Thursday, January 7, 2010
Vegetable Lasagna
My second attempt. Remember how proud I was of parboiling the noodles last time? This time I put them in raw, at the suggestion of many friends, and of course it's just as good. So that's lasagna one crucial step easier.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Two Years Old
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Merry Christmas!
The pictured quiche was last night's dinner, and contained brussels sprouts and mushrooms sauteed in country ham fat.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
Prosciutto
Country ham prosciutto, from Benton's in Tennessee. I wrapped it around pear slices and it was delicious. We also had baked sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli with anchovy butter (I had anchovy butter, anyway; the spouse declined. His loss.)
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Fried Chicken
Ok, this was more like it. Brown rice, roasted cauliflower and shiitakes, with pan-fried chicken thighs and an impromptu sauce of rosemary and garlic in a pan de-glazed with Lillet blanc. Yowza, it was good.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Flounder
with brown rice and roasted brussells sprouts. Should have been tasty; was actually kind of yuck.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Zero Maria Cornejo
Friday, December 11, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Roasted Vegetables
Cauliflower, carrots, and shiitakes. With bacon (yum) and quinoa (overcooked, yuck).
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Steelhead Trout
I don't normally buy farmed fish, but man, I was beat yesterday and in the mood for something good and easy, which grilled fish is. So I did it. And served it with brown rice and swiss chard.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Spelt
These things are always subject to change, but I think my current favorite flour is spelt. I confirmed this with a double batch of Nigella Lawson's banana bread (in How to be a Domestic Goddess) the recipe for which I followed to the letter except for subbing in a mix of 75% spelt and 25% quinoa flours.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Gingerbread
In fact a fair bit of cooking has taken place here recently, but nothing particularly worth blogging (except, maybe, the chocolate-chip and dried cherry cookies, the banana bread, and the pumpkin cake; they were pretty good). Today I made gingerbread, something I always forget I really, really like. This batch turned out extra good, despite some unpromising turns during the baking. My "recipe" is based on the recipe for "Damp Gingerbread" you'll find in More Home Cooking, Laurie Colwin's second volume of food essays. Here's what I used:
1 jar Lyle's Golden Syrup, melted together with 1/2 C coconut oil
1 1/2 C whole wheat flour
1/2 C coconut flour
1 T ground ginger
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t cloves
1 3/4 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 egg
1 C milk (warmed on the stove, with 1 T vinegar whisked in for ersatz buttermilk)
I mixed it all up and baked at 350 for 55 minutes. It's highly spicy and good; I expect it to be better in days to come as the spices bloom.
1 jar Lyle's Golden Syrup, melted together with 1/2 C coconut oil
1 1/2 C whole wheat flour
1/2 C coconut flour
1 T ground ginger
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t cloves
1 3/4 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 egg
1 C milk (warmed on the stove, with 1 T vinegar whisked in for ersatz buttermilk)
I mixed it all up and baked at 350 for 55 minutes. It's highly spicy and good; I expect it to be better in days to come as the spices bloom.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Goop Gnocchi
Pursuant to my last post I took Gwyneth's gnocchi recipe for a spin, substituting mashed hubbard squash and whole wheat flour where appropriate. I think they turned out all right; I ate them happily. Since I have only a little gnocchi-eating experience and none at all making it, it's hard to judge. But they were tasty. However, they also reminded me why I don't customarily do things like hand-make gnocchi; long about the time the third batch was simmering I found myself weary, and wondering if the little doughy meal in which it culminated was really worth the hour or so of prep (not counting roasting the squash and boiling the potatoes) required.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Goop.com
Ahem. I have something to say. This is not easy for me, but it's time to be honest with y'all:
I read Gwyneth Paltrow's blog "Goop" every week.
Sometimes it's maddening (she recommends experiencing the "beachy, seventies vibe" of Los Angeles by staying in the bungalows at the Bel Air hotel; trust me, you don't want to know how much that costs). Sometimes it's tiresome (did you know she has super-famous friends? You will if you read the blog, because she says so over and over). Sometimes it's eye-rolling (if you want to know Deepak Chopra's thoughts on personal growth or Gwyneth's tips on raising perfect children, goop's your site.)
And yet! Sometimes the recipes are delicious. I like seeing Gwyneth's wardrobe recommendations because I think she always looks really good, and I don't care at all if she can spend more on clothes than I can. Mostly, I dunno, I kind of identify: she's a mom, she has a career, she has a blog. I can barely tell us apart!
So there it is. Now I'm going to go re-read this weeks recipe for gnocchi and make a grocery list.
I read Gwyneth Paltrow's blog "Goop" every week.
Sometimes it's maddening (she recommends experiencing the "beachy, seventies vibe" of Los Angeles by staying in the bungalows at the Bel Air hotel; trust me, you don't want to know how much that costs). Sometimes it's tiresome (did you know she has super-famous friends? You will if you read the blog, because she says so over and over). Sometimes it's eye-rolling (if you want to know Deepak Chopra's thoughts on personal growth or Gwyneth's tips on raising perfect children, goop's your site.)
And yet! Sometimes the recipes are delicious. I like seeing Gwyneth's wardrobe recommendations because I think she always looks really good, and I don't care at all if she can spend more on clothes than I can. Mostly, I dunno, I kind of identify: she's a mom, she has a career, she has a blog. I can barely tell us apart!
So there it is. Now I'm going to go re-read this weeks recipe for gnocchi and make a grocery list.
Squash City
We had roasted butternut and delicata squash, with shiitakes, sage, and garlic. On the side a salad, and cornbread (with which I stuffed my face).
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Ancient Grain Penne
the grains in question being, I think, spelt, quinoa, and...amaranth? In any case, we had it with broccoli, sauteed shiitakes, and garlic. It was great.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Fridge-Clearing Soup
one onion
leftover pork butt
1 lb. lentils
four turnips
two red peppers
four carrots
a huge bunch of collard greens
diced ginger
I simmered everything for an hour or so, and served it for dinner with cornbread (made with cornmeal, teff flour, and a generous helping of Italian butter).
Yesterday I made the pictured Nantucket Cranberry "Pie." The recipe is from Laurie Colwin's second volume of essays from Gourmet, More Home Cooking. She accurately says that it's really a cake, except that the one I made is really more of a cobbler: rich biscuit over chopped cranberries and nuts. I hadn't intended it to be that way, but I used kamut flour which absorbs a great deal more moisture than white, and hence produced a thick batter that didn't suck the berries up into itself the way it usually does. It's delicious anyway.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Moebius Knitting
PS: I don't know why photos uploaded to blogger look low-res; they certainly aren't on my computer.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Bowl O' Butt
Pork butt, that is, leftover from a roast my mother made a few days ago. I shredded and reheated it with sauteed fennel and shiitake mushrooms; we had it with barley. Green salad afterward.
Monday, November 2, 2009
A Sweater for the Spouse
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Roasted Butternut Squash with Sage and Shiitakes
and for once I didn't over-roast it. I can't tell you how delicious it was; sweet and sticky and savory and oily. We had it with sauteed bok choy, and scrambled eggs.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Hello Kitty Waffles
Fried Chicken
with roasted brussels sprouts and brown rice. This turned, the next night, into a soup of chicken, white beans, squash, tomatoes, and peanut butter, heavily perfumed with ginger. Mmmm.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Ribs and Rice
This never disappoints; I put together barbecued rib meat with leftover brown rice and whatever vegetable is to hand; we're having it again tonight because it can't be beat for ease and deliciousness.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Clam Chowder
Courtesy of Boston's Legal Seafood, via a good friend. Totally delicious; we had it with sauteed red peppers and fennel, and buttered sourdough toast.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Lamb
Those sort of steak-looking leg pieces; with brown rice and roasted cauliflower. On Saturday I made another chocolate-beet cake (from the Hot and Hot Fish Club cookbook) and this time I went whole hog tweaking it: lots more beets, whole wheat flour, 1 C instead of 1 and 3/4 C sugar, coconut oil instead of butter. Still delicious.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Field Peas
with sauteed escarole and bacon, with roasted yellow fingerling potatoes. I ate myself stupid on the latter.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Costello Tagliapietra
Boys, send me this dress. I will never, and I mean never, take it off.On a related note, it is so interesting to read reviews of fashion shows one can only see online. It's clear that the difference between clothes in life and clothes in pictures is important; people who actually see them have such different reactions from mine, and the year that Viktor and Rolf made their show available as a Quicktime film was a real revelation to me. This year, the Lanvin show is getting worshipful reviews. I always love Lanvin, so I'm down with it, but I don't see the kind of paradigm-shifitng influence people who actually saw it describe. Partly, of course, I don't know fashion like the experts, but a lot of it, I think, is that clothes really have to be seen in person to be appreciated. Maybe they have to be worn to be appreciated.
Which reminds me: C/P! Send me that orange dress right now!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Pesto Meatballs
with yellow wax beans, and whole wheat penne with parmesan and butter. Noodles with parmesan and butter is one of my favorite things to eat; there were times in graduate school when it's more or less all I did eat.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Apple-Pear Tart
We had pizza for dinner, tart for dessert. It was a very simple affair: I rolled out the pie crust left over from the pumpkin pie into a tart pan, and threw in three peeled and sliced pears, and one peeled and sliced Fuji apple, all the fruit seasoned with a little lemon juice and sugar. (In retrospect I'd add a pinch of salt, too.) I baked the whole thing at 400 degrees for 35 minutes, and it was really delicious.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Rodarte
Someone seriously needs to explain the continued existence of Rodarte to me. I don't mean artistically; I loved the first show of theirs I ever saw and I only get hungier for more, season after season. But honest to Pete: they make clothes that cost thousands of dollars, that require endless complex handwork to make, that can only be worn to formal events of the most fashion-forward kind. Who is funding all of this?
Rochas
It's fashion week in Paris! My heart is singing. Rochas, once the home of supernova Olivier Theyskens, has a new designer and this is his first runway showing. I loved it—it's full of gorgeous color and shiny fabric and flattering silhouettes I'd wear tomorrow if I could; in all it pleases the "make me look pretty!" part of my brain the way Comme des Garcons satisfies the "make me look brave and interesting!" part. I also notice that if there is one runway trend that dominated in all four fashion week cities (NY, London, Milan, and looks to be Paris too), it's socks with everything.
West African Okra Stew
Found a recipe on the internet and followed it loosely. The stew involved:
6 chicken thighs
1 can of tomatoes
a whole lotta okra
one small pumpkin
one onion
four cloves of garlic
one half cup peanut butter
chicken stock
tomato paste
cilantro
We had it over rice, and it was delicious.
6 chicken thighs
1 can of tomatoes
a whole lotta okra
one small pumpkin
one onion
four cloves of garlic
one half cup peanut butter
chicken stock
tomato paste
cilantro
We had it over rice, and it was delicious.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Comme des Garcons
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Grilled Buffalo Filet
with brown rice and roasted brussels sprouts and red peppers. Much pie for dessert.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
A Great Pumpkin Pie
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Frittata
of leftover roasted everything, leftover ribs, and leftover quinoa. It was scrumptious, as leftover-based meals tend to be, in my experience.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Duro Olowu
Roasted Everything
Delicata squash, eggplant, red onions, elephant garlic, red peppers, and shiitake mushrooms, all served over barley.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Buffalo Meatballs
made with an egg, some garlic, and lots of fresh oregano. We had them with roasted yellow potatoes and the first turnips of the fall from our CSA.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Hot n' Hot Devil's Food Cake

My favorite restaurant, Hot and Hot Fish Club, has published a cookbook. I don't actually like restaurant cookbooks, which I find to be heavy on artsy pictures of food and filled with finicky recipes involving tiny quantities of too many ingredients. This one is no exception, but it is lovely, and has already given me my new favorite chocolate cake. I understand the difference between devil's food and regular chocolate cake to be the use of cocoa, rather than baking chocolate, in the former. It makes a satisfyingly black cake with a light texture; I often find baking-chocolate cakes to be heavy and bland. The Hot 'n Hot version calls for things like homemade creme fraiche, so I admit to some free substituting, but I followed the basics of their recipe and it is delicious. It has two secret ingredients: a quarter teaspoon cardamom, which perfumes the whole thing, and shredded raw beets. You'd never guess the latter—they melt undetectably into the texture—but they make it moist and rich. A winner.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Dinner Party!
We had cheese (Irish Cashel bleu, Manchego, and something French) first. Then crab cakes with cheesy polenta and salad. I make baked polenta: you just stir for five minutes and then bake in the oven. For dessert, a cake I am very proud of: two layers of Nigella Lawson's Victoria sponge (you make the batter in the food processor! takes like five minutes) with layers of lemon curd and unsweetened whipped cream between and on top. Chopped pistachios scattered on top. Oh my goodness is it good; but then, most anything with lemon curd is out of sight. Why did I have lemon curd on hand? Because when you make an angel food cake and have a dozen egg yolks staring you in the face, lemon curd is the perfect answer.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Every Way Wrap
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Whole Wheat Penne
with broccoli rappini, elephant garlic, and leftover ribs. This was the extremely rare dinner about which the spouse was a mite less enthusiastic than I. He tactfully suggested that it would be delicious with, say, roasted cauliflower in place of the rappini. Unluckily for him, I am a rappini freak: nothing says hard-earned delicious dinner to me like a big plateful of its mouth-filling bitterness.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Broiled Salmon
with delicious greens and brown rice.
For dessert: the best dang banana bread I've ever had. I followed Nigella Lawson's recipe in How to be a Domestic Goddess, deviating only to sub in whole wheat flour. Really, this stuff is unbelievably good. The secret? Brandy-soaked raisins.
For dessert: the best dang banana bread I've ever had. I followed Nigella Lawson's recipe in How to be a Domestic Goddess, deviating only to sub in whole wheat flour. Really, this stuff is unbelievably good. The secret? Brandy-soaked raisins.
The (un)Enthusiast
Monday, September 7, 2009
Squash Pudding

My second try at squash pudding involved grating four crookneck squash and combining them with leftover brown rice, four eggs, a little cream, a little cheese, a bit of nutmeg, salt, and pepper. I baked it in a water bath for about an hour, and it was really delicious. We had it with sauteed okra. For dessert, angel food cake. I am a *fool* for angel food cake, and always have been. It's not hard to make, but it amazes me every time with its beautiful color and unique texture. I could eat a whole cake at one go, but manage not to.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
More Groundnut Stew
with a salad of some dark, succulent, crisp, small cabbage-y stuff, and a whole bunch of fresh red peppers.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Coho Salmon
with roasted purple potatoes and sauteed okra. In my opinion, the key to okra is freshness, even more so than for most vegetables. There's something about our CSA okra on the first day we get it that just can't be beat.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Red Snapper
grilled, with rappini and brown rice. Very delicious, ridiculously virtuous. Afterwards I scarfed two ice cream sandwiches, so intense was my need for fat.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
The Happening
Seriously. What happened to M. Night Shamylan? If that is how one spells it? This movie is laughably bad. Bad at every level. Badly conceived. Badly plotted. Bad to the point of embarrassing badly written. How does he keep getting terrific actors to work with him?
Friday, August 21, 2009
Meatloaf
and okra was what we had for dinner, technically speaking. However, we also had stomach flu, so after about midnight it was, let's say, a moot point.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Little Legwarmers
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Mahi
Grilled, with a salad of roasted beets, toasted walnuts, and ricotta insalata. Also some oat groats.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Meatloaf
I compounded 1 lb. ground buffalo, 2 eggs, some very old, very stale sourdough bread that I soaked in milk and mushed up, about a cup and a half of leftover rye berries, a big squeeze of ketchup, two cloves of garlic, and some salt. Baked the whole thing at 350 for...45 minutes? and served it with broccoli rappini. Will have the same meal for lunch today (cold), which is my favorite way in the world to arrange lunch.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Traveling Stitch Legwarmers
Rye Salad
Rye berries with cherry tomatoes, red peppers, scallions, ricotta insalata cheese, olive oil, salt, and pepper. We had it with sauteed okra. All of the vegetables came from our CSA and were beautiful and delicious.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Squash Pudding
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Succotash Supreme
I would have called it fish curry, but the plentiful harvest of field peas and corn that went into it probably makes the spouse's title, shown above, the right one.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Back from Vacation
I'm sorry I left without saying goodbye! On our first full night back we had: broiled salmon, oat groats, and roasted brussels sprouts.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Vegetable City
In the last two days: field peas with onions, carrots, and bacon, oats, roasted cauliflower, corn on the cob. Also some orange roughy.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Watermelon
and brownies. That's what we had for dinner, because for lunch we went to Miss Melissa's and ate like wolves from their buffet of primo southern cooking.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Fish Curry
This is the best thing we've eaten in a long time. I put together:
1/2 onion
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
ginger
garlic
curry powder
coconut milk
3 ears worth of cut corn
2 haddock filets, cut up into little pieces
juice from two lemons
salt
I served it with cut up fresh tomatoes and cilantro as garnishes, and ladled it over brown rice. Honestly, I can't remember a better meal at home, and I used up all the nagging bits of this and that vegetable matter in my fridge.
A note on coconut milk: naturally, I made mine from the coconut concentrate I buy in quantity from the same supplier (tropicaltraditions.com) from which I get my coconut oil. What, you still buy yours in cans? Don't be a chump; concentrate is the way to live.
1/2 onion
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
ginger
garlic
curry powder
coconut milk
3 ears worth of cut corn
2 haddock filets, cut up into little pieces
juice from two lemons
salt
I served it with cut up fresh tomatoes and cilantro as garnishes, and ladled it over brown rice. Honestly, I can't remember a better meal at home, and I used up all the nagging bits of this and that vegetable matter in my fridge.
A note on coconut milk: naturally, I made mine from the coconut concentrate I buy in quantity from the same supplier (tropicaltraditions.com) from which I get my coconut oil. What, you still buy yours in cans? Don't be a chump; concentrate is the way to live.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Corn Pudding
From Frank Stitt's Southern Table. I'm afraid the list of ingredients (eight ears of corn, one cup of cream, two eggs, salt, white pepper, and nutmeg) won't convey the incredible layered deliciousness of this dish. It's rich, it's sweet, it's savory. It was great even though I badly underestimated the time it would need to set in the oven and served it as more of a thickened creamed corn rather than a true pudding. I later baked it to the right consistency, and it was perfect both ways. We had it with sauteed okra and roasted red peppers.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Zucchini Gratin
from Richard Olney's Simple French Food, with fresh tomatoes. I love Olney because he is a terrific writer and his recipes always work and taste wonderful, and because he is so pleasingly strict. In the introduction to his section on zucchini he notes that "large fruit with well-formed seeds are uninteresting fare, and should on no account be considered as a substitute for small ones in the recipes that follow." I ignored this stricture, but probably wouldn't have dared if he'd said it to me in person.
I've noted here before that I don't like zucchini, and that's still true, but there are few things I don't like gratineed: add eggs, milk, and cheese and I'll eat just about anything.
I've noted here before that I don't like zucchini, and that's still true, but there are few things I don't like gratineed: add eggs, milk, and cheese and I'll eat just about anything.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
Sea Silk Sweater
Field Peas
One of the many best things about a southern summer. I poached them in chicken stock, then served them over oat groats with sauteed cabbage and onions. I also sauteed (until mahogany brown) a bunch of beautiful okra; it was a feast.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Crab Cakes
with roasted potatoes (yellow, pink, and purple) and carrots, and orange cherry tomatoes.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Omlette
with herbed ricotta, and tabouli salad. I used to have a vague idea about fresh herbs that you had to use the right ones at the right times and that it was kind of complicated. That may well be true, but having a few Aerogardens-worth to deal with has liberated me from caring; now I grab big handfuls of whatever (mint and rosemary excepted), chop them up and throw them in. This method has not yet failed me.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
NYT Beans and Rice
In a nice confluence of consumer energies I was this morning wondering what to do with the pound of tepary beans I had been soaking over night, beans I bought from ranchogordo.com because the NYT magazine told me to, when I opened this morning's NYT magazine to a recipe for Nuyorican beans and rice. For those who didn't see it, the recipe involves onions, peppers, spices, and orange juice. It was that last ingredient that got me, since I'm a sucker for citrus and had never thought of it in connection to beans. I made it, and it is sublime. We had it over brown rice, with pan-fried mahi.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Blueberry Johnnie Cakes
2C white cornmeal
1/2C quinoa flour
1t baking powder
1t baking soda
1t salt
1T sugar
1 1/2C milk
1T greek yogurt (full fat)
2 eggs
5T melted unsalted butter
2C fresh blueberries
I mixed it all up and cooked as for pancakes, then made a total pig of myself. Spouse had syrup, I had nada, delicious both ways.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Crab Cakes
with brown rice, corn on the cob, and "coleslaw." My version of that last is dicing up cabbage and dressing it with lemon juice, olive oil, and salt. If the cabbage is sweet, it's great.
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