Hot Dog!

In America, we have a holiday for everything and today is National Hot Dog Day. I'll take it. It was a wonderful excuse to buy a dirty-water dog on my way home to walk Grace today and finish off half-a-can of baked beans from Sunday night's Cowboy Chili & Baked Bean Pot. (Of course, the real canine got to share; she was beside herself with joy!) (With apologies to Julio Iglesias and Willy Nelson) To all the 'dogs I've loved before: pølse in Reykjavik, that unbelievably delicious sausage on Yawkey Way outside Fenway Park, "monkey food" (hot-dog-and-bean casserole) at my Massachusetts cousins', beer-braised brats beside the river in Milwaukee...I've had a few memorable ones in my day.

Celebrating Bastille Day

Too hot today to do the can-can, so I pulled together a big pot of ratatouille from SIMPLE FRENCH COOKING. The eggplant prep was far easier than in other recipes: slice, brush with olive oil, broil on both sides 'til brown, chop in 1" pieces. These herbes de Provence Leigh gave me a couple of Christmases ago are still fragrant and put the Provençal sunshine in the stew. Bonne fête!

Summer's Here

With the arrival of summer on Friday, one's thoughts turn toward cold soups. In my recent ritual of Sunday soup-making (preparing for lunches in the week ahead), I've made split pea, lentil, Manhattan clam chowder, tomato, and more from JOY. Today, I turned to my old NYTIMES BREAD AND SOUP COOKBOOK for a classic vichyssoise. Easy once you chop the onions, slice and clean the leeks, peel and slice the potatoes. The advantages of a cold soup on a hot day do not include the hour or so the ingredients simmer on the stovetop. In the end, the velvety texture and fresh-from-the-garden scent, with its bright confetti of chives, icy on the tongue, is well worth the effort.

Kale--too much of a good thing.

You can't buy it by the leaf or by the ounce. You've got to take a big bunch and either throw it away or wrack your brain to find a recipe to use it in. Look up "kale" in the index of older cookbooks and you won't find much; it's a veggie on an upward, farm-to-table trend. I'm not saying it's not pretty.

I'm just saying, it's a tricky ingredient. I put it in a white bean and mini ravioli soup last night and it flopped all over the spoon, spattering vegetable broth everywhere. I hate when that happens. Tonight's saute with mushrooms, a shallot, leek, and dried cranberries was much more flavorful and easier to eat, though it doesn't look like much wilted. "Wilted" is not a good food word.

What was I thinking?

It was love at first sight when I read the recipe for "Chili Mac" in the sample pages of the next edition of the Taste of Home Simple & Delicious Cookbook. Actually, my thought was, "Oh, Chuck will love this!" Any hungry guy would. Elbow macaroni, canned chili, ground beef, cheddar cheese... the only work besides twisting the can opener this required was chopping a green pepper and an onion. I'm embarrassed to say I made it, but then again, there are days when the sun never breaks through the clouds, kicked-up slush gets into your boots, and there's nothing to do buy pig out on junk food. Actually, this wouldn't make a bad stuffed pepper or baked-potato topping: up the vegetable quotient and the guilt may diminish.

This leg has legs

After a very merry meal of roast leg of lamb for Christmas (with its glaze of red currant jelly, pomegranate molasses, lemon, and more sweet-savory flavors

), we made a navarin printanier from MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING. We often have this as Le Veau d'Or, but now that we know we can make a reasonable facsimile, I think we can enjoy their delicious sole more often.

What Is It About Chicken Pot Pie?

I am absolutely obsessed with mini chicken pot pies. I could eat one every night of my life. Tonight's was delicious: cobbled together from an on-line recipe that had a puff pastry topping which I replaced with the shortcut pastry from SIMPLE FRENCH COOKING. It called for basil, salt, and pepper which I enhanced with celery salt. It must be the Chicago in me, but that celery salt made it! A mini pie is like doll food: a tiny, perfect approximation of the adult version. Eating out of this little foil pan, I feel like myself at six, sitting cross-legged in Weston, CT, with Susie Rogers, pretending that we're at a dinner party, eating out of old bowls Mom didn't mind if we broke. During this mid-life crisis of my career crashing down around me, at least there's something that gives total satisfaction.

Tasha Tudor Reigns

As if illustrating A LITTLE PRINCESS and THE SECRET GARDEN, raising corgis, and running a Vermont farm wasn't enough, Tasha Tudor also wrote a cookbook. I found it in a used bookstore in upstate NY and have fallen in love with it (see my post on her blueberry muffins in August 2011). With a few ripe pears left from a Harry & David shipment sent by my friend Judy Kessler of the publisher Creative Homeowner, I made Tudor's recipe for coffee cake this morning. Such a nice contrast between the moist cake and the crunchy, pecan-laced topping. I brought most of it to choir. Nothing gets a group of singers more excited than free, hot food.

Tomatoes in Winter

Well, it is 60º in December.... Tonight I met Miriam Rubin, author of the next book in UNC Press's delightful Savor the South(TM) series, TOMATOES. She gave me a small jar of tomato jam which I cannot wait to try tomorrow morning for breakfast on my corn muffin. Gina Mihalik, the Press's publicity manager, gave me a jar of bourbon figs from the Farmer's Daughter stand at the Carrboro Farmer's Market which will be a treat with vanilla ice cream left over from Thanksgiving as I gobble up more "Mad Men" on video. After the day I had, I almost wept with gratitude.

Brunswick Stew...Hold the Squirrel

Chuck has such good ideas for delicious Sunday night dinners. We received a catalog of Southern specialties in the mail--succulent smoked hams, juicy pulled pork, fluffy sweet potato biscuits--and among the delicacies was Brunswick stew. Even this herald of Southern tradition has eschewed the squirrel for chicken. While I could've gotten a bead on a couple of gray varmints in Carl Schurz Park this afternoon, the NYPD frowns on its citizens shooting for food.

Once upon a thyme...

"Across New York City, gardens and miniature farms--whether on rooftops or at ground level--are joining smart boards and digital darkrooms as must-have teaching tools.... The roof at P.S. 41 in Greenwich Village aims to introduce students to green technologies. The elementary school already had container gardens at ground level, but it wanted to expand on the roof. On Sept. 21, the school opened a 15,000-square foot green roof, which uses trays with four inches of soil to grow sedum, a drought-resistant perennial, as well as herbs and other native plants." -- Lisa W. Foderaro, New York Times Saturday, November 24, 2012 I am going to start a research project on herbs with an eye toward publishing am illustrated book for kids 9-12 called ONCE UPON A THYME The Magic of Herbs . First, the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary definition of herb \(h)erb\ n, often attrib [ME herbe, fr. OF, fr. I, herba] 1: a seed-producing annual, biennial, or perennial that does not develop persistent woody tissue but dies down at the end of the growing season 2: a plant or plant part valued for its medicinal, savory, or aromatic qualities Next, a short history of herbs' medicinal, savory, and aromatic qualities.... Random thoughts on how to capture kids' attention: What makes roast turkey smell so good? What gives that cool, refreshing feeling to peppermint? What's that green grass that makes your cat so frisky? Sage, mint, and catnip! What do they have in common? They're all herbs. They're just three of hundreds of herbs that flavor our food and drinks, can help us feel better when we're sick, and give off scents that affect our mood.

Life of Pi(e)

This was the year my dear, departed mother-in-law Marion saved Thanksgiving. What is the iconic meal without homemade pie? I'd picked out a new recipe for pear-cranberry pie with an oatmeal-streusel topping. Shaking my head sadly at the instruction to use a storebought pie crust, I made the "never-fail" pastry from THE TASTE OF HOME COOKBOOK. Pulling it out of the fridge after its thirty minutes of chilling, I rolled it out energetically. The rolling went fine; flipping it into the pie plate did not. With a single word unprintable here, I gathered it up to try again. Chuck said, "Stand aside. I'm going to channel my mother." He took the rolling pin and began to move it back and forth. I said, "No, no...that'll make the pastry stick." Undaunted, he kept at it with the gentlest of pressure. Marion's spirit did the trick. And the best part of Thanksgiving was preserved...pie for breakfast!

I always knew someday it would come to this

Gracie has gotten used to a homemade treat called "bonies," so her besotted owner will make them for her. Chuck and I are having white chili, so I stuffed a little extra sauteed turkey and red pepper into bleached bones which, frozen, provide hours of entertainment. Nothing's too good for our girl.

And why not?

Grace Georges Goehring met a spider who sat down beside her and bit her on the top of her head. She had a horrible allergic reaction which the vets dealt with immediately. She came home with the last remnants and we'd do anything to make her feel better.

Kitchen Patrol

Cooking by yourself, while it can be restful, is really about as depressing as a lonely setting for one at the dining room table. I enlisted Chuck's help to make the meatballs in tonight's "glorious one-pot meal--he dove in with good cheer. Turning out 50 of them was hardly the onerous duty or punishment "KP" usually brings to mind. "Glorious one-pot meals" is cooking teacher Elizabeth Yarnell's patented method of cooking meat, veggies, and grains together in a Dutch oven at high heat which leaves every ingredient whole and with all its nutrition intact. Anything I've ever made from her book has been delicious. Miraculously, rotini, beef, carrots, zucchini, and yellow pepper were each cooked to perfection in 45 minutes. So easy, even Gomer Pyle could do it!

A Bouquet in Both Senses

I wonder if a bride with a passion for cooking has ever put basil in her bouquet? I know there is a language of flowers; is there a language of herbs? Basil's probably better as an accent; you don't want your guests, not to mention your intended, to be thinking about food when they should be marveling at your dewy beauty. I'm re-launching "52 New Foods" as "Dancing With the Whisks" which doesn't limit me to writing about unusual/new ingredients (not that it has 'til now). Whatever fun I get up to in the kitchen is now fodder for the blog. This post was inspired by that garden-fresh bunch of basil my colleage Christine Zika brought me when we had lunch on Friday. Note to self: there is no better get-well gift than freshly picked, fragrant herbs with the dirt still clinging to the stalks. We're anxiously awaiting "Frankenstorm," a nor-easter roaring up from the Caribbean to devastate the coastline for the next three-four days, so I'll make pesto and Chuck and I can eat in in style. Who needs canned goods when you can whip up a batch of fresh sauce?

P.S. I hate you!

Dear New York Yankees, If I'd been at Comerica Park today with this, I wouldn't have known who to aim at, you were all so bad, with the exception of Eduardo Nunez who has some idea of how to earn a paycheck. Love, your longtime fan

T(ea) Ball

Today's the day--the Yankees win in Detroit or weeeeeeee're OUT (of the ALCS). Just in time for my "T(ea) Ball" came a delivery of insanely delicious, decadent treats from a Commerce Street bakery called Milk & Cookies (The Good Cook sells a baking book by the same name). If I could cheer them on with beer, I would, but me and Derek are on the DL, so it's the cricketer's drink for me. GO, YANKEES!

Adventures in Cooking

Chuck took us to West Africa tonight with a peanut stew, featured in Saveur's October 2012 Special Collector's Issue (it's their 150th). We'd made the braciola from this issue earlier which was just divine, but I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about this (I'm so Eurocentric, it's pathetic). Thanks again to Chuck's precise cooking, it was totally delicious (the $77 grocery bill would've fed a West African family of 12 for a year!). A combination of fresh ginger, ground coriander, turmeric, ground cumin, black pepper, ground cinnamon, fennugreek seeds (which we substituted with mustard seeds), chile de arbol, and cloves scented the kitchen as the chicken thighs cooked in a light onion, tomato, and peanut butter sauce to which we added eggplant and okra. What a wonderful balance of spicy, savory, and sweet! This one goes into the repetoire; in fact, the whole issue is a keeper.

Swedish Sweets

My college roommate Paula Green sent me a fantastic array of Scandinavian delicacies: lingonberry jam, ginger snaps, rye krispbread, smoked creamed roe, farmer cheese, pastilles, and chocolate! We reminisced about Nyborg Nelson, a Scandinavian restaurant first on the 2nd floor of an Midtown East brownstone, decorated with rough wood and folk art which moved to the recently opened Citicorp Center as a sleek and modern cafeteria. Both are long gone and we miss them. Their specialties can be had at SwedensBest.com or by phone at 877-865-8503. I'll be calling!