fuel to keep on shuffling through a few more stalls; or at least provide you with the energy you need to walk back to your car with a footstool hoisted over your head, like I did on day one.

While there, both days, we had lunch from a food truck called the Bistro Box. And HOLY. COW. We could not have chosen better. Their menu was small, simple, straightforward and delicious. Not to mention that the prices were completely reasonable. On day one, I had a tomato and basil Panini and some orzo salad that was out of this world. On day two, at 10 in the morning, Val and I bought a fresh berry shortcake as a snack and it seriously was so good that we hid (yes, hid) from the rest of our friends until we had finished it so we didn’t have to share. Proof:

Later on, for lunch, I tried their gazpacho. And it was so good I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. I begged, by way of their facebook page, for them to share the recipe. They promised they will post recipes “soon” but I’m sure that they’re super busy making radical lunches for every county fair and flea market in the greater Berkshires area for the rest of the summer. So I searched on my own and found this Gazpacho Andaluz, which is a very traditionally Spanish preparation, if you omit the cumin and cayenne. It’s very good, and somewhat creamy, thanks to the addition of pureed country bread that has been marinated in sherry vinegar, tomato juice and olive oil. It’s not the Bistro Box, but until I get my hands on the real thing, this little import served me quite nicely.

GAZPACHO ANDALUZ
(By Monika Kotus via thekitchn.com)
serves 4; easily doubles to feed a crowd

2 thick slices of day-old country bread, crusts removed and cut into small pieces
1 ½-2 lbs. ripest, sweetest most flavorful tomatoes, quartered
2 tablespoons aged sherry vinegar
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 small garlic cloves, minced
pinch of ground cumin (optional)
pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
sea salt
1 firm medium-sized cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
1 small red (or yellow) bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
1 small green bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
½ small red or Spanish onion, peeled and chopped
½ cup bottled spring water (optional)

For Garnish:
Set aside small amounts of finely diced peppers, onion and cucumber.

Remove the crust from bread and cut into small hunks; place in a large bowl and drizzle with some olive oil, one teaspoon of your sherry vinegar and the juice from one of your tomatoes. Be careful, when you squeeze a tomato, you really have no knowing what the juice squirts are going to end up (for me, it was the window sill, the countertop, and my tank top, as well as onto the bread). Mix the liquids into the bread well and let sit for at least ten minutes.

While your bread is saturating, get to chopping your vegetables. Since I was doubling the recipe, I used two small white onions and two red peppers, one yellow and one green because I feel as though two whole green peppers would overwhelm. I like the mellow nature of yellow peppers, as well as their pretty color, when it comes time to garnish.

Once your ten minutes has passed, transfer the bread mixture to a food processor (or blender), add minced garlic, cumin and cayenne (if using) and process until very smooth. Add half the tomatoes, peppers, cukes and onion along with a generous pinch of salt and about ¼ cup of olive oil. Process until smooth and then transfer to a large bowl. Repeat with your remaining vegetables, in batches, adding generous drizzles of oil and big ole pinches of salt until everything is processed, adding each batch to your bowl. Drizzle in the remainder of your sherry vinegar, salt and pepper, and maybe a touch more olive oil.

Taste and adjust as necessary. If your gazpacho is too thick, the original recipe called for bottled spring water to thin it out, but I didn’t find that it was necessary. Chill for at least 3 hours before serving. Gazpacho, like most of its soup related brethren, gets better each day (within reason). I made this the day before and the next day it was delicious, but I think an extra day of chilling would have even made it better. It’s such a great make-ahead appetizer to bring to a cook out. Easy to transport (I used a big drink jug) and a big hit with everybody. Not to mention that it’s pretty healthy, especially compared to the standard carbohydrates and cattle cookout fare we see everywhere in the summer. When you’re ready to serve, garnish each bowl with a little bit of diced onion, cucumber and pepper, and a tiny drizzle of good quality olive oil. Fresh, savory and delicious. It's good to be back together with gazpacho.

salad days

2011-06-30T16:03:00.004-04:00

Just a quick one this week because I have work cramming in so I can move on to my favorite long weekend of the year! I wanted to introduce you to a new favorite salad dressing of mine.

I had some friends over for dinner last week and “something healthy” was requested. Which I'm always happy to oblige with. Not to mention it's getting hot out there, which means big salads are on the agenda almost all the time at my house. For this particular salad I combined Boston lettuce, black beans (cooked, drained), slices of avocado, a bit of diced red onion, some scallions and some fresh corn, cooked and hacked off the cob and I served it with some jalapeno corn muffins. Obviously some heavy Tex-Mex-ish business was going on, so I came up with this riff on vinaigrette that came out great. It would also make a top notch marinade for chicken, shrimp, steak or veggies (especially shrimp I think). In fact, later on that week, I added a little more citrus and olive oil and used it as a vegetable marinade for a big bunch of kabobs I grilled.

SPICY SCALLION LIME VINAIGRETTE

two scallions, chopped
one small clove garlic, minced
juice from one lime
1/2 tsp(ish) of honey
pinch of cumin
pinch of cayenne
couple shakes of hot sauce (I used Franks)
salt and peppa
olive oil (about a scant ¼ cup)

Combine all ingredients in a wide mouthed jar and whiz with an immersion blender until creamy. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you could make this in a regular blender, a food processor or even just chop the scallion and garlic very fine and do a shaken vinaigrette.

Try this on mixed greens, or a black bean confetti salad. It’s really delicious. There’s a little bit of bite from the spices and hot sauce and a nice well rounded flavor from the lime juice. Oh and as for the "homemade" corn muffins, I naturally turned to childhood nostalgia in the form of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix, to which I added chopped jalapenos. Total Sandra Lee style but whatever, homemade corn muffins required corn meal that cost like $4.00 and for me to pay attention to what I was doing and a box of Jiffy was seriously I think 39 cents and required zero brain power whatsoever.

Enjoy your holiday weekend! I will be making lots of goodies to bring to our respective cookouts and then leaving the rest of my weekend wide open for a few of my favorite activities: eatin’, beachin’, yakkin’, cacklin’ and day drinkin’. Because nothing says “I love my country” like a 3 p.m. blackout.

smooth but tough

2011-06-23T14:04:00.003-04:00

This cocktail is a great summer drink. It’s tart, sweet and refreshing, but with a nice amount of boozy bite. The bourbon doesn’t get lost in the lemonade which is a good thing because I believe a cocktail should taste like a cocktail not a sleeve of Sprees. It’s smooth but tough. I think I’ll call it the Burt Reynolds. Because early Burt Reynolds is equal parts lady-friendly sass and mustachioed bad assery. He’s like the kind of dude who will totally get a pedicure with you and somehow make it seem very masculine. Maybe that’s because the vibe I get from him is that if you dared to make fun of him he’d show you the business end of his cowboy boots and fast.

When I originally made this drink I just eyed it out, because of my years of study in the bartending sciences. What I’ve put together here are some approximations, so if it tastes like straight snake poison, adjust the amounts accordingly by adding more lemonade mix and water to thin out the bourbon. I’ve offered two varieties: one round, or a full pitcher. Choose whichever suits your needs.

BURT REYNOLDS (a/k/a Vanilla Bourbon Lemonade)

To make just one round of Burts:

ice
2-3 oz. Bourbon
½ tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 heaping tablespoons frozen lemonade concentrate
water (¾ - 1 cup)

Fill a martini shaker with ice cubes. Pour in bourbon (to measure out ounces just count: three ounces “one, two, three” while a steady stream of booze pours in- not, mind you giant splashes, but a steady stream) if you’re not comfortable or tend to have a heavy pour, use a jigger. Add vanilla and two scoops lemonade. Pour in water (probably about 1-1 ½ cups). Cover the shaker and shake well. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice, garnish with lemon twist or a slice of lemon.

To make a pitcher of Burts:

ice
1 cup bourbon (I like Maker’s Mark)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
half container Frozen lemonade concentrate (Minutemaid)
2-3 cups water, or dilute to taste

Fill a large pitcher with ice. Add bourbon, vanilla and lemonade concentrate. Top with water, stir well. Serve over ice, garnished with lemon twists or slices. If your Burts come out super tart, you could also opt to dilute the drink with a splash or two of soda water. If they come out too weak, add some more bourbon, dummy.

Also, I can’t NOT mention this cake. I saw this last month on Smitten Kitchen and I drooled. I made it Sunday with some fresh, local strawberries. Do yourself a favor and make this cake immediately. The strawberries are perfect right now.

It is sooooooooooo good. It’s also very pretty in a nice rustic way and would make an excellent dessert, OR a great addition to a brunch spread. Do it. DO IT NOW!

Also, do yourself a favor and make homemade whipped cream with it. My corner store only had Cool Whip, which is disgusting and tastes as though it’s actually giving you diseases as you eat it. No ‘fence (as my niece Charlie would say) if you’re a fan. I am decidedly not. Seriously, make this cake, it's silly it's so good.

a step in the right direction

2011-06-20T15:26:00.007-04:00

So, you may have noticed over there in the side bar that I have a new little section called "Recipes by Category." This is, for now, as close as it gets to a Recipe Index. Eventually, some day, when I am a more perfect human and my life is so organized it looks like a window display at the Container Store (does any one else go in there and think "if I could just spend a couple grand here my whole life would improve exponentially"?) anyways...where was I. Ah yes, the list of recipes. So when I started this list/database/organizational widget (several months ago), I had a staggering number of categories. Like way too many it was annoying. So, what you see here is a list of categories that makes sense in my head and encompasses as much as it possibly can. I do realize that making sense in my head may not help you all that much, but this is a nice baby step in the right direction.

I hope, eventually, to lay out some different pages, including a proper "about me" where I hilariously explain who I be and what makes my world go round. I also would like to have a proper list of every recipe by title and maybe even get them to a printer friendly format. We'll see. Though judging by how long it took me to get this up here, I'd say the aliens and global warming will have us captured/eradicated before that actually happens, but I'm hopeful. Who knows? Maybe I'll win a gift certificate to the Container Store or something and my whole life will change.

You will still have to scroll through a LOT of my fart jokes and sentimental stories to get to the good stuff. Also, the categories aren't perfect but I think they cover the major groups. There's "Beverages, Adult and Otherwise" which means drinks, dummies. There's "Starters, Sides and Snacks" where you will find side dishes, appetizers and any little munchies that did not fit into a different category. You'll find "Soups, Salads and Sandwiches" which may be my favorite "s" alliteration trifecta of all time and would be the place to go if you're looking for lunch. "Sweets and Carbs" means any dessert or bread-like thing I've ever featured on here. "Main Dishes" means they're suitable to take center stage at your next meal; and "Vegetarian/ Healthy" are not, as you'll see mutually exclusive. Some things are pretty healthy but not at all vegetarian like say, steamed littlenecks or a soup where an optional inclusion is to start with prosciutto. And some things are vegetarian and completely NOT healthy (mac and cheese would fall squarely into this sub category). And finally, a personal favorite, I have included the "Let's Party" section. Which should, now that I think about it, definitely have an exclamation point because really Let's Party! Here, I've tagged any recipes that are fit for entertaining whether they be quick, easy appetizers, feeding a crowd the easy way or some good old fashioned hooch concoctions. So it's not perfect, but it's a step in the right direction and I hope you like it. Let me know what you think, or if you have any doable suggestions for improvement.

xo, jess

P.S. I went to the BEACH this weekend and even went in the water. Yay summer! Container Store or not, my life is pretty sweet!

laid back company

2011-06-16T09:55:00.003-04:00

I had my eye on this recipe since last summer. Last summer. My brain holds on to things like images of ice cream sandwiches and holds them in a strangle hold until I can eat them; even if it’s years later. Tasked with bringing dessert to a Sunday dinner party, I knew it was time. However, I’m nothing if not realistic about my culinary shortcomings (desserts/baking/time consuming techniques/measuring) and as such, I tried to approach this recipe with an attitude of what the yoga heads call “nonattachment.” As in don’t get bent out of shape if this whole thing goes to shit, fast. Be prepared to purchase an ice cream cake on the way to dinner if it’s unsalvageable. I like to refer to nonattachment as “Pringles Mind”, which references my favorite Mitch Hedberg joke where he says: “I think Pringles’ initial intention was to make tennis balls. But on the day that the rubber was supposed to show up, a big truckload of potatoes arrived instead. But Pringles is a laid back company so they were like “F*ck it. Cut ‘em up!”

When I realized, about 2/3 of the way through Step Three of this recipe that there was no way in hell that my sandwich layers would produce 7 adequate sized ice cream sandwiches, I shrugged my shoulders and thought to myself “f*ck it. Cut ‘em up.”

What resulted were not artfully stacked ice cream sandwiches, which you will see, with the real recipe here. If you really want to make ice cream sandwiches, follow the directions exactly, but double the cookie recipe. Instead, I opted to layer the ice cream, blueberry compote and blondie cookies into jars as a sort of parfait. The end result was perfectly portable, remarkably less crazy-making and undeniably delicious.

LEMON ICE CREAM PARFAIT with BLUEBERRY COMPOTE

ICE CREAM:
2 pints premium vanilla ice cream (I prefer Brigham’s)
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

BLUEBERRY COMPOTE:
2 cups blueberries (10 ounces), fresh or frozen
¼ cup sugar
2 strips lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons cornstarch

SANDWICH LAYERS:
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

STEP ONE: Ice Cream
Soften ice cream at room temperature; or, alternately with your microwave in small 10 second intervals until soft. Combine ice cream, lemon zest and juice in a large bowl and mix together thoroughly. Return to the freezer while completing the rest of the steps.

STEP TWO: Blueberry Compote
Cook blueberries, sugar, and zest in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat, stirring often and thoroughly crushing blueberries with a spoon or potato masher, until juices are released and sugar has dissolved, about 2-3 minutes. In a small bowl, stir together the cornstarch and lemon juice until the cornstarch has dissolved and then add this slurry to the blueberries. Boil, stirring constantly for one minute; the mixture will thicken. Remove from heat, transfer to a bowl, fish out the lemon zest strips and chill until cold, about an hour. While this chills, you can make the cookie layers. (This compote, alone, would make a delicious sauce for ice cream and takes about 5 minutes to whip up).

STEP THREE: Blondie “Sandwich” Layers
Preheat oven to 375°F with rack in middle. Butter a long, lipped cookie sheet (with at least a 1 inch depth) and line with foil, leaving a 1-inch overhang on each side, then butter the foil. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Beat together butter and brown sugar in another bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes; beat in egg and vanilla. Turn mixer speed to low and add flour in two batches, making sure it’s combined in before adding the second. Your batter will look a lot like chocolate chip cookie dough sans chips. Spread batter into a thin, even layer on buttered, foiled cookie sheet. Bake until golden-brown but still tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

To assemble the parfaits layer ice cream, compote and crushed up cookie; repeat until the jar is filled, clamp the lid on and freeze until about 30 minutes before serving. Let thaw at room temperature for a bit so that the ice cream and compote can soften and become scoopable.

Other ideas: as I was making these I was thinking if you were short on time, you could fudge these Sandra Lee style with all purchased, prepared ingredients. A good strawberry jam, vanilla ice cream and Oreos; or, vanilla ice cream, peach compote and crushed ginger snaps; OR, coffee ice cream, fudge sauce, chocolate cookies and crushed up almonds. I could go on like this all day.

the antidote

2011-06-09T13:55:00.003-04:00

Whew, hot enough for ya? I refuse, after the snowy winter we had, to remark in a disparaging way about warm weather, but there is kind of no denying how instantaneously steamy it has gotten this week. It’s as though the East Coast has decided to forego June’s sweet 70 degree breezes all together and plunge head first into August swelter.

But don’t worry, I’ve got the antidote: a perfect summer salad which is equal parts ease and deliciousness. A delightful little dish that fuses together ripe, juicy peaches, sharp hits of purple onion and heady basil. It’s sweet and juicy, with just the right amount of punch (which is, incidentally, exactly how I would describe myself if I were a kickboxing instructor *roundhouse kick*).

I was in New York last weekend staying with the lovely Neens. Who is such a gracious host I sort of feel like her apartment is my favorite bed and breakfast in the world. She had breakfast fixings stocked in the fridge so Saturday morning when we woke up we whipped up a delicious brunch. The main event was cheesy baked eggs with chorizo, mushrooms and spinach, but this salad is what I’m still thinking about.

It’s perfect in that summer cooking way in that you just assemble fresh, ripe ingredients and don’t really mess with them at all. I’m in general not a fan of fruits in salad…but this one changed my tune. I can’t wait to make this again.

PEACH, BASIL and RED ONION SALAD

3 ripe peaches, pitted and sliced
Handful basil leaves, torn off the stem but left whole
½ small purple onion, very thinly sliced
Juice from ½ lemon
Olive Oil (just a drizzle about 2-3 tbs.)
Salt and pepper

Slice your peaches over the salad bowl to catch any juices that may drip down; add basil leaves, onion, salt, pepper. Pour on lemon juice and lightly drizzle just a bit of olive oil. Honestly, I probably used even less than what I suggested above. I have a light hand with oil and with dressing salads in general. You can always add more dressing, but if you over do it, there’s no way to dry your salad off.

I think a lovely addition to this salad would be some tangy goat cheese crumbles, or fresh mozzarella. You could serve it with a side of mixed greens and a loaf of crusty bread for a light dinner; as lunch, or like we did, at brunch. Simply delicious.

among the converted

2011-06-02T11:55:00.003-04:00

Consider me a Crockpot convert. I have only really used it twice, for the same cookout, one year apart and it is simply the easiest way to cook a ton of meat, really well, and keep it heated up all day long without having to turn your oven on, or keep firing up the grill. Not that we didn’t fire up the grill, we had a variety of sausages, grilled chicken and even burgers, but the pulled pork carnitas were the mainstay of my menu.

Though seriously similar to the cheater pulled pork I wrote about this time last year, these carnitas are too simple and delicious not to share. This would be a perfect easy summer dinner party. Very little hands on work because everything can be done well in advance, can be (nay, should be) served buffet style so people can deck their plates out with whatever condiments they want and get back outside with their plates in hand. We served these with a ton of different garnishes including tomato salsa, guacamole, corn salsa, sour cream, sprigs of cilantro, chopped purple onion, black bean salsa, you get the point. You can have as few or as many toppings as you like.

SLOW COOKER CARNITAS
(found on thekitchn.com)

1 (6-8 pound) pork butt, also called pork shoulder
2 tablespoons coarse salt
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
8 whole cloves garlic, smashed
4 chipotle peppers (canned or dried)
1 cup tomato juice
1 cup orange juice

Trim excess fat from the meat and discard. Place all ingredients in the slow-cooker. Set to cook on LOW for 8 hours. Meat is done when it literally falls off the bone (my butt was boneless (HA!) so I cut it up into big hunks for easier fitting into the Crockpot). When cool enough to handle, lift the meat from the juices and place in a large bowl. Remove the bone, then shred the meat. Skim the fat from the juices and keep as a medium for re-heating the meat. For carnitas tacos, reheat the meat and serve in corn tortillas with sour cream, cilantro, chopped red onion and lime wedges. (makes 20-30 taco-sized servings).

Do not adjust your eyes. Those are the only steps. Purchase meat, add meat and stuff to Crockpot, turn on. What I did was arrange my ingredients in the Crockpot at about midnight the night before my party. When I woke up at 8 am, I went downstairs, did a temperature check on the pork to make sure it was done and shut the cooker off. I then let it cool off a bit while I assembled my Mexican Slaw and Potato Salad. About two hours before company came I hoisted the chunks of meat out of the cooker one at a time and shredded it using two forks, discarding any big hunks of fat that didn’t render. I also scooped any solidified oil off the top of the juices. Once all the meat was shredded, I returned it all to the bowl of my Crockpot and kept it on warm for the remainder of the day/evening. So easy it hurts.

SPICY CUMIN SCENTED SLAW

1 bag cole slaw mix (or alternately, a shredded head of cabbage and grated carrots)
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1-2 small bell peppers (any color), thinly sliced
1 jalapeño, partially seeded* and thinly sliced into strips
1 ½ tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 lime, zest and juice
1 teaspoon cumin (add to taste if you want more, I did)
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
Healthy splash apple cider vinegar
Sriracha chili sauce, or your preferred hot sauce (to taste)
2 healthy pinches of sugar
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
Handful cilantro leaves, chopped (optional)

In a large bowl, combine the cole slaw mix, red onion, pepper and jalapeno. In a separate large bowl combine the next 8 ingredients, whisking together slightly to combine. Then whisking with one hand, slowly add your olive oil in a thin stream to emulsify the dressing. You could likewise use an immersion blender or a regular old blender, combining all the ingredients. If using, add cilantro just before serving. I even left myself a note right on the bowl to remind me to do this, but I didn’t. Whoops. I blame the tireless hosting duties/ margaritas.

Because I knew my slaw would be out on the buffet for most of the day, I wanted something with absolutely no mayonnaise in it. The dressing on this slaw is great: just slightly spicy, with a smoky hit of cumin and a little lime zing. I assembled this about 3-4 hours before the party which gave it ample time to marinate in the dressing, without getting soggy at all. It had a nice crunch and was delicious with the carnitas. This slaw would be a hit in any cookout situation, whether it have a Mexican bent or not.

*seed completely if you don’t want your slaw to be spicy.

I wasn't lying about the note.

CUZZIN SAL’S STEEL CITY MARGARITAS (and other awesome beverage tips)

My cousin Sallyann is a mix master. It might have something to do with the fact that she’s an architect (so precision is the name of her game) or that she’s a big food and beverage enthusiast. Either way, every summer when she comes home to Mass (from Pittsburgh, hence the name I gave these ‘ritas) she always makes the MOST delicious cocktails, which are essential and perfect for porch relaxing and post beach appetizer eating (both of which we do a lot of).

I was at the grocery store Saturday morning getting my party supplies and I saw the frozen Minutemaid Limeade as I was picking up some lemonade mix. Instinctively I grabbed a couple cans and texted Sallyann “I know you make something delicious with frozen limeade. What is it?” She hit me back with an email I will be referring to for guidance all summer long. Check out not only the margarita recipe (with a watermelon alternative-YUM) and the recipe for agua fresca which I am most certainly going to have a pitcher of in my fridge throughout the dog days this year.

Our traditional margarita (quick and easy)

1/2 can limeade
1 lemon squeezed
1 cup tequila
1/4 cup triple sec or Cointreau (for fancy ones)
1 cup water

We mix all ingredients and serve on the rocks, but you can also mix in a blender with ice to make slushy. Serve with salt rimmed glass and lime.

Variations:
Purée ripe watermelon and add 1 cup purée to each cup water.

(we frequently make watermelon agua fresca but add 1/2 can limeade and then use it as the base for both margaritas and alcohol free drinks... Any type of good ripe melon will work well.)

Also, I highly recommend either lime or lemonade with a hearty splash of vanilla extract. This make a nice base for vodka drinks too.

For our party, I quadrupled the traditional margarita recipe (what can I say I’m friends with a lot of boozebags?) and we offered them along side some delicious white peach sangria that my friends Mish and Anthony whipped up. Both of the cocktails did not make it past the first 2 hours of the party, because they were all THAT good. Many thanks to my contributors, both local and long distance, the drinks were absolutely perfect. I’m looking forward to making some vodka based cocktails in the not so distant future with the vanilla extract tip. Dangerously good!

sunny weather menu scheming

2011-05-26T09:40:00.002-04:00

You know when TV show writers go on vacation and as such your weekly episode ends up being a clip show? And the whole thing is kind of a rip off, because it’s not like it moves the narrative forward but at the same time, the familiarity is sort of just as enjoyable if not more as a regular episode? Welcome to my clip show.

Memorial Day weekend looms ahead and it’s officially meat eating season. Time to fill up the propane tank, dust off your jean cutoffs and pray to god you know someone with a deck (or even better a pool/ house within walking distance to the beach). We’re having a cookout on Sunday and as such I’ve been menu scheming oh, for the past two weeks.

So last year, I made some delicious slow cooker pulled pork, along with a spicy slaw and the only potato salad I will ever make. It was such a delicious and easy menu, that I’m basically doing it all again, but not the exact same way. I’m doing pulled pork again, but of a different breed. Instead of looking to the South of these United States, I’m going even further south to Me-HEE-co (said like Guillermo from Weeds). I’m going to make slow cooker carnitas, using this recipe found last summer. To accompany my carnitas, I’ll have another spicy slaw, maybe something like this, whip up a bunch of homemade guacamole because everyone loves guacamole (fact). IF I have time and am feeling ambitious, I might try to make a little fresh salsa. If time runs short, I will just buy some from the grocery store, keeping to my #1 stress free hostess rule: don’t be a hero. If I have time, I love to make stuff, so it doesn’t stress me out, per se, but if the last few hours before the party need to be running errands (read: icing down the hooch) than the salsa fresco will get the axe.

Oh, maybe I will get some pickled jalapenos going on.

I will once again have potato salad, because it seems sacrilege to have a cookout without it. And we’ll have grilled veggies, chicken and sausages from Dom’s in Malden (if you like to get your meat on- this place is THE place). There will be plenty of beer and wine and maybe a summery cocktail. I’m not decided just yet on what that will be but I’m thinking something citrus based, like blueberry vodka and fresh lemonade, bourbon lemonade on the rocks or the ever delicious Pimms cups.

Last year's wet bar spread:

Whatever you’re planning this weekend, I hope it’s fun and mostly sunny for you. If you’re attending or hosting a cookout/BBQ yourself, sprinkled throughout this post are some great summer dishes from the Porky archives. While compiling this list, I realized that a Recipe Index needs to happen on here, like yesterday. I promise I’ll get on that. And I’m not lying this time.

COOKOUT FOOD from Porky's Past:

If you're not into pickled jalapenos, maybe just straight up pickles?

Or these dynamite pickled cherry tomatoes?

Healthier side dishes are always welcome; like this pasta salad I made last July. This delicious, summery panzanella. Or either of these two whole grain salads. Which are both healthy alternatives to your typical pasta or potato based salad.

These veggie burgers are yummy. But probably not sturdy enough to stand up to the grill. Just bring your skillet out onto the grill top.

Or if you're only hosting a few people and you want to make something nice. What about lobster salad?

Whatever you decide to take to your cookout, I hope you have a blast.

mise en place

2011-05-19T10:24:00.004-04:00

My friend asked me to make her pizza, so I made her three. I like variety.

The first had a base of caramelized onion jam (it’s to DIE for. My aunt made it for me), shredded cheddar and prosciutto. I topped the whole thing with a pile of arugula once it was done cooking. Yum.

The second kind was a sweet roasted/sun-dried tomato base topped with artichokes, mozzarella and parmesan. I had a half jar of roasted cherry tomatoes and a whole bag of sun-drieds, so what I did was dump the sun-drieds in the jar, add a little olive oil and pulsed it to a thick, deep red paste with my immersion blender. The inspiration for doing this was the base of Tomato Pie. Which, anyone who’s been to a good Little Italy worth its shakes knows has a thick, almost tomato paste-like base and is simply topped with basil, maybe dried oregano and garlic powder. It was delicious. Rich and sweet with a little salty tang from the artichokes and parmesan.

The third was a standard margarita. Tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and lots of basil. If it ain’t broke… my only issue with using fresh mozzarella on pies like this: is it purges so much liquid. I legitimately had to dip a paper towel on top to soak a bit of it up. This worked fine, but it leaves me to wonder, is there a better mozzarella that I should be using?

I decided to make the pizzas in a cast iron skillet because it’s quick and fun and something about cooking pizza crust this way makes it puffy and chewy, but not too heavy. Nobody likes a lead belly when there’s wine to be had (and dessert). If you want the directions on how to make skillet pies, the directions are here. Making three varieties of pizza that had to be put together relatively quickly gave me a good opportunity to do two things: use my cute new serving tray and create a boss looking mise en place.

Lord, I love me a mise en place. I think I get this from my mom, who has never met a ramekin or nesting bowl that she doesn’t like. While I was prepping dinner on this particular night, I thanked her for passing on this obsession to me. Because even with multiple stacks of tiny bowls used, I still had a stash in the cupboard.

I have to say, at the risk of sounding like the World’s Biggest Geek that I really like the urgency of grilling pizzas or making them in a skillet because I pretend a little tiny bit in my head that maybe I am on Top Chef.

Except the only difference is that I’m also wandering over to the table every few minutes to take a sip of wine and jam some cheese and crackers down my gullet. Also, I’m chatting non-stop with my friends the whole time. So I guess it’s not THAT urgent.

But you know what; these pizzas come out real nice. We quite enjoyed them all. I think my favorite was the prosciutto one, but the artichoke pie was a close second. This is such a simple cheap way to host your friends for dinner.

I think the only thing I had to purchase specifically was the dough, mozzarella and basil. In the future, I think I’ll experiment with a dough that is more cracker-like, I think that would be delicious.

I have to also mention dessert, because it was like, next level. My amiga Aja made a goat cheese cheesecake which she served with passion fruit sorbet and pistachio brittle. Take a minute and let that sink in. It was really amazing. I only have crummy photos of the finished pizzas and dessert because by that time it was really dark in my kitchen and we were on our third bottle of Rose.

what we ate

2011-05-11T09:52:00.003-04:00

"What did you eat?" This is what I ask people whenever they come back from a voyage. I'm sure it's not surprising since I'm, well, pretty into food. When we were in California last week we did eat. Nothing super fancy at all, just real, good food.

There is an In-N-Out Burger right next to LAX. It is usually our first stop when my sister picks me up from the airport. So much so that we joke no matter what time my flight gets in it's "Burger Thirty." We did eat In-N-Out, of course. But not until Saturday. It was delicious as usual. Although Paul, an In-N-Out first timer did confess privately that he thinks Five Guys might be better. I can't say, because I've never been to Five Guys (which my mother incorrectly calls the Brothers Five Hamburg Place, I should add) but in In-N-Out's defense I did point out that Five Guys is pretty pricey for burgers, whereas In-N-Out is very cheap for a full meal. We have tabled this debate to be completed after I have finally tried Five Guys or at some point at the Beachcomber, while we arm wrestle at the bar.

So what we did eat: lunch at the Brick House in Santa Monica, a snack at the hotel restaurant, Eric's, where we stayed. We had free drink tickets there, so we sat down for a drink and a pizza. Turns out the "free" drink tickets were only for "domestic beer" which, shockingly enough, Sierra Nevada- which is bottled in the State of California mind you- does not count as "domestic" I have also found this at Boston bars, where on $2.50 domestic draft night, they still charge full price for Sam Adams. When the brewery is LIT-rally down the street. Obviously, when it comes to drink specials, when they say "domestic" what they mean is "shitty."

We ate at Good Health in Ventura, which is a delicious health food restaurant. Salads and veggie burgers and hummus all around. Health food in California, truly an authentic experience, right? The salad was totally radical by the way as was the homemade, dense wheat bread that came along side it. Saturday night we grilled steaks along with some onions and mushrooms in my sister's backyard. And then we played baseball using a broken axe handle as a bat and a bucket full of over ripe oranges as the baseballs. They call that Ventura County Softball and regulations state you must wear a bikini and a welding helmet (I just made all of that up, obviously).

Sunday we had dinner at my semi-in-laws, (in that they are my sister's husband's sister and her husband- gosh, we need to come up with a term for that) Nicky and Jeremy's house. We had a great pasta with shredded chicken, kalamata olives, toasted pine nuts and spinach. I will definitely be introducing something like it to my repertoire.

There were other meals of course. Our hotel had a decent continental breakfast, where they actually had real eggs and breakfast meats and even a waffle station as opposed to the usual plastic wrapped pastries and boxes of cereal that usually comprise a continental breakfast. On the one morning we decided to make a frittata at my sister's I was enlisted to bring breakfast meats from said continental spread. I casually grabbed a large foam coffee cup, filled it with sausage links and bacon, snapped the cover on and walked out as though it was the most natural thing to do in the world. "Just grabbing my daily cup o' meat!" So far, I have not been questioned about my meat theft, so I think I'm in the clear.

So, all in all it was more of a high quality visit than a culinary tour de force. I did leave inspired by a couple things: 1. steak on the grill (which gets me excited for summer and reminds me that we need propane); 2. grapefruit (I finally ate and enjoyed grapefruit. This is a big step for me I'm a notorious fruit hater); 3. Nicky's pasta (simple and delicious); 4. avocados (this is no stretch for me I already love them. But whenever I get back from the West Coast I love them with a renewed passion) and burgers, I want to make a good homemade burger. Putting that on the list.

Other than that, I'm obviously using these lists and sun-drenched photographs to trick you into thinking I'm writing an actual post this week. But I know you know better. I will leave you with this: Mother's Day I took my mom to Blue Ginger for a luxe three course dinner. We scraped our plates clean. We also had the most delicious gimlet I've ever sipped and I'm making it my new mission to perfect the recipe and pass it on here. It seems very simple. Here's to hoping I don't do any permanent liver damage while I "taste test" the recipe. I'm headed out for the rest of the week to the Brimfield Fair with my college homies. I'm psyched to see my girls and get my flea market/ gawk at expensive antiques on.

consider it sprung

2011-05-06T11:22:00.004-04:00

I think I can now safely say without the Fear of Seasonal Jinx, that spring has arrived in full bloom. Had I said this two weeks ago, we would have woken up the very next day to a snowstorm and I can’t handle that kind of guilt on my shoulders. We were only in California for five days, but arriving home Tuesday morning, the landscape of our street had changed dramatically. Puffs of pink and white blooms adorned front yards; the brilliant green canopy that shadows our street, it seemed, was growing puffier and thicker by the hour. It was almost enough to stave off post vacation depression. Almost. Consider spring sprung.

I have lately been having major food cravings for anything and everything that is bright green (geek). I was asked to contribute an appetizer to Easter supper and I found a recipe for spring vegetable bruschetta on Food & Wine’s website that was pretty much exactly what I had in mind. All green all the time. A little healthy app. to whet our whistles without over stuffing us before the big Easter ham and scalloped potatoes throwdown.

The recipe itself was a bit too fussy for my sensibilities and having followed it, I can honestly say that all the extra steps and specifications, aren’t really worth it. I knew it could be easier and just as good. F&W directed me to steam the vegetables, one at a time in their own juices on low heat. The proper way to steam them, apparently, was to cut out a circle of parchment paper and press it down onto the vegetables, let them steam for three minutes, take the parchment off, add the next vegetable, steam for three, add the next and so on and so forth. Stupid, right? Right. But I did it nonetheless. Next time, I will stick with my first instincts. Also, I would definitely add cheese to the bruschetta toasts. I neglected to do this originally, but if I make this again I will most definitely incorporate some grated parmesan or crumbled goat cheese. Sure, it makes it slightly less healthy, but infinitely more awesome so…there’s your answer to that.

I was going to offer you the Food & Wine recipe here, in case everyone is more comfortable with following recipes to the letter; however, it’s just too fussy and specific. I mean, they tell you to remove the crusts from your toasts. What is this? Second grade? What's so wrong with crusts? I feel like the formula for bruschetta should be as simple as this: TOPPING+TOASTS=YUM. So, if you’re interested in a bunch of unnecessary extra steps, the original recipe can be found here. If you want to walk on the wild side, come along with Porky.

BRUSCHETTA of SPRING VEGETABLES
(from Food & Wine)

6 baby artichokes (about 1 pound)
1 lemon
1 cup shelled fresh fava beans (from 1 pound in the pod)
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
4 medium garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 small shallot, minced
½ bunch medium asparagus cut on the diagonal into 1/2-inch lengths
½ scallions, chopped
1 cup frozen petite peas
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
½ tablespoon finely chopped chives
½ teaspoon finely chopped tarragon
1 baguette sourdough bread, cut into ½ thick slices (I used a whole wheat sourdough)

Preheat your oven to 375 and set a large pot of water to boil. Remove the outer leaves from the artichokes until you reach the inner yellow leaves. Using a paring knife, trim off the stems and any dark spots from the artichoke bottoms. Rub with lemon, and then slice the artichokes lengthwise. Squeeze the lemon juice over and toss together.

Prepare an ice bath (ice and some water). Shell your fava beans, then blanch the inner pods in the boiling water for only about 15 seconds; remove the beans from the boiling water into the ice bath. At this point, I would also blanch your asparagus spears, just for a minute or two, until brilliant green, then transfer to ice bath as well to shock them into staying green. Drain and set aside the asparagus and the favas. At this point you will have to peel the outer shell (yes, there’s two)* off the favas and set them aside once done.

Once you are done blanching the favas and asparagi, I would make your toasts, especially if you are planning on serving the bruschetta right away. Brush both sides of toast with olive oil and bake until golden brown, about 4-5 minutes per side. Set aside toasts and turn on your broiler. When you are ready to serve, sprinkle grated parmesan, or goat cheese crumbles onto toast and broil for only a minute or so, keeping a close eye on them. You can do this after you have made your vegetable topping, because the veggies taste great warm, they don’t need to be hot.

Alright, back to the veg. (I’m realizing my “short” version of this recipe is still long but there’s no turning back now). Heat olive oil in a large, deep skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and shallots and cook until fragrant, about three minutes; add artichokes and cook until just tender, about 3-5 minutes more. Next, add the asparagus, peas, favas and scallions, sautéing everything together until bright green. This will not take long. It’s important that the vegetables be just cooked, so that they retain not only their nice bright color but also just a little bite, you just want to make sure the peas aren’t still frozen! Season with plenty of salt and pepper to taste, add the herbs and remove from heat.

Pour the vegetables and their juices over your prepared toasts. Serve immediately. To make ahead (which I did) I simply cooked the vegetables and transferred them to a container to take with me; the toasts commuted along side in a Ziploc bag, so when I got there, all I had to do was assemble. If I was adding cheese and broiling, I would have done it on site just before serving. The whole dish still tasted great at room temperature when I served it an hour later.

*this is why shelling fava beans is a big pain in the buns. What was Hannibal Lecter thinking?

skillet filled with sunshine

2011-04-27T12:03:00.005-04:00

I know it's only Wednesday, but I’m on cruise control into the weekend because my vacation starts tomorrow. We’re heading to L.A. to visit my sister and the rest of my West Coast homies: my nephew Noah, brother in law Chris, sister’s sister-in-law, Nicky, etc. I’m so thrilled. I’m excited to show Paul California, snuggle up with my baby nephew and catch some sunshine on my pale, dimpled skin.

That being said, I’ll leave you this week with a skillet full of sunshine. Light, lemony goodness in the form of a (shockingly easy) soufflé. When I saw how simple this recipe was, I really wanted to try it. Not only because I love lemons but I really wanted to try out making a soufflé. The recipe is so straight forward you really can’t miss and when you bring a fluffy, lemony soufflé out of the oven, you will feel very proud of yourself. Big thanks to my main damie, Aja, who not only was down to help me out by taking photos, but also more than willing to eat dessert for lunch.

SKILLET LEMON SOUFFLÉ
(from Cook’s Illustrated’s Best Skillet Recipes)

5 large eggs, separated
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
2/3 cup (4 2/3 ounces) granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup juice from 2 to 3 lemons
1 teaspoon grated zest from 1 lemon
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Preheat your oven to 375. Using an electric mixer or stand mixer, whip the egg whites and cream of tartar together on medium-low speed until foamy (a little over one minute). Slowly add 1/3 cup of the sugar and the salt; increase your speed to medium-high and whip until stiff peaks form (3-5 minutes). Transfer the whites to a clean bowl (gently) and set aside.

To your dirty mixing bowl (no need to wash) combine the yolks and the remaining 1/3 cup sugar on medium-high speed until pale and thick (like me at the outset of bathing suit season), approx. 1 minute. Whip in the lemon juice, zest and flour until incorporated (30 seconds).

Heat the butter in your skillet over medium-low heat. As it melts gently fold ¼ of the whipped egg whites into the lemon batter, continuing in two more batches until all of the fluffy white is just incorporated. Gently scrape the batter into the skillet and cook for about 2 minutes, or until the edges begin to set and bubble just a little.

Transfer the skillet to your oven and bake until puffed and the center jiggles only slightly when you shake the handle of the pan.

There will be some light browning on the edges. The baking will take 7-11 minutes but it is absolutely crucial that you do not open the oven door for the FIRST SEVEN MINUTES of cooking. You hear that? Sorry for getting so stern, it’s just the most important step. My soufflé took the full 11 minutes to cook and even then, I think it could have used one more minute. My oven runs low though, so I think that’s why.

Use a pot holder or oven mitt to remove the skillet from the oven, lightly dust with confectioner’s sugar and serve immediately.

Don't be afraid to try this! I promise if you follow the directions, you won't be disappointed! xo, jess

the musical fruit

2011-04-22T09:07:00.005-04:00

Anyone that knows me knows that this post was only a matter of time.

I made a delicious soup for you. The only hitch is you can’t eat it and then go out in public. I’m being deadly serious here because I care about you. You simply cannot eat this soup and then expect to go join the general populous for any sort of indoor activity where they will be able to hear what you’re doing. You could probably eat it and then go to a Nascar race or Air Force Fighter Jet show, because in either of those instances the engine noise and blasting of “Rock You Like a Hurricane” will drown out any noise that you’ll be creating. And you will be making noise. Or at least the gentlemen among us will be, because this is quite simply: fart soup. I should just give the rest of the leftovers to my dad, because that man has never cut an air biscuit he wasn’t damn proud of. He’s very comfortable in his own skin.

Behold the Christmas lima bean: the Black Widow of beans. 100% gorgeous; 100% deadly.

I’m a big bean eater and I’ve often attempted to defend their tarnished reputation as fart fuel; but in this case, Christmas lima beans, you are on your own. These beans could blow the toupee off your high school science teacher. These beans give all other beans a bad name. Not that I know of course, because I’ve never farted in my life. I am a girl. We spend our time in the bathroom spritzing rose dew on our temples and brushing our hair 1,000 times before bed. But I heard from a couple guys, well one guy, okay it was obviously Paul, who claimed this soup turned his back side into a total butt trumpet for approximately 12 hours after consumption. It’s bad. Bad, bad. Like Feel Embarrassed Even If You’re By Yourself Bad; Levitate Out of Your Office Chair But Not In a Transcendent Yogic Way Bad. Like, I’ve Never Actually Considered Buying Beano But This Is Different (I'm So Scared) Bad. That bad. Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife.

And it’s a bummer too (see what I did there?) because it’s truly delicious. I mean really one of the best tasting soups in recent memory. So it’s not as though I would discourage you from making it; actually, I dare you to make it. But know this: I am completely serious when I say it’s not fit for public consumption. If you’re hosting a fart contest to raise money for a charity of your choice, by all means, double the recipe. But if you’re planning on working with other people in an office setting you may want to take a vacation day. Likewise, if you say teach yoga and will be in a soothing, peaceful yoga studio guiding practitioners through sun salutations and forward folds like, um, my friend was the other night, you might want to get a sub. Or be prepared to reach new levels of glutial strength as you tiptoe across the room and turn the music up. I mean like I said, my friend might be exaggerating, but you’ve been warned. With that being said, here’s the soup:

CHRISTMAS LIMA BEAN and VEGGIE SOUP with
WHOLE GRAIN PARMESAN CROUTONS (a/k/a FART SOUP)

2 tbs. olive oil
2 tbs. butter
1 Spanish onion (or other white onion), cut into a small dice
1 summer squash, but into a small dice
1 zucchini, cut into a small dice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 tsp. cumin
½ tsp. ground coriander
1 package Christmas Lima Beans* (soaked overnight or quick soaked**)
1 small can whole peeled tomatoes in sauce
Chicken stock (about 2 quarts I think)
Salt and pepper

For the Croutons (optional):

A few slices of whole grain or wheat bread, cut into large cubes
Olive Oil
Garlic Salt
Grated parmesan

*or, may I (strongly) suggest any other kind of bean. Garbanzos or cannellini beans would stand in well here and decidedly dial down the possibility of alienating yourself from strangers and making any roommate or bed fellow you have consider putting you on the next flight to Siberia.

**TECHNIQUE: How to Quick Soak Dried Beans:

Dried beans will almost always come with instructions to soak the beans overnight. I am completely incapable of planning that far ahead, so I have never actually done this. What I do is a “quick soak” method that I have found works just great for me. Rinse your beans with water and pick them over to make sure there are no foreign objects in ‘em. Then place in a large pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat and then shut off the heat and let the beans soak for 1 hour. Drain them again, maybe giving another rinse. You can now proceed to either cook the beans on their own, with water, salt, pepper and any herbs or spices you would like, or you can add these soaked beans to your soup and let them cook in the soup until tender. If you choose to cook the beans on their own and keep them around for future use, just put them in a jar or Tupperware and refrigerate until ready to use. I would suggest using them within a week. The Christmas limas took about two hours. So you will have your soup simmering for quite some time to cook them through, but the resulting soup broth is really delicious. I think it’s worth it.

Heat olive oil and butter over medium- medium high heat until the butter is melted. Add onions and sauté until fragrant and translucent, about 8 minutes. Add summer squash and zucchini and continue to cook for another 5 minutes. Add garlic and cumin, tossing everything together until fragrant (about 1 minute, if that). Pour in tomatoes and their sauce, using your spoon to break the tomatoes up into large chunks; add the beans and cover the whole thing with chicken stock. I used homemade, so I have no idea what the measurement is, but I think you would be able to simply use one 32 oz. container of store bought stock here. Let the soup come to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and let cook until the beans are tender.

While the soup is cooking, make your croutons. Heat the oven to 350 and cut any bread you have on hand into large chunks (I had a whole grain loaf that was pretty much stale. This is the perfect way to use stale bread). Toss the bread cubes on a cookie sheet with a small amount of olive oil, or a few sprays of olive oil spray. Sprinkle with a pinch of garlic salt and maybe some crushed pepper. Bake for 15 minutes, stirring once for even browning. When there are about 3 minutes remaining, remove the cookie sheet and grate parmesan over the top. Return to the oven until the parmesan melts (the extra three minutes should do this). If you’d like, you can finish them in under the broiler as well, in which case it will only take about a minute for the cheese to melt.

When soup is ready spoon into a bowl, top with a couple croutons and another sprinkle of parmesan cheese. Serve immediately. We had this for dinner with some grilled Panini (turkey, prosciutto and mozzarella with a spread of hummus and Sriracha and arugula in the middle). Absolutely delicious, but perfectly dangerous as well. You’ve been warned.

just grab him in the biscuits

2011-04-13T11:57:00.003-04:00

While I am by definition a Yankee lady, born and raised in the great Commonwealth with not a trace of Southern gentility or even the ladylike capability to wear nail polish without chipping it within the first 15 minutes, I do have a whisper of Southern roots about me. My Nana, Inez, was born and bred in Jackson, Mississippi and since I have inherited not only her ability to cry at a moment’s notice, her old kitchen table and the better part of her set of pots and pans, I would say her spirit is alive in my kitchen on a regular basis.

I couldn’t help but think of her kitchen (pale green linoleum) and the last time she made me supper (fried chicken) as I baked up a batch of the Southern bread basket standard on Saturday afternoon. I have never made biscuits from scratch, but I hoped it would be somewhat like making scones (easy), but less British (their “biscuits” are more like those baby teething things). These biscuits come together in just a few minutes and they are totally delicious. I love that the addition of the sweet potato actually adds essential vitamins (A and C) to an otherwise normally nutritionally devoid food. Because the potato lends moisture, the end result here is moist without being overly dense or heavy. They are simply a very nice biscuit indeed. Nana would be proud.

SWEET POTATO BUTTERMILK BISCUITS
(found on the kitchn.com)

2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into cubes
1 cup cooked and mashed sweet potato (approximately 1 large potato)
1/2 cup buttermilk, plus additional as needed

Preheat your oven to 375. In a large bowl, combine all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Using a pastry blender, two knives or your very own fingers, cut the butter into the flour mixture until the butter is a mix of small crumbs and pea-sized balls. I used a combination of two knives and my fingers. If you have never used knives to cut butter (raises hand), the method I came up with was to cross the blades close to each other, so they formed a tight X, then would drag the blades away from each other into a big X. I felt like a medieval swordsmith and my butter got incorporated just swell. This method is highly recommended.

While you’re doing your butter slicing, you can pop a large sweet potato in the microwave. Stab it a few times with a knife or fork and cook it on high until its ready. This will take anywhere from 6 minutes to 15 depending on the size and density of your potato. Mine was huge, it took 15. Once it’s done, slice it open and let it cool for a few minutes to avoid hand scorching and buttermilk cooking. Once it’s cooled slightly. Scoop the potato out of its skin into a medium sized bowl and mash thoroughly with a fork. Add the buttermilk and stir together completely. Add this mixture to your flour mixture and fold together. If you need to add extra buttermilk you can. I had to add about another ¼ of a cup. Your dough will form a nice ball and be just slightly sticky. At this point, you can chill the dough for a half hour, or proceed right to the baking. I chilled mine for about 10 minutes and then I got impatient.

Flour your countertop or cutting board and pat (do not use a rolling pin) the dough until it’s about an inch thick. Use a well floured biscuit cutter (if you have one- you will note by the photos that a floured rocks glass worked just fine for me) cut out your biscuits and place them on a cookie sheet. In the interest of not sticking I lightly spritzed my sheet with a little olive oil spray, but truthfully, I don’t think these would stick regardless, because of the butter in them. Gather the scraps together and pat it out again, cutting more biscuits until you have used all the dough. Bake for 15-20 minutes. They stay a pretty pale orange color, so to check for doneness, I lifted up one and peeped at the bottom, when the bottom looks cooked, i.e. dry and browned, I took them out.

I can’t believe it’s this easy to make biscuits! I had one (alright one and half) of these right out of the oven, with butter; and the next morning we had some with baked beans and poached eggs. I have frozen the other half of this batch and when I’m feeling ambitious (and have run a 5K) I’m going to try my hand at making sausage gravy to reproduce a breakfast I used to order all the time at the B Side Lounge (R.I.P.) in Cambridge: sweet potato biscuits and sausage gravy. Holy mother. Now that is a (heart attack) breakfast. Happy biscuiting my friends. Now go listen to some Digital Underground.

because you can't eat angry birds

2011-04-08T13:25:00.003-04:00

Last Friday my cousin sent me an email:
(actual transcript from my email. Don’t judge on the grammar, we keep it loose)

Jess!

A few things. One, what are your fave apps? I am trying to find a food one for printing to our wireless printer.

To which I responded:

My fave apps...let's see, like off the top of my head what I would put out on the table? Roasted cherry tomatoes a chunk of manchego and some crackers, maybe a small bowl of caramelized onions too. Last night I made an impromptu appetizer of a goat cheese log with red pepper jelly spooned over, microwaved for about 30 seconds, just to warm and make spreadable and um, let's see what else, Sue Pithie's chicken wings and "Swedish" meatballs are party go-tos and Cousin Jenny's Cheeseball, which is on Porky D in December of 2009.

To which she responded:

You are soooooo awesome! Because, of course, one day into iPhone-ness, I meant iPhone apps! But of course any other time of the year I would have responded the exact same way! ( and your list of app apps will do me well this weekend!)

I should probably mention that I too have an iphone and because I am an American citizen with access to the outside world on a regular basis, I know what an “app” is. My nephew taught me when he got his iTouch. He is 8.

Anyways. After her response email I had a good laugh at myself and was thinking about this dual use of the abbreviation “app”. Because in my social circle “should we get an app?” is met with heads bent towards the menu studying what worthwhile starters are on there, not fingers swiping their way along the app store to find a free version of Tetris*. Is there an app for apps? Is that the most meta thing out there? Should I call a lawyer and take out a patent or a copyright or whatever the heck you use to make money off your ideas right now?

Nah. That sounds like too much of a hassle. Plus it’s nice out for the first time since September so for today let’s keep it short and sweet and I will serve as your App App.

WARM GOAT CHEESE and RED PEPPER JELLY

This app (okay I’m getting a little tired of it already) was something I made out of necessity because the friend who was bringing the appetizers was stuck in traffic and we were ready for a snack. It’s a slightly more bourgeois take on the old party classic: cream cheese and red pepper jelly. All you need to do is sub the cream cheese out for a log of goat cheese, dump some red pepper jelly over, microwave it for about 30 seconds, just to soften and warm it slightly and serve with crackers or crostini. Oh snap. Now that’s an app.

*does this exist? If so please message me privately and tell me how to buy it. I need a new time suck and Tetris always did the trick back in 1992.

that's one old quiche

2011-04-04T10:35:00.002-04:00

Check me out this week over at Edible South Shore. ESS celebrates all things local. Which, here in the Northeast, during winter, means those people eat a hella lot of root vegetables. One of my main damies, Aja Amontea, is their blog editor. Which means occasionally she plies me with wine, gelato and compliments in order to get me to drop some Porky knowledge on that corner of the web. This week, I herald the coming of spring with a recipe celebrating the humble ramp.

You might recognize the photos because I included some old faves from a brunch post from last spring. Ramps are seriously really good. You will start to see them now in the produce section and at the farmer's market. Ramp it up!

tastes like spring

2011-04-01T10:27:00.003-04:00

Did you know pine nuts are made of spun gold and the dander from endangered species? Well, they must be, because they cost $9.00 for a small container. I blinked my eyes several times and gasped out loud so that the lady standing next to me would wonder what I was upset about and I could say to her “get a load of the price on these pine nuts! How do they sleep at night?!” and we would enjoy a moment of grocery store camaraderie about food inflation; but she ignored me and may or may not have angled her fleece-jacketed shoulder farther away from me so as to make it completely clear that she was not interested in hearing my musings on the high price of pine nuts. Whatever lady, your loss. Because you should probably know they are expensive.

OUCH

But still, I splurged. I look at them as an investment, because truly, a nicely toasted pine nut. In the right recipe, there really is no substitution. And in the pasta I was scheming to make I knew no other nut would suffice. As I put them to toast over low heat I made a mental note “Jess, don’t forget about the pine nuts.” And then I sat down on the couch with Val and started yakking and completely forgot about the stinkin’ pine nuts. But only a few were too toasted. The rest were salvageable, which is good, because I’m no Hercules Rockefeller.

PESTO PASTA with SPRING VEGETABLES

One box pasta
One bunch asparagus spears, trimmed and cut into pieces
Half box frozen petite peas (defrosted)
Half bag baby spinach leaves, coarsely chopped
½ cup basil leaves, sliced into ribbons
½ cup pine nuts, toasted
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese, plus more shaved into strips
One jar store bought pesto, or homemade, if you’ve got it
Juice from half a lemon
Extra virgin olive oil

Prior to cooking, toast your pine nuts in a nonstick pan over low heat until they are fragrant. Set aside. Heat a large pot of water over high heat for pasta, once boiling, salt generously and add pasta. Meanwhile, trim and chop your asparagus, spinach and basil. Most pasta should take about 8-10 minutes to cook, check the box for cooking time and set your timer. When there is about 3 minutes left add the asparagus and let cook a minute or two. For the last minute of cooking add the chopped spinach. Then drain the whole thing together and dump it back into the pot. Add the peas (if they are still a bit frozen, the hot pasta will cook them through in no time), the pesto, basil, pine nuts, cheese, lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil. Stir together; salt and pepper to taste. Shave thin slices of parmesan over for serving and more cheese on the side if needed.

This pasta dish was really delicious and came together in one pot, in about 15 minutes. Get a good pasta that has lots of surface area to catch the sauce and vegetables. I used an oversized rotini and it was perfect. When I make this again, I will use even more peas, spinach and basil, because the more vegetables, the better. By the time we were done with dinner we had picked them all out and mostly just pasta remained in the bowl.

To serve with this, I made a simple little baby mache salad with a few shaved pieces of parmesan cheese and a light drizzle of olive oil and some aged Balsamic vinegar. Even if it doesn’t look like spring outside, this meal tasted like it.

photo credits to Mish and Val. Who gladly assisted in the production of this post and also got to eat its contents. Thanks ladies.

afternoon snack

2011-03-24T15:03:00.002-04:00

Can I interest you in a snack?

As you can see I'm still plugging my way through too many boxes of Girl Scout Cookies. My niece hustled me for like, 6 boxes and solicited about 5 of my friends' phone numbers so she could bag them for some too. I told her she has a future in sales.

But forget about the GSCs for a second. Check out their friend, Green Tea Frappucino over there (can I say Frappucino on here?). I have long been scheming to make one of these homemade and I finally did it. The recipe isn't quite right yet so I have to do a little more field research, but it's coming. Until then, enjoy the cookies.

where the magic happens

2011-03-10T11:27:00.004-05:00

If a kitchen is not comfortable nor will you be. So make it suit you, and not the universal customer. Make it an extension of your personality. Above all give yourself, and it, over to the chaotic coziness that in a cold universe is the kitchen's soul-saving grace.

~Nigella Lawson

Nigella is, as the song goes, strumming my pain with her fingers with that statement. When I spend a few hours in my kitchen, I feel whole again. Soul, saved. Dinner, done. Far from being a chore, chopping, scraping and simmering are a few of my favorite activities and I think there is no greater scent in the world than onions and garlic hitting the pan. That is the smell of supper.

In an article written for the Wall Street Journal last week, Nigella detailed, in her poetic prose, what makes a kitchen cozy. I loved her words. She is, in addition to being an excellent chef and a total Brick House, a great writer to boot.

The only hitch with the article is that what was billed as a slideshow of “Nigella’s Cozy Kitchen” was actually a bunch of stock photos of kitchen ware and gadgets that she recommends. Major false advertising. I don’t want to see a gift guide. I want to see your crumpled up dish towels and what pictures you have on your fridge. So I figured, even though you didn’t ask, that I would show you mine.

“A real kitchen is not a perfect kitchen” she writes. As we speak, the top of my stove is crusted with oil spatters and coffee grinds from breakfast. We rent, so the only real changes we can make is to add artwork and ourselves (and cute dish towels too, obviously). Perfect it is not. But consistently used, completely functional and definitely cozy, it is. I love this kitchen so much and I hope you like it too.

Pot rack made by my dad. Arguably, best use of space ever.

Bruce and Bea's chow station:

This high top desk is the perfect height to give extra counter space and is neutral enough that it doesn't hurt my need for aesthetic cohesion.

I have also created, in case you are confused about the layout from my crappy photos, an architect-grade, completely to scale drawing of the kitchen layout. As you can see you must have a seven inch waist line to walk past the fridge and get out onto the back deck:

Meet Neens

2011-03-07T16:22:00.002-05:00

Friends are good, right? Wait. No friends are the best. We can all agree on that. Howzabout friends that are so nice it hurts and so talented and adorable you just simply can't get over the fact that they are actually your friends? I have friends like that Meet Nina Isabella: former college roommate, friend for life and super sick interior design guru. A few months back Neens started her own blog to celebrate all thing pretty, indulgent and cool. It's very cute and stylish and I want to pick it up and cradle it like a baby. Which incidentally is what I do to Neens every time I get to see her, whether she likes it or not.

She asked me if I would share some Porky over on Ciao Bella a few weeks back and today, she posted a link over here to yours truly. Thanks Neens! Much love, mama.

CHECK her OUT!

Here is a cute shot I took of her and her nephew at her wedding last summer.

new fashioned

2011-03-03T10:50:00.004-05:00

I was scrolling through recent posts and realizing that if I introduced another dish that was a) a soup or b) chickpeas, we might have a full scale revolt on our hands. So I thought, what could I charm you with? Why booze of course.

When I used to sling drinks, if someone ordered an Old Fashioned, the odds of it being an elderly man with ear hair and a hearing aid taking advantage of the Friday night prime rib special was about 10 to 1. Thanks to Mad Men and the entire borough of Brooklyn making all things either a) old timey or b) midcentury modern searing hot these days, the Old Fashioned and variations thereof are seeing a new moment in the sun right now. It’s funny what a couple years can do, right? It’s like how mullets came back around and were really hip again for a little while there. Oh wait, they didn’t? Don’t tell my sister, because she had one in 2006. True story.

Lately when I go out for dinner, or lunch (who am I kidding) if there is a whiskey based drink on their list that intrigues, it is hands down what I will order first. I really enjoy how cocktail menus in recent years have moved further away from syrupy sweet, sugar rimmed martinis to drinks that actually taste like drinks. For too many years it seems the collective ideology of the Cocktail List was to mask the alcohol in juice and dye, leaving us with something that tasted more like a sleeve of Sprees than an actual Adult Beverage. We are, after all, adults now aren’t we?

So remember when I made the liquid pie? Well it was such a traumatic process that I had to stop halfway through and make myself a drink. I had on hand about ¾ of the ingredients necessary for an Old Fashioned (bourbon, lemon, seltzer, sugar, ice). So I made myself a variation on that. Since then I have kicked around the idea of really making a go at a delicious, new fangled version of the old classic. A traditional Old Fashioned is comprised of this: one slice orange or lemon, a maraschino cherry, a teaspoon of sugar and a dash of bitters, muddled, topped with rocks, Bourbon whiskey and soda water. When they are good they are fantastic and when they are bad I can actually FEEL hair growing on my chest as I drink it. Which if I was a dude, would not be such a bad thing, but I have to appear in tank tops on a regular basis and if I showed up looking like Wolverine, I think people would get a little weirded out.

So what we have here is what I came up with on a cold, grey Sunday afternoon while doing some laundry. I (accidentally on purpose) made enough for two drinks and ended up folding my laundry with a pretty decent buzz on. There are worse things that can happen. So here is my sexed up, citrified, new fashioned Old Fashioned. She’s got only the slightest hint of sweetness, she’s a bit tart, somewhat bitter and very pretty. I call her Betty, because, obviously.

BLOOD ORANGE BOURBON BETTY
(makes two proper and strong cocktails)

Juice from half a blood orange
Juice from quarter of a lemon
1 tsp. sugar
½ tsp. ground ginger
½ tsp. ground coriander
approx. 2 oz. Bourbon Whiskey (I like Maker’s Mark)
approx. 1-2 oz. Pimms
Seltzer water
Sliced blood orange or orange peel for garnish

Juice orange and lemon and pour into a pint glass or cocktail shaker, including any pulp from the orange. Add sugar, ginger and coriander, whisk together. Add ice (lots of it) and then pour in equal parts bourbon and Pimms. You could make this with just whiskey if you don’t have Pimms, but I had a bottle kicking around and wanted to see if it could be used for something other than just Pimms Cups. Clamp the lid on your shaker, or if using a pint glass, clamp a martini shaker on the other end. Shake well, until good and frothy. Don’t be a sissy when it comes to shaking your drinks. The shaking process melts away a bit of the ice and really blends the juice and booze together in a way that two weak baby shakes would never do. Shake it like a Shake Weight, just make sure your glass or lid is clamped on good and tight.

In a rocks glass or an old fashioned glass filled with ice, strain half of the mixture in, filling the glass about 2/3 of the way; top with seltzer and don’t forget to start the dryer on the second load of laundry. It won’t dry itself and you will feel moderately embarrassed when you go to change the laundry and there is an entire dryer of soggy sheets staring your drunk mug in the face. Cheers!

If you’re serving a couple people, double or triple the recipe and combine all of the juice and booze ingredients in a small pitcher with some ice. When serving, pour over ice and top with seltzer.

*note* I remembered in hindsight that I did use a dash of Angustora Orange Bitters. But I don't think it was entirely necessary. Use it if you've got it. If not, no biggie.

simple is a gift

2011-02-24T15:30:00.004-05:00

I don't have any good stories or nice photos this week. My sincerest apologies; I'm running on a low tank of energy and cooking time. What I do have is a simple, straightforward dinner that you can probably make out of what's in your fridge right now. It’s the simplest of the simple. And honestly, sometimes simple is perfect.

I was surprised by this dish. In a good way. I didn't think it would be "all that" but it was (like I could get through even a tiny post without a cheesy and disgusting 90s throwback phrase *snaps fingers*). Smoky with a little bit of heat from the smoked paprika and tangy and delicious from the unorthodox "sauce." With one run through of cooking this, it is embedded in my brain and weeknight dinner repertoire for life. That's pretty stinkin' good. Wouldn't you say?

PASTA with CHICKPEAS and BLISTERED CHERRY TOMATOES
(from my -new BFF- the Epicurious App)

8 ounces of pasta, any shape (dunno what 8 ounces looks like but we used ¾ a box)
1-1 ½ containers cherry tomatoes
1 can chick peas, drained
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp. smoked paprika
½ cup halved, pitted kalamata olives
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
Grated Parmesan for sprinkling (also optional)

Heat pasta water in a large pot, once boiling salt generously. Add pasta, cook until al dente, 8-10 minutes usually. When you drain the pasta, reserve ½ cup of the pasta cooking water and whisk that hot, salty water into your half cup of hummus. This is your sauce. Say what? I know! But it’s delicious.

Meanwhile, while your pasta cooks, in a large skillet over high heat, drizzle in about two tablespoons of olive oil. Add tomatoes and cook, until blackened in spots, shaking the skillet occasionally, about 8 minutes. Add chickpeas, garlic and paprika, crush some of the tomatoes to release juices. Add pasta to the skillet and the “sauce” toss everything together, mix in the olives and the cilantro if using. I skipped the cilantro, solely because I forgot to buy some. I didn’t feel as though anything was missing, but if you’re a cilantro fan, have at it, hoss. Season with salt and pepper and top with grated parmesan, if you’re like me and can’t eat pasta without it. Serve with salad and wine. Hearty, healthy, cheap and delicious. Can I get an amen?

cinnamon scented, bacon crumbled disappointment

2011-02-18T10:38:00.005-05:00

I haven't been hosed by a recipe like this for a long time. When I saw this French Toast Casserole Type Thing online a few weeks ago, I almost died. Cinnamon, pancetta, ciabatta? Check yes for all three. I used the best ingredients and was completely and totally convinced that it was going to be the Most Epic Brunch Dish Ever. Which is saying a lot because you know how I feel about brunch.

The pairing of salty and sweet is my favorite. I will always lead with the savory, because that's just the kind of girl I am, but if I'm out to breakfast with a group, I might be the first to suggest that perhaps we get a chocolate chip pancake? You know? For the table.

So I saw this recipe and I was pretty much convinced that it would change my life. I love, love, love cinnamon toast. I also adore bread puddings and essentially, to me, this was what I was looking at. A breakfast bread pudding with crumbly, salty pancetta in between the cinnamon-sugarey layers.

But what about it? I wouldn't be including all this dark culinary foreshadowing for nothing, now would I? This thing sucked. I was SO bummed. SO bummed. It was three weeks ago and I'm still not over it.

I prepared it the day before, as was suggested and as I was making it, huffing crisped pancetta and deep, delicious Vietnamese Cinnamon, I was LIT-rally dancing in my kitchen going "oh no you di-in't" out loud to myself (it's not a pretty picture, but it's an honest one). I was BEYOND convinced that this would be delicious. Even though there was ricotta cheese in it. Which I do not like at all. I figured, it wouldn't take precedence what with all the other delicious elements happening.

So with great care, I prepared, wrapped up and dropped my casserole at my girlfriend's house, who was hosting brunch the next morning. I was fully prepared to have a show stopping breakfast the next morning, with the inclusion of this dish.

And it was dry and salty and just lacking, really. There was LACK. I wanted to be soothed with sweet cinnamon sugar melty-ness with just a hint of crispy pancetta but instead I was all (bogus face) "this is SALTY. And dry." And I was devastated. Fortunately there was a ridiculous lemon danish and three type of quiche for me to drown my sorrows in.

So this week's post is just a lame lesson that some recipes are just duds. Although this one's mere existence has inspired me and I know that with some tweaking, the breakfast vision I had can be fulfilled. Stay tuned.

peanut butter jelly time

2011-02-11T10:08:00.003-05:00

Us girls can all agree on this phenomenon I think. Maybe dudes too. When you are single and just sort of maybe kind of starting to date or be interested in someone, within your circle of friends, they immediately get a code name. Right? Think about your significant other, or any ex significant other, I bet you 20 bucks that at one point in time they had a nickname based on a noticeable physical characteristic or perhaps their career choice or where you met him or her. For every actual relationship there has been a 16 Ounce Hazelnut, Ski Boyfriend or a Silver Fox. This is a safe way of speaking about them without getting too attached yet squarely identifies them as a Person of Interest.

I met Paul online. I know, right? Yes, we did. Why not? I use the internet for everything else; why not use it to land me a Good Man? And we met on a website that required you to have a screen name that wasn’t your full regular name or actually anything close to it. I guess that was for um, safety reasons or anonymity or whatever. So I had joined mostly to entertain my married roommates and wasn’t taking it too seriously, which was working out just fine because there was no one really all that interesting on my list of compatible suitors. And then one afternoon I came across LetsEatPBandJs. He was cute, funny, in a band, had a job, was two inches taller than me and closed out his profile with a joke about Tony Danza. I was intrigued immediately. I sent his link to my roommate, Aja. “I kind of love this guy for you!” she wrote back. I wrote him a message, he wrote back, I wrote back, he wrote back, I gave him my phone number, he called me the next day, we talked for about 45 minutes I think about Halloween costumes and hair bands (what?) and the next day we met for brunch, coffee and a long walk. It was our first date and it was good, so we went out again, and again, and again and we haven’t stopped since.

So for those first two weeks of communicating, to my girlfriends Paul was “Peanut Butter Jelly Time.” As in “How was your date with Peanut Butter Jelly Time?” If I smirked at an incoming text message “Is that from Peanut Butter Jelly Time?” or when he would be coming over for a date they would dance in the living room and sing “Peanut Butter Jelly Time, Peanut Butter Jelly Time.” His nickname came from his screen name and something that was on an episode of Family Guy, which at the time we were watching a lot of because it was on like, 7 times back to back on Tuesday nights.

And eventually he became more than a code name or a Person of Interest and Peanut Butter Jelly Time became Paul, a real, live human male, that was appropriately aged, gainfully employed and wanted to be my boyfriend (wee!!!). But though the nickname fell to the wayside sometimes when I think of him, I still think PB&J. Which is sort of completely adorable because his initials are PB and um in case you didn’t know I’m a J! Did you just puke? Alright, that’s enough of that. It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time:

PEANUT BUTTER JELLY THUMBPRINTS
From Martha Stewart

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
¾ cup smooth peanut butter (I strongly recommend Teddie’s)
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar (plus more for rolling)
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup raspberry jam

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl beat peanut butter and butter with a mixer on medium speed until smooth. (A helpful hint when working with peanut butter: sure it’s easy to scoop it into the measuring cup, but then getting it out and into your bowl is a bit messier. Lightly spray your measuring cup with vegetable or olive oil spray and the PB will pour right out of the cup.) Add egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated. Turn speed down to low, add dry ingredients and mix until combined.

Scoop equal sized spoonfuls of dough and roll into balls, roll balls in sugar and place (about 2 inches apart) on a non-stick cookie sheet or one that has parchment paper or a Silpat liner. Bake until cookies are puffy, about 10 minutes. Remove cookie sheet from oven and using the handle end of a wooden spoon press indentations in the center of each cookie. You can get fancy here and attempt to press your indentations into heart shapes, but honestly, only one will come out looking like a heart and the rest will come out heart-ish so to save any high expectations of romantic cookies, just stick with little circles, they are still cute and still delicious.

Return cookies to oven and bake until edges are golden. This recipe says 6-7 minutes more, but I only cooked mine for an additional 4 minutes. Reason being is that peanut butter cookies are amazing, but it only takes about 30 seconds of over cooking to render them into a dry mess. So for the sake of deliciousness, I under cooked mine. This meant they were slightly fragile and I had to be careful when transferring them to the cooling rack, but as they cooled, they firmed up a bit. Let cookies cool on rack completely.

Heat jelly or jam in a small saucepan until loosened. I was using some amazing homemade jam which has a very loose consistency as it was. So all I did here was take the whole jar and place it in a warm sauce pan for a few minutes and it was fine. If your jelly is very thick, you will want to heat it a bit more, but as long as it’s in a glass jar, I see no reason why you should even have to measure out the half cup and dirty a pan with sticky jelly. Just place it right in the simmering water and give it a couple stirs. Then, using a small teaspoon, spoon a bit of jelly into the indentations in your thumbprints. Cookies should be store in a single layer and keep for up to a week, but are best the first two days. Try not to eat like, 90 of these, 'cause they are SOOOO good.

honey roasted onion flat bread

2011-02-04T10:45:00.004-05:00

HONEY ROASTED ONION FLAT BREAD

3 bacon slices (or 4-5 of pancetta)
3 medium onions, cut cross wise into ¼ inch(ish) circles
¼ cup honey
¼ cup dry white wine
¾ crème fraiche; or, ½ cup ricotta
½ tsp nutmeg
Salt and pepper
Shredded gruyere cheese (about ¾ c.)
Grated parmesan (a few tablespoons)
1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves

Olive oil
Flat bread pizza crust

This was originally SPOSTA be a tart. A flaky delicate little buttery thing with a crème fraiche base and an egg wash and all that. Sposta, as in “supposed to,” as in, now past tense, because I forgot to take the puff pastry out of the freezer. Just like I knew I would. But what are you gonna do? Turns out I had a flat bread crust from Trader’s in the fridge and I was back in business just like that. If you would like to make a tart instead, the original recipe can be found here. But if you’d like to make the Porky D. hacked version, step right this way.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Crisp pancetta (or bacon) in a pan over medium high heat. Remove slices and drain on paper towels, crumble once the bacon has cooled; reserve 1 tablespoon bacon drippings. Slice onions into thin rounds, using a mandolin slicer or a nice sharp knife. In a large bowl whisk together honey, wine and reserved bacon drippings, add onions and toss to coat. Prepare a large non-stick cookie sheet with a spray of olive or vegetable oil (you will want to use an older cookie sheet for this project. It’s been a week and I am still trying to scrape burnt honey off of mine, so be forewarned).

Pour onions and their marinade onto sheet, arranging them into one layer. Bake 30 minutes; remove pan from oven and flip onion slices as best you can onto their other side. Bake an additional 30 minutes, checking in on them every once in a while to stir them up and pull them away from the corners of the pan, because the corners and the furthest outer lying onions will start to burn.

This is because the wine burns off and the honey, well, the honey just starts to burn, so pay close attention in the second 30 minutes of roasting. I don’t want to discourage you against trying this method, but just due to the nature of ingredients you will have some disintegrated onions and a very crusty pan when all is said and done. Just want you to know what you’re in for. Remove pan from oven and let cool a few minutes before sliding the onions off onto a plate or a Tupperware. Once the onions are roasted and cooled you can store them until you’re ready to prepare your flat bread. I made them the day before.

Preheat oven to 425. Lightly brush surface and crust of flatbread with olive oil, salt and pepper the crust. Mix ricotta (or crème fraiche, if using) with nutmeg and spread on surface of the flat bread, top with both cheeses, onions, crumbled bacon and thyme. Bake for 8-10 minutes until crust is crispy and cheese is bubbling. Slice into small pieces for an easy appetizer or serve with a salad for a full meal.

what? chocolate's an antioxidant!

2011-01-28T10:31:00.005-05:00

Is it rude of me to tell you about this cake right as your January health goals are catching steam? Just as you’re hitting the gym more and contemplating that maybe celery isn’t that bad after all? Maybe. But I’m a strong believer that certain foods feed the parts of us that aren’t concerned with antioxidants, saturated fat content or dietary fiber. The foods that not only tickle our taste buds but nourish our hearts: this is one of those foods. You’re going to want to go out on several intimate dates with it, and then immediately introduce it to your extended family. It’s a keeper.

It’s also ludicrously simple. And you know I wouldn’t ever say that about a baked good unless I really meant it and had done the research. I made this cake twice in a two day period and on the second go round, I barely even had to glace at the directions. It has but five ingredients, dirties only one bowl and tastes like it ought to be served at the Ritz. You don’t even need a mixer. I used a FORK! See what I’m talking about? Cancel your match.com subscription, this is the One.

The recipe author tells a very sweet, heartfelt story in her book about how this cake got its name and how, eventually, this was the cake she made (herself!) and served at her wedding. The story is wonderful, but for me, it was the practice of putting this cake together that sold me. Normally I make a cake or a cookie recipe once, 50% of the time it’s decent and the other 50% it’s a total dud (hi, liquid pie much?) and then I never make it again. Not sure if you missed it above, but I made this TWICE in two days. It’s a big winner.

WINNING HEARTS and MINDS CAKE
From My Homemade Life, by Molly Wizenburg*

7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 ¾ sticks unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch cubes
1 cup plus 2 tbs. granulated sugar
5 large eggs
1 tbs. unbleached all-purpose flour

Optional: lightly sweetened whipped cream, for serving

*Seriously, who else? Honestly at this point she might have to get a restraining order against me.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and butter an 8 inch round cake pan. Line the bottom of the pan with a circle of parchment paper, and butter the paper as well. To cut the circle, simply trace your pan with a pen on the parchment and cut just slightly inside your drawn circle with scissors, trimming if necessary.

Place the chocolate and butter in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high 30 seconds at a time, stirring often to distribute the heat until just smooth. (I think, if I remember correctly, I went through about 4 or 5 30-second cycles, stirring in between each one thoroughly). When the mixture is smooth, add the sugar, stirring well to incorporate. Set the batter aside to cool for five minutes, then add the eggs one by one, stirring completely after each addition. Add the flour and stir to mix well, the batter should be smooth and silky. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the top is slightly cracked and the edges are puffed. About 25 minutes in a normal oven; however in mine it took almost 35. It’s done when the center jiggles only slightly, if at all when you give the pan a little shake.

Remove the cake to a cooling rack and let cool for 15 minutes. Carefully turn the cake out of the pan onto a plate, then placing your fingers between as a brace between, so as not to smoosh the cake in transit, place your serving plate, face down on top and then invert the plates so that the serving plate is on bottom and the cake appears now, face up on your serving plate. Dust with confectioner's sugar, like I have here; serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream or ice cream (on Christmas I served it with peppermint stick) OR eat it as I do with a tiny sprinkle of sea salt on top. Salty+Sweet=4eva. True love conquers all.

far east coast

2011-01-20T12:29:00.004-05:00

I love me some Asian food. Pretty much from any far reaching corner of the great continent. Indian? Ooooh, Namaste. Thai? Yes please! Japanese? Domo Arogato, Mr. Roboto. “Chinese” accompanied with drinks wrapped in plastic leis and garnished with crepe paper dolphins? Holla! Before my taste buds ripened to adult capacity I was pretty picky, but these days if I’m dining out or taking food home, I’m usually sopping up saag with a little naan or firing down some Thai basil Drunken Noodles. If my dad and I go out for dinner our default choice is to warm our blood streams with sake as we make jokes over a gorgeous platter of sushi.

I love how dishes are sometimes called the most ridiculous thing like Good Luck Fun Beef and Super Golden Chicken. Life would be better if we described everything like a Thai food menu. “Hey how was your day?” “Meh. It was strange sounding chicken, but there’s always tomorrow for it to be #1 good luck.” At my favorite Thai joint they have a chicken dish called “XTREME!” (capitalization and exclamation point theirs). All I can think of is Harold and Kumar when I see that and it makes me smile every time. I haven’t tried the dish, but I’m sure it’s totally extreme.

The problem with me is that I can’t just go out to eat and be done with it. I need to learn how to make the food myself. It’s an annoying habit, but it’s just the way I am. My mom has always made really great stir-frys. Stirfrys? Stirfries? Whatever. She has the touch and she usually does her best work with a little help from a jarred or bottled sauce. LaChoy brought the Far East to our Massachusetts kitchen long ago and in recent years a Taste of Thai or Annie Chun’s (I think that’s her name) sauces have put the finishing touches on a big skillet filled with veggies, and beef or chicken. There is nothing. I repeat NOTHING wrong with getting your stir fry on with a good bottled sauce. I mean really, I don’t advocate food snobbery on here and I certainly don’t advocate going out and buying 17 random ingredients from the Asian market just to try and make a stir fry you’re going to eat one night for dinner. But I wondered if I could do it without the premade sauce.

My reasoning for reaching outside the bottle was three fold: (1) I hate waste. And whenever I buy a bottle of a stir fry sauce I use a quarter of it and then it languishes inside my refrigerator door for the next 3 years until I finally get grossed out enough by its presence to throw it out; (2) these sauces are expensive. They’re like, $5.00 a bottle and you can really only use it for a single purpose! and (3) they have a lot of sodium and/or corn syrup in them. Why do you think they taste tangy, salty and delicious? So, was there a simple way to get some kickin’ ethnic flavors into my decidedly American kitchen? There was and I’m here to share with you.

You may have to seek out a couple of these ingredients, so be forewarned. However, most are condiments that keep, in the cupboard or the fridge for a long, long time. AND, they can be used in many other dishes, so they aren’t single purpose solutions. I had everything except for ginger already at my house. All I had to buy was the tofu and the veggies and it was Stir Fry Central. If you need to purchase these things, I found everything I used here at the regular grocery store (in the Asian food aisle) or Trader Joes (they have the cheapest soy sauce and sesame oil). Also, when I told my sister I had sesame seeds stocked in my kitchen she was like “wow, fancy.” and then I told her where I got them: Target. Yup. They have sesame seeds there.

So yes, this is a tofu stir fry. I know that people hate all up on tofu and I’m not going to lie and say that it’s everyone’s cup of tea. I myself have mocked this humble soy product. And I myself have eaten some pretty crappy tofu in my life. Tofu needs a little bit of TLC to taste good, but if you adhere to a few simple rules, it can taste delicious. It’s very healthy and performs like a little flavor sponge soaking up whatever you’re cooking it in and taking on its flavor completely. If you were looking to try your hand at cooking tofu, the method I outline here might change some of your presumptions. BUT if you’re unconvinced, the recipe would work perfectly using only vegetables; or using chicken or even lean beef. Whatever tickles your fancy. If you are cooking with chicken or beef, make sure they are cut into small pieces and cook the protein in the pan first, then take it out and tent some foil over it while you fry up the veggies, when you’re ready to add the sauce, add your protein back to the pan and stir everything together.

TOFU and VEGGIE STIR FRY

Vegetable or canola oil (about 2 tbs.)
One small ginger root, peeled and minced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
About 2 tbs. sesame seeds (optional)
½ cup salted, roasted peanuts, chopped (optional)
2-3 tablespoons rice vinegar
3-4 tablespoons soy sauce
1-2 tsp. sesame oil
1-2 tsp. honey
Pinch sugar (if needed)

One package extra firm tofu, pressed and marinated
Snow peas (about 1 ½ cups)
One red bell pepper, sliced or chopped
One medium onion, sliced into strips or chopped
Cremini or button mushrooms, cleaned and chopped (about 1-2 cups)
2-3 scallions, chopped

I know that this looks like a lot already, but once your initial prep is done, this dish comes together in minutes. The first thing you will need to do is press your tofu to remove some of the moisture. Remove it from its packaging, discard the water and place on a plate with a big enough lip to hold some fluid in. Place tofu on the plate and stack a few other kitchen plates on top. Let sit for at least 15 minutes. When it’s done you can discard any water that has purged and marinate the tofu for a bit. For my marinade, I cut the tofu into chunks and placed it in a Tupperware with a few generous shakes of soy sauce, a small drizzle of sesame oil and 2 or 3 cloves of garlic. Then I let it hang in my fridge, turning every once in a while, until I was ready to cook.

If you are serving this dish over rice, check how long your rice takes and if it takes 40 minutes, like mine, start the rice first. Then, clean and chop all of your vegetables and set them aside. Prepare the ingredients for your sauce; solids first. Peel ginger with a regular vegetable peeled and mince it as you would garlic, just not as small. Set aside, alongside the garlic, sesame seeds, peanuts and chopped scallions. Remove tofu from the fridge and set a stir fry pan or non stick skillet over medium high heat with vegetable or canola oil in it. Heat oven to 375.

When the skillet is good and hot add the tofu with some, but not all of its marinating liquid. Let tofu brown on each side a bit. When it’s browned, remove it from the skillet onto a cookie sheet and place it in the oven. While you cook the rest of your stir fry, the tofu will continue to crisp up a bit in the oven. If necessary, add a touch more oil to the pan. Cook onions and peppers first, stirring frequently, add mushrooms and sauté an additional few minutes, until the mushrooms have wilted a bit and purged a little of their liquid. Another few minutes.

Add the ginger, garlic and scallions, stirring together for a minute, then add the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar and honey. If you’d like, you can stir the liquid ingredients of your sauce together in a small bowl prior to adding it to the skillet, but it’s not necessary. Now, stir in the snow peas and take the tofu out of the oven and add it back to the pan. Taste test one of your vegetables to see if you like the balance of the sauce. If necessary add a little more soy (for salt), vinegar (for tang) or honey (for sweetness). Add peanuts and sesame seeds and serve immediately over brown or white rice.

chipotle, chicken, chilly

2011-01-13T13:04:00.004-05:00

So, it snowed here. Like, a lot. And I got a real, live snow day just like back when I was young. So what did I do with this gift of time off? Did damage in the kitchen, of course. Oh, I also shoveled wet, heavy snow like a mofo and also braved the snowpocalypse to go get a manicure. Because apparently, although the whole Commonwealth was in a state of emergency the only people required to report to work yesterday were emergency medical personnel and the lady who does nails at Nails & Spa on Gallivan Boulevard in Dorchester. Don’t worry we tipped her like a million dollars (or ten) for risking her life to provide vital cuticle care in this time of inclement weather.

So what else did I do besides exploiting the one poor soul who had to work yesterday? I made chili. A white bean and chicken chili to be exact. I’ve had thoughts about this kind of chili for a long time now and I figured what better time than a snowstorm to turn the idea into a reality. The kind of reality I can eat garnished with shredded cheese and pickled jalapenos while I wear sweatpants all day long. Yee haw.

I have to confess I’m normally “just not that into” chili. The regular red kind with the kidney beans and hamburg and all that. In fact, even the black bean chili I made on here before, I really wasn’t head over heels for. I think I like chili in as much as I like the melted cheese which garnishes it and then as for the rest of the cup, I could take it or leave it. BUT, I love white beans and I love chicken, so I had a feeling if there ever was any kind of chili that I would feel a little more smitten with, it would be this kind.

CHIPOTLE CHICKEN CHILI with PICKLED JALAPENOS

For the chili:

White beans*, either two 16 ounce cans or one bag of dried beans, cooked through
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs or comparable amount of ground chicken
Olive oil
One large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
Approx. 2 tbs. (or more) ground cumin
Approx. 2 tbs. (or more) ground coriander
1 can corn kernels, drained
32 ounce container chicken stock, or comparable amount of homemade stock
2 tbs. chipotle paste**
Salt, pepper

For the pickled jalapenos:

One small, clean glass jar
2 jalapenos, seeded or not, sliced into thin rounds
½ cup apple cider vinegar
½ cup water
1 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
Few pieces of lemon peel
Peppercorns (I used pink)

*I cooked dried white beans for this recipe. Which took up about 4 hours of time. If you’ve got the time, they are less salty than canned beans and cheaper (as if that’s even possible) to boot. Rather than soaking them overnight, because I am truly terrible at planning ahead, I covered them with cold water and brought them to a boil, then turned the burner off and let them soak for an hour. Then I drained and rinsed them, returned them to the pot and covered them again with cold water, brought them to a boil and then turned the heat to a simmer for about 2-3 hours. I then let them just hang on low until I was ready to add them to my chili. The extra time on low allowed them to get creamy and delicious and I think really added to the chili. BUT, if you’re not trynta hear this method because you don’t have a spare four hours to chill at your house, just buy two cans of white beans a/k/a Great Northern Beans a/k/a Cannellini beans, I don’t know why they have more aliases than Puff Daddy, they just do.

**Chipotle peppers in adobo can be found at most specialty grocery stores. They are not easy to find at say, Stop and Shop, but they do have them in the ethnic aisle at Whole Foods. Take the whole can and puree it in your blender or cuisinart and voila, chipotle puree. After using, you can store the paste in your freezer. I have already gotten two uses out of one can of pureed peppers, so saving it is really worthwhile. Especially since the first time I bought it I had to go to two or three stores before I found it. I dislike high maintenance ingredients. So once you have some, preserve it and use it again, it doesn’t lose any of its punch by being frozen and defrosted.

Okay, back to the recipe: originally, I bought the jalapenos to maybe add to the chili itself and then come yesterday morning as I eyed them on my kitchen counter I thought I might be pushing it with too much heat. I like spice but I don’t like atomic. I did want to use them though, so I figured I would take a chance on seeing if my quick pickle recipe would work on them. These are completely optional, as the chili can stand on its own, or you could use a more traditional garnish like some crunched up tortilla chips or say some chopped avocado and a dollop of sour cream.

If you want to make pickled jalapenos but you don’t want them to be super spicy, you could scrape out about half the seeds from the middle of the peppers before slicing your rounds. I did not and they are intensely spicy, but delicious all the same. I made these in the morning, and by dinner time when my chili was done, they were pretty pickle-y tasting but still had a nice crunch.

Combine vinegar, water, salt sugar and lemon peel in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil and let boil to dissolve sugar and salt. This happens quickly, so stay nearby. Once dissolved, remove the pan from heat and let cool slightly. Meanwhile, slice your jalapenos, discarding the stem end of each pepper and keeping all, or only half of the seeds with the peppers. Remember to take caution when cutting hot peppers. Maybe use gloves and make sure you wash your hands thoroughly afterwards and don’t touch your eyes (or your genitals- like if you go to the bathroom, sickos- true story, happened to someone I know) after cutting and handling hot peppers. How did I end up here at genitals? Okay moving on. Place your sliced peppers in a jar and pour the vinegar mixture over to cover. Add peppercorns and clamp the lid on. Let sit at room temperature, or refrigerate. I think these should keep in the fridge for at least a week or two.

On to the main event. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add onion and sauté for about 8-10 minutes. Then push the onion over to one side and add your chicken. I used thighs, because I love how they are inexpensive and don’t tend to dry out or get stringy. You could certainly use ground chicken, or skip the chicken altogether, use vegetable stock and make this a vegetarian chili. If using thighs, while your onions are cooking, coarsely chop them into bite sized chunks and then salt and pepper generously. Add chicken to pot, stirring occasionally, browning on all sides. Don’t fret about cooking the chicken through at this point, it will have plenty of time to cook once you add the remainder of your ingredients.

At this point, you can add the garlic, cumin, coriander and some salt and pepper. As for the amounts on the spices, I would venture to guess I used about 2 heaping tablespoons of both the cumin and coriander. I used my palm, so exact measurements I’m not sure. So, uh, a palm full of each. And then a dash more after a taste test, stir everything together then add the beans, stock, corn and chipotle paste. Let the whole mixture come to a light boil and then turn the heat down to medium or medium low and let it hang out for a while. You could probably serve it immediately; I let mine simmer for about 40 minutes, before turning it down just to low until I was ready to eat it.

Serve with a sprinkle of shredded cheese and a couple pickled jalapenos. I can’t wait to find out what it tastes like today. Last night it was really good, but you know all soup and soup like things get better after a day or two in the fridge.

For a more hands off version of this recipe, I’m pretty sure you could make the whole shebang in your Crock Pot. I’m not sure what the setting or the time would be but take a look around the internet and see. If you find a chili recipe for the slow cooker, just use their suggestions. If I were making this in my Crock I would brown the chicken and onions first to add that extra layer of flavor, and then put everything into the bowl of my cooker and let it work its magic while I was at work or out sledding or something.

hear me out

2011-01-05T10:24:00.003-05:00

Oh maaaan, Jess, lentil soup aggaaaaain? Hear me out. Your only other options right now are Egg Nog Bread Pudding, Chocolate Cake or Homemade Peanut Butter Cups, as these are the other recipes I’ve got in the queue. Is that what you want the first week of January? Is it? Huh?? I didn’t think so. Now I don’t believe you need a New Year’s Resolution to make a change in your life, but I do believe that by this time of year our collective glycemic indexes are crying uncle and the sweet tooth is ready to take a well earned week off. Whether you start the year off resolving to change your diet or not, it is the perfect week to add something truly healthy to your arsenal, is it not? This recipe is easy, healthy and cheap. You cannot beat this combination right now. All December long our schedules and mouths are packed full and our wallets are drained and emptied; it’s time to reverse the cycle.

This soup is indeed very healthy but yet…intriguing (eyebrows raise), thanks to the earthiness of pungent curry and the slight tang of lemon. It’s a thick and hearty soup that will stick to your ribs like a bowl of mashed potatoes without any of the quilt of well, eating a bowl of mashed potatoes.

I know that not that long ago I crowed from the rooftops about a red lentil soup that was slightly similar so I’m sorry if I’m boring you. But right now it’s January, it’s freezing (if you live near me) and it’s time to fight back against the deluge of sweets and cheese plates that assaulted us from November until now. I have to tell you I have made this soup twice in the past month or so and the first time I licked the bowl. Seriously. Don’t worry I was at my house by myself so it wasn’t awkward for anyone else.

This recipe is from my favorite girl crush of all time, Molly Wizenburg. I have read every blog entry she has ever posted, laughed and cried over her cookbook/memoir, A Homemade Life and every month, when my Bon Appétit arrives in the mailbox, I turn straight to her column to see what she’s cooked up there. I’m a little obsessed. It’s almost creepy at this point, but just to be clear, when Molly says this lentil soup is good, I know with complete confidence that she would not lead me astray. I can trust her, which is more than I can say for a lot of recipes that fly around out there. Additionally, when I read her article in last month’s Bon Appétit where she wrote about this soup I was fascinated by the addition of a chickpea puree, essentially almost a hummus, as the thickening agent. I don’t know if you know about us and hummus but it’s like currency at our house. If we’re out we flounder in front of the fridge lost and confused. It’s a staple to put it lightly (right now we have two party sized tubs I anticipate will last until probably Saturday) We HEART chickpeas. So as you can gather the opportunity to try out a lentil soup with chickpea puree was something that simply had to happen. And we weren’t disappointed in the least.

CURRIED LENTIL SOUP
(from Bon Appétit)

Olive oil
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 small or ½ large onion, diced
2 large cloves garlic, minced, divided
1 cup French lentils*
2 tablespoons (or more)** Curry Powder
4 cups water
1 can chickpeas
1-2 tbs. lemon juice
2 tbs. butter

Optional garnish:

Chopped scallions
Lemon wedges

*French lentils are dark green and can be found in the bulk bean section of most grocery stores. And don’t worry even though they sound fancy, they’re not expensive. I bought a container for I think $2.77 and was able to make two pots of this soup out of ‘em.

**I’m a bit of a spice slut, so I used way more. It was delicious but my house smelled like a Mumbai taxi cab for four days, so be forewarned.

Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a large stock pot or Dutch oven. Add carrot and onion and sauté for a few minutes until softened. Add half of the garlic and sauté another minute. Sprinkle in curry powder and stir everything together until fragrant (about another minute) add water and bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and let cook until lentils are tender (about 25-30 minutes).

While the lentils cook, get out your trusty food processor and make your chickpea paste. Drain and rinse one can of chickpeas and then dump them in your Cuis’, drizzle a little olive oil (about 1-2 tbs.), lemon juice and the remainder of your chopped garlic. Puree until it looks a bit like hummus. Check your lentils for tenderness, if they are ready, simply add the chickpea puree and the butter to the pot and stir everything together to combine. Serve garnished with chopped scallions and a wedge of lemon for squeezing over, if you wish.

thinspiration?

2011-01-04T09:19:00.003-05:00

Tis the time of year when I'm feeling slightly more, uh, porky than usual. I recently came across an amazing blog called Bodies in Motivation, where women of all shapes and sizes share stories about successful (or not) weight loss, work outs and just general stories, plans and gripes about how they plan on getting healthy. Because really, that is so much more what it's about, right? It is not solely about a number on a scale or a waist band size, it's about feeling good and having energy. Paying attention and being honest. I love, loved this website. It made me want to go workout like, really bad. And that's saying a lot, because while I do like to be active, I embrace sloth sometimes as well.

So I wrote them some fan mail and said that I would be really honored to share some of my stories on there. And they wrote me back! Like, within an hour. How nice is that? So, I apologize for not having a recipe handy. Well, that's a lie, I do, but it's egg nog bread pudding and that's just not the type of thing we're trying to nosh on this week I'm thinking (although it is delicious). So I'm just here to provide the link to my story. My success story. The first week in January is a good a time as any to remind myself that my body is not a garbage dump, but a temple and I should feed it accordingly. I don't believe in resolutions, I believe in trying your hardest to make the best choices possible and being honest with yourself about what your eating (even if it's Chinese food chicken wings). Hope you enjoy. I loved writing it. Please feel free to laugh with me at my "before" photo. It's pretty amazingly hilarious.

Click HERE to read my story.

poms poms and punch for everyone!

2010-12-23T11:31:00.004-05:00

I made pom poms until my fingers bled. I ended up with a festive wreath that looks as though it would be the de facto shag carpet in the Claus Family rumpus room.

I think it was worth it, yeah? Wreath inspiration found here (one of my faves). Oh! Also this wreath I made in November, inspired by the same post. I also made another one as a gift:

I'm not shitting you when I tell you that the above wreath was downright EASY to make. I made another one for a Christmas gift. I wouldn't lie about this sort of thing.

THIS PUNCH should come with a warning label.

It's full blown party time with a decorative ice mold thrown in for good measure. If a frosty punch bowl doesn't say "Good Times", then I don't know what does.

This concoction is Liquid Christmas Cheer, Loud Mouth Soup in it's finest form. One of our party members fell down the stairs with merriment. I think I pulled a muscle laughing. I won't name names.

THIS CAKE had more rave 5 star reviews than I have ever seen on All Recipes for one single baked good.

It was worth the hype. Although I did double all the spices as most of the gals suggested. I made this cake last Saturday and wrapped it tightly in Saran wrap, removing it and frosting it last night for our gift grab showdown.

It was still moist, delicious and flavorful. That recipe is one for the record books. So easy.

I hope your holiday is filled with lots of merriment (watch those stairs, they can sneak right up on you), excellent food and good company! Have fun, be safe and have a Merry Christmas!

xoxo,
jess

aunt jess' cranberry moonshine

2010-12-22T08:50:00.003-05:00

So a few weeks back I prepared some cranberry liqueur which I mentioned in passing. I also wrote about it here. And now, a few short weeks later, it's done. I have, actually already packaged up and given it as hostess gifts to two of my girlfriends.

This cranberry liqueur (god I hate that word) is seriously simple to throw together. The whole process took me about 30 minutes. Then it sat and steeped in jars on the floor of my pantry, until it was good and liquored up.

At that point I took it out and strained it twice (although you will only have to strain yours once if you use a fine mesh strainer the first time) and poured it into some cute salad dressing bottles I found at Homegoods.

I won't lie, the whole process of making and food processing a simple syrup and then straining and pouring the liqueur is a little sticky, but well worth it. The resulting hooch is sweet and tart and completely amazingly delicious when drizzled into a glass of chilled prosecco.

To complete this hostess gift, I simply tied a little label on the cranberry liqueur and gifted it with a bottle of bubbles. And then I made my hostesses open it up and pour me one. I have one left, which I will give my cousin, Jenny, who's hosting Christmas Eve.

This whole project cost me nothing, because I had on hand vodka, lemon zest, OJ and I got the bag of cranberries free. All I needed was a tiny bit of foresight to start the process a few weeks in advance and then had to pickup the bottles ($2.50 each). It's easy, it's cheap, it's cute and the brilliant red color makes it a super festive holiday gift. Trust me, you'll go Lansbury for this Cransberry (serious watch this. So amazing!). Cheers!