Cincinnati...a destination for food?

If it's chili you've got a hankering for, then Cincinnati's your town. Their version has cocoa, allspice, cinnamon, and ground cloves along with tomato paste, kidney beans, and cheddar cheese topping all served over spaghetti. So satisfying on a frigid winter night. The house smells great, the belly is full, and there are leftovers that'll taste all that much better tomorrow night.

A Middle Eastern Outpost in Penn Station

Chickpea, a falafel franchise, has opened in Penn Station. I had the falafel platter: falafel over spicy red bulgher wheat with red pepper hummus, fresh vegetables, and warm pita bread: $8.81 for a lot of very filling food. The falafel because it's baked not fried, was dry, but the rest of the meal was delicious. I'd never had the red bulgher wheat, but I'll see if I can find that to make at home. Poor Chuck will pay tonight: garlic overload!

A Different Kind of Boston Brown Bread

From the baker's bible, THE KING ARTHUR FLOUR 200TH ANNIVERSARY COOKBOOK: a quick Spicy Applesauce bread made with white and whole wheat flours. Founded in 1790 in Boston, the King Arthur Flour company is still going strong. Whole wheat flour always seems to make the loaf dry, but I probably baked this about 5 minutes too long. I substituted dried cranberries for the raisins which added a little color and more Boston pedigree to it.

That's Amore!

A very satisfying fresh tomato soup with white beans called for tomato paste. Rather than the canned paste I would normally use, I tried Amore all-natural tomato paste in a tube. It made all the difference in the taste since I shouldn't have been making this in winter when the plum tomatoes I got at Food Emporium were just mealy little blobs of plastic. I look forward to making this again in the summer/fall when tomatoes are really worth eating.

Hello, 2011!

On January 1, I didn't try a new recipe, I tried a new tool--and I love it! I made a simple apple pie with pate brisee, but instead of the traditional, unwieldy rolling pin, I used a baton. The pastry rolled out without all the angst, it slipped into the pie pan perfectly, there was plenty to crimp around the edge.... I'll keep the rolling pin, in case Chuck needs disciplining, but I'll be buying a baton next weekend.

NOT TOO EARLY TO START...

discovering new foods. Tonight, we tried a recipe from the January 2011 issue of Bon Appetit for Beet & Fennel Soup with Kefir. The soup looks gorgeous, tastes delicious, and three reasonable ladles' full are very satisfying. My only quibble with something like this is the full quart of unflavored kefir you have to buy for the 1 cup the recipe calls for. But with its nutritional benefits (2 probiotic strains; 11 grams of protein; 10% RDA vitamin A; 25% RDA vitamin D; 30% RDA calcium), I'll try it in recipes that call for yogurt or light cream. It certainly gives the dish a nice tang. I'd never encountered this yogurt-type drink, originally from the Caucasus in Russia where people routinely live to be 100, and in this recipe, I'm certainly glad I did. Pronounced "keh-feer," it's a health food that, at least for me, doesn't have the hippie, fruity-nutty connotations that lemongrass and carrot juice and other health drinks do.

A Year of Culinary Adventure

Many people's New Year's resolution is to eat healthier. Mine? It's to eat and drink- more creatively. Why eat brown rice when you can try quinoa? Why not grab a persimmon to slice into a salad instead of a tomato? Is the wine from the North Fork of Long Island worth drinking? There are probably obvious answers to those questions; 2011 is going to be the year I find out for myself. Once a week, I'm going to find an ingredient I've never eaten before, a recipe I've never made before, or a restaurant I've never eaten at before. Good-bye, same-old same-old. Hello, 52 new foods!