Leftovers are my favorite! Especially when they're this delicious. I used up some of my farmer's market booty last night--roasted the poussins and sliced the baby zucchini super thin, along with some avocado, and marinated it in olive oil and lemon juice. A little salt, some pistachios, and voila! Delightful summer salad, recipe courtesy of the grande dame of simple French cooking, Patricia Wells.
What did you have for dinner? Do you like to recycle dinner into lunch, or are you one of those people who hates leftovers?
Today's trip to the Austin Farmer's Market yielded quite a haul! I got two bunches of beets, these baby zucchini that are so adorable, I have to call them courgettes, farm fresh eggs, the sweetest gold cherry tomatoes, mixed greens, and a couple of heirloom poussins--French for hens. Maybe I'm feeling so French today because the hens were sold to me by a morose Frenchman...I don't know!
Either way, whatever you call them, I'm planning to roast the hens and probably do this delicious, no-cook zucchini "carpaccio" dish with the squash. This Patricia Wells recipe makes a perfect hot weather appetizer or light lunch! Prettier and tastier than you would believe.
Follow the links to see the recipes we used! I'd highly recommend all of them, especially the lamb and the zuchinni and avocado carpaccio. Really special. And by making the vegetables the focus of the meal, with just a little taste of meat, we had a hugely satisfying Easter dinner that didn't make me feel like I needed a nap afterward.
What did you eat this weekend? Feel free to share your favorite recipes!
For most of the country, the days of fun in the sun are still far off, but here in Austin, they've pretty much arrived. Guess I should've started thinking about this months ago, but I'm finally feeling the need to get back to eating right and working out! Better late then never.
My current plan is to count calories, avoid all processed foods, including white sugar, and focus on Michael Pollan's healthy eating goals: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Real food, portion control, nearly vegetarian (but I plan to eat seafood, to keep my protein up.) Sound good? Anyone have any deliciously light recipes they'd like to share? I'll post the ones I make that turn out well...
This Huffington Post article on ham made me wonder what most people eat for Easter dinner. In my family, we usually jump all over the chance to have lamb. But I'm open to new ideas! What do you like to serve as your main dish?
I'm heading to Chicago tomorrow for a long weekend organized by my dear, sweet husband. In case you didn't hear, I turned thirty a few weeks ago, and to celebrate, my best friend Meg (aka Queenie) is meeting us out there, along with one of our closest friends from college and his very cool wife. I'm so excited! And of course, all we've really planned so far is where we'll eat. The first night is dinner at the famous, venerable Charlie Trotter's, and it's extra special because we're eating at the chef's table! I'm hoping this means what it sometimes does--a table actually inside the kitchen where we get to watch the cooks in action. Whatever the setup is, I know it will be a blast, and I can't wait to taste the food that put Chicago on the map as a major culinary destination. Our other dinner plans are equally exciting: Alinea and Tru. Described as upscale Mediterranean-influenced French food, Tru has won a James Beard Award and countless other accolades, and is widely considered one of the best restaurants Chicago has to offer.
Alinea is Grant Achatz's cutting-edge restaurant dedicated to exploring the best of new techniques married with classical flavors. It was named one of the world's fifty best restaurants last year, and I can't wait to find out why! Our college friends have been there and described it as one of the most singularly amazing culinary experiences of their lives. Take a look at that picture gallery, folks! Yes, it's food (the image to the left is apparently hearts of palm,) and I'm going to eat it! I promise to take pictures. Unless it feel super awkward, then I probably won't. But Meg will! She never lets awkwardness stop her from capturing the food on film, which is why she's a much better food blogger than I ever will be.
I want to hit up a great sushi bar while I'm there, because I'm craving chirashi like you wouldn't believe, and of course no trip to Chicago would be complete with a hot dog! Any Windy City readers out there want to weigh in on not-to-be-missed Chicago hotspots? Doesn't have to be food--even I will probably have to take a break from eating at some point!
I've got the copyedited manuscript of ON THE STEAMY SIDE on my desk, which means not only is it time to dive back in and polish it up to a high gloss--it's time to test the recipes I'll be including in the back of the book.
Hopefully, the process will be a little easier this time, because I have a cunning plan. Since Lilah Jane Tunkle, my heroine, hails from the exact same part of Virginia I come from (what a coincidence!) I'm going to be updating and modernizing several oooold family recipes from my mother's side. Her people are from Mississippi, but I figure the southern flavors will translate to Virginia just fine. Even better? I conned Mama into doing some of the testing for me! One of our family's favorite holiday desserts shows up in OtSS, and she's been wanting to tweak that recipe for years. That's going to save me some time (and calories) but I have to admit to being sad not to have the excuse to gorge myself on different variations on Delmonico Pudding, a crazy delicious concoction of almond macaroons soaked in vanilla custard and covered with meringue. Traditionally sprinkled with chopped pecans and red and green candied fruit (it's a Christmas dessert!) Mama and I are thinking of subbing in pine nuts and/or crystallized ginger. I await the results with interest...
I'll be dedicating myself to the other recipes from the story: a Mexican street corn salad, and cheddar date rolls. Off to the grocery store now! Wish me luck finding dates.
I'm guest posting today over at TKA, and we're making Lamb Hash. This recipe, a frequent request at my house, is absolutely delicious and will take you through the fall. Come on over and check it out!
**The post also contains a chance to win a copy of my Recipe For Love Cookbook, which features a few of my own recipes alongside recipes from some of today's top chefs! Comment for a chance to win!!**
Had to share. This is one of Frank Bruni's final restaurant reviews for the New York Times before he retires from the field. I like the way he writes about the progress of Eleven Madison Park over time; he touches on the fact that while restaurants used to get better the longer they were open, now the amount of scrutiny and publicity surrounding openings means that often, they're putting their best foot forward during the first few months. But once that circus moves on to a new opening, the still relatively new restaurant starts to slide.
Not the case at Eleven Madison Park, apparently. Take a look at this audio slideshow and see if you don't start googling cheap flights to New York, just to have the chance to eat there. I ate breakfast not an hour ago (lovely currant tea scones out of the Gourmet cookbook) and I'm sitting here wiping drool off my chin.
Stinger's so happy--he figured out he can have red meat in a healthy way by ordering buffalo meat off the internet! I came home from RWA to a freezer full of ribeyes, filets, and of course, our favorite: ribs.
Before I'd even unpacked, I was in the kitchen whipping up my family's favorite bbq sauce. This recipe is adapted from the one in Helen Corbitt's famous, now out-of-print, compendium of Texas cookery. Corbitt, herself, was not a native Texan; she was born in New York! A fact which shocked me as a child, weaned as I was on tales of Texas and how it was like a whole country unto itself. My mother grew up in Dallas and met and married my father in Austin, where I was born, so the Lonestar State had a special place in our family's mythology even after we moved to Virginia.
And to this day, Helen Corbitt's barbecue sauce is the standard by which I judge all others. It's not a Carolina sauce, not sweet and not very spicy--the main flavors are smoke and vinegar and SALT. I love it. And it paired beautifully with the grilled buffalo ribs!
Edwards Family BBQ Sauce (adapted from Helen Corbitt's Cookbook)
2 Tbs salt 1 tsp ground black pepper 6 Tbs dark brown sugar 1/2 cup ketchup 6 Tbs brown mustard 4 Tbs Worcestershire sauce 2 tsp Liquid Smoke (Very important! Check the condiment aisle of your supermarket.) 2 cups water 1 cup white vinegar 2 cups melted butter or cooking oil Chili sauce to taste
Mix in order given and boil until thickened and reduced by half. Spoon off the layer of fat that rises to the top and discard. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.
This sauce is best with beef and pork; it's a little robust for chicken. We always ate it on beef spare ribs, charred on the grill and gnawed with abandon by our whole family. One of my favorite meals, growing up, and a vivid summer memory for me.
Anyone who's obsessed with Top Chef knows exactly who Hubert Keller is: the dignified, no-nonsense chef/owner of Fleur de Lys in San Francisco, and the first guest judge ever to appear on the show. He memorably tossed the most aggravating contestant out of his kitchen for dipping his finger into a sauce rather than tasting with a spoon. Keller (or, Hubert, as I always think of him) has that peculiarly French attractiveness--it's not his somewhat angular features or his silvery gray mane of hair, per se, but some combination of looks, manner, and of course, the killer accent. I was immediately smitten and started making plans to stalk him visit his restaurant.
And now he's back, and on the business end of the judges' table! Hubert was one of the first round of contestants on Bravo's new spinoff, Top Chef Masters, where the chef'testants are all seasoned, successful chefs, many of them James Beard Award winners, and they're all playing for charity. The first episode was fun, even if I missed Tom and Padma more than I expected. Kelly Choi took over hosting duties, and she lacks Padma's appealing warmth and serenity. And the rest of the judges, or critics as they're called on this show, seem not to have been briefed on the show's ethos--meaning that the conditions imposed by the competition shouldn't be taken as mitigating factors. The chefs are supposed to rise above the fact that they had to make risotto on a hot plate in a dorm room. But there was a lot of "Considering the minimal tools they had to work with..." and "I can't believe how well they did with what they had at hand..." Gael Greene, legendary New York Magazine food critic, occasionally approached the take-no-prisoners attitude that made her famous, as did the British critic whose name I've forgotten, but James Oseland showed the same evenhanded, almost sleepy tone he often takes in his Letters from the Editor to Saveur Magazine.
All in all, it was still a pleasure to watch true top chefs at work. Their demeanor in the kitchen, their inventiveness and commitment to the task was fascinating and engaging. And of course, Hubert proved himself completely crush-worthy by trouncing everyone. Soft-spoken Frenchman for the win!
In the immortal words of John Cusack's character in Grosse Pointe Blank, "You can never go home again. But I guess you can shop there." My little Virginia hometown looked and felt surreally different when I visited last weekend. A little more cosmopolitan than it used to be, a little more traffic. Some things were the same, though, among them the weekly farmers market downtown. Same beautiful bounty of produce, same friendly vendors willing and eager to offer a taste of their wares, same funny little place selling Filipino food. Unable to resist, and reveling in the fact that I was clever enough to bring a cooler in the car, we bought some gorgeous brioche and three different kinds of local goat cheese, including a brie-style cheese and one studded with dried cranberries, pecans, and candied ginger. But, above all, there were the ham biscuits. Oh, ham biscuits! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. First of all, they're saltier than hell. Those who don't like salt should a) probably not be reading my blog and b) go for the chicken and waffles or something. Country ham, which I believe is called Virginia ham in places that are not Virginia, is salt cured, which gives it this lovely chewy texture and dark, almost smoky salt flavor. The best version of a ham biscuit involves a yeast-risen biscuit, not too fluffy or crumbly, slathered with mayonnaise and sandwiching thick slices of country ham and ripe, red tomato. Every bite yields a perfect combination of juicy, tart-sweet tomato, tangy mayo, buttery biscuit, and holy-GOD-salty ham.
Heaven. In my mouth. And wow, I'm suddenly dying for a glass of water.
I've got garden-fresh asparagus! Seriously, look at them. Dirt is still clinging to these bad boys. After a very successful, productive meeting for the nonprofit I'm on the board of, Veggie U, we lucky board members were given some uber-fresh spring asparagus to take home. And I don't care what else happens today (ten pages? what?) I'm cooking those pretty green spears for dinner tonight. Question is, how? I love asparagus raw in salads, grilled over an open flame, oven-roasted with olive oil, drizzled with balsamic vengar. Considering how new and tender this batch is, though, I could go the fast and easy route and just steam them. They don't need a lot of gussying up, but I made mayonnaise last week, which has got to be the most perfect dipping sauce. Especially if I maybe swirled in a little extra lemon and garlic for an impromptu aioli. Deborah Madison, my vegetable guru, recommends cooking fresh asparagus in a skillet of boiling water, just until the spears turn an even brighter green. I've always steamed asparagus in a basket over boiling water, so I'll be interested to see if I can tell the difference. I agree with Deb, though, the main thing is not to overdo it. Take them off the heat before they're done--they'll keep cooking for a few minutes after they're out of the pot. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Music: The Bravery, a neo-punk band that started in New York and has recently plunged into the mainstream with hits like Believe and Unconditional. A little punky, a little poppy, a whole lot of fun.
TV: No surprise to anyone who follows me on Twitter, but I'm obsessed right now with America's Next Top Model. I admit, I used to mock my sister for watching it, but it's strangely compelling and undeniably addictive. In the last few weeks, I've watched multiple cycles on iTunes; it's the best show I've ever found to watch while working out!
Food: I recently started making smoothies again. Greek yogurt (I prefer Fage 2% or 0%), frozen berries or peaches or a combo, milk or soymilk, a dash of strawberry mint or mixed mint syrup from June Taylor Jams, and you've got the world's most perfect breakfast!
Books: Contemporary romance. It's strange, but since I started writing it, I've stopped reading it. Maybe out of fear of losing my own voice? I don't know but I've decided it was a dumb move. Thanks to the Save the Contemporary campaign, I know exactly what's hot and happening in the subgenre right now. Just finished Hot Property by Carly Phillips. Next up: Talk Me Down by Victoria Dahl.
Interwebs: I guess I have to say Twitter. It's such a fun way to interact with people! Interesting discussions and links are posted daily; I feel like it keeps me current with what's happening in publishing, with my friends, and in the food world. Here's hoping Oprah jumping on the bandwagon doesn't crash the system!
What are your obsessions? Tempt me and my addictive personality...
Last week I made the most fabulous black bean soup out of Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. It was a more traditional American preparation than the currently common southwestern variety--meaning, it had a dollop of sherry and cream rather than chili peppers. I loved it! Very simple and different, and extremely healthy. Beans are the magical fruit, after all.
Here's my mise en place (French for chopped and measured ingredients all in one place so I don't forget anything): I started the vegetables (carrots, onion, and green bell pepper) and spices (chopped fresh rosemary, thyme, and bay leaves) off in the bottom of my favorite Le Creuset pot, softening them in butter. Then I smushed in some tomato paste for color and depth of flavor. Don't you just love tomato paste in a tube?I'd soaked the beans the night before, so they were all ready to add here, along with some water. The whole thing had to come to the boil and then simmer gently, partially covered, until the beans were soft, about two hours. Might have been less if I hadn't drained the beans too soon and allowed them to dry back out a little by accident.Once everything was good and mushy, I dumped two thirds of the soup into the food processor and gave it a whirl. Then I added it back to the pot, so there were some chunky vegetables and whole beans for texture in with the puree, and swirled in the dry sherry and the dairy. The recipe calls for cream or milk, and I used 2% as part of my ongoing quest to not always invariably eat the fattiest, naughtiest way possible. And honestly, in this case it's hard to imagine how heavy cream could make this soup any thicker or richer. It was divine with the lowfat milk, and the sherry gave it a sophisticated, boozy quality I really enjoyed. It was a fairly strong component of the flavor, actually, and Nick liked it less than I did. Some people might prefer to revise down the amount of sherry. But for me, it was superb! Garnish with a bit of minced Italian parsley for color, and there you go. Perfect winter meal!
I grew up in Virginia, went to school in Philadelphia, spent five years in Manhattan, then moved to a teeny town in Ohio. Now I live in fabulous, funky, fun Austin, Texas, which is very inspiring...
Once an editor of romance novels, now I'm writing my own. My Recipe for Love series combines contemporary romance with my love of food, restaurants, and smokin' hot chefs!
Leftovers are my favorite! Especially when they're this delicious. I used up some of my farmer's market booty last night--roasted the poussins and sliced the baby zucchini super thin, along with some avocado, and marinated it in olive oil and lemon juice. A little salt, some pistachios, and voila! Delightful summer salad, recipe courtesy of the grande dame of simple French cooking, Patricia Wells.
