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There was a long time (until about 10 years ago) that I didn't care for soup much. I've always loved split pea with ham and New England clam chowder, but other soups just seemed thin and boring to me.
Read MoreStews and soups seem odd for spring and summer cooking. If I can throw everything into a slow cooker at the start of a beautiful day, head outside, enjoy the weather and get home and have a meal waiting for me, I say "Huzzah, bring on the slow cooker!"
These nice long days are getting me outdoors more, leaving me a little less time to cook. The slow cooker sitting in my pantry has been calling my name. It's the perfect solution for a beautiful day. Just a half hour of prep, including a little bit of browning, and I was out the door with a promise of a great tasting coq au vin waiting for me at the end of the day.
I'm still figuring out proportions on my slow cooker recipes. Coq au vin is one of my favorite stews, so I thought I'd give it a go in the slow cooker. If you want to add or subtract some of the tomatoes or red wine based on successful slow cooker recipes you've used before, feel free to do so. And, get in touch with any slow cooker tips, especially about adapting standard recipes to slow cooker style recipes.
I have a friend (who blogs at Weekends So Sweet) that does quite a bit more slow cooking than I do. She has experimented with not browning ingredients before slow cooking and has had good results. Just wanted to mention this because a lot of these recipes end up looking like they have a lot of steps, but they can be simplified. I look at slow cooking as a good place to experiment. I've only had one real disaster (involving several acorn squash that just looked and tasted horrible after 8 hours on low in the slow cooker). For once, my attitude of throw it in the pot and see what you get can work here as real advice.
So get outside, enjoy yourselves and come home to a warm nourishing meal!
Joe makes bacon in the oven.
A seemingly simple statement. But, I need to point out that Joe, my dad, used to leave the house when Gran Fran would cook meats that were too strong smelling.
I'm not clear when he turned the corner and actually began cooking the bacon himself, but a few years ago, I walked into my parents house and saw him lining up strips of bacon on a jelly roll pan. I was intrigued.
He told me my mother, Gran Fran, had discovered that if she cooked the bacon in the oven, there was a lot less mess. And, Joe wasn't bothered by the smell. Let me point out that this was well after they had spent a good 45 years living together, so it goes to show you that you new things can happen late in a marriage!
This method does take a little bit longer, but it's worth the effort. The bacon comes out nice and crispy, but not burnt, with a some chewiness left in the fat.
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Remember how my friend got me a quail to roast for my birthday a few weeks ago? Well, that same friend got me a great cookbook for Christmas, too.
The book, Bi-Rite Market's Eat Good Food, by Sam Mogannam and Dabney Gough, with photographs by France Ruffenach, brought me back to the re-opening of the Bi-Rite Marketin 1998.
At the time, we lived on 17th street and Dolores, just a block from the market. The book lists June 8, 1998 as the opening day of the market as it operates today. That would put me at about 3 months pregnant. Which, as I recall, makes total sense, because by the time I was in my third trimester and had little to no interest in cooking, many a take out dinner came from the Bi-Rite Market. Lucky me!
The book talks about creating community through food, and the relationship the owners and his family had throughout the years with the neighbors. I experienced this day in and day out, whenever I went in to buy some meat or fish or prepared food, the people behind the counter always recognized me and knew what I was going to ask for before I even asked for it. From the outset, the atmosphere was always inclusive, never condescending and truly inspiring. It was a new take on an age-old traditional local grocer: organic, locally produced foods, where you might pay a little more, but what you got was well worth the investment.
My baby's first solid food (other than rice cereal and cheerios) was a piece of Bi-Rite's roasted chicken. I think that kid ate more Bi-Rite meals than I did in her first few months of solids. It was a good routine: walk down the hill from work, pick up some delicious food, walk the block home and enjoy. Did I also mention that the job I was walking home from was through a random connection that was made in front of the prepared foods case at the Bi-Rite?
I was in the market one afternoon, with my baby in her stroller. A woman approached me, said she liked my shoes and mentioned she had a baby about the same age as my girl. We talked for a bit longer, during which time she asked what I did for a living. At the time, I was managing trade shows, and told her this, and proceeded to ask her what she did. She had just launched an ecommerce start-up that was looking for some people and would I want to send her a resume. Email addresses were exchanged, communication ensued and I eventually became employed by a woman I met at the Bi-Rite.
So, yes, for me, creating community through food holds a special meaning in my heart when it comes to Bi-Rite. And, the book is organized in such a way that it's as if you're going on several visits a week to the store. You can read about pantry staples, locally sourced cheese, wine and produce, as well as get some awesome recipes for all of the above ingredients and more. The book presents the recipes within a story about the ingredients and why the buyer may have chosen to bring a particular variety of a fruit or vegetable into the market. It's written as a whole piece, not just story-then-recipe-then-story. It's more about the nature of how you might shop if you were to shop for your ingredients each day (which I love to do), versus how to make a meal in 30 minutes or less.
There is a definite need to know how to get good food out to the table quickly. This book does an excellent job of explaining how to get the best ingredients into those simple (and also the not so simple meals) and to give you an appreciation of what it took to get that carrot onto your plate. I'm a very busy single-parent who loves to cook and sees the benefit in buying the best ingredients I can, so this book is for me.
In closing, I'd like to share the recipe from page 162 for Brussels Sprouts with Pistachios and Warm Bacon Vinagrette. I made this the other night and was thrilled with the results. I've never used raw brussels sprouts (nor the super fine slicing attachment on my food processor), but I most certainly will do so again.
recipe from Bi-Rite Market's Eat Good Food, by Sam Mogannam and Dabney Gough, with photographs by France Ruffenach
copyright 2011, 10 Speed Press
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The mighty potato.
It is starchy.
It is filling.
It can be sweet.
It can be saucy.
But it is always delicious.
I've been working on ways to create multiple sauces or preparations starting from a basic ingredient. The idea is to create the basic ingredient once, in bulk and then add different sauces, etc. throughout the week so that you don't get bored with the same leftovers over and over.
This is part of my exploration into Cooking for One (see
for my first installation). Once I have enough of these recipes worked out, I'll post a succinct compendium (that there is a $20 word), but for now, I'll link them all through the individual posts. Of course, they'll all be tagged Cooking for One, so if one needs to find them quickly, this key phrase can be put in my handy search box on the right hand side of this site.
But I digress.
Potatoes seem like a great base for many things. I've got two variations here: a light potato salad (light because there's not too much mayonnaise involved) and a pan fried potato with bacon. Both are great, and are based on a large pot of boiled potatoes. Stored in an airtight container, once they've been fully drained and cooled, the potatoes I made kept for a week.
All you need to do is boil up the potatoes and then create sauce variations when you are ready to serve them. Easy as pie.
serves plenty, portion out to one-person servings as you see fit
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Hello.
How are you all today?
I am fine, thanks.
Actually, I am better than fine.
Want to know why?
I'll tell you why.
Bacon.
I love bacon.
And, I believe it loves me back.
You know how I know this?
Because it makes me happy.
The salt.
The fat.
The crispness.
That, my friends, is true love.
xo
OK, I have sent Ms. Iz back to school already, and am now posting my summer vacation musings. So very sorry for the long absence, but I am back, so please enjoy!!"It's Summer Vacation!!!!"
You get to say this just after the last bell of the last day of school rings. And, I prefer to scream if at the top of my lungs, in public, to the dismay of my daughter, Iz. But, it starts off the summer with a bang.
Just after school ends, it is likely you will find me and Iz on an early morning flight to NY for an extended stay. This year, it has been two weeks long. With the number of cousins, aunts, uncles and the famous Gran Fran and Joe to visit, we can use as much time as possible here.
Oh, and let's not forget about the meals. I believe I ate enough over the last two weeks to comfortably miss a month's worth of food. Not only did Gran Fran and Joe outdo themselves with copious amounts of food and drink on offer at any time of the day or night, but my siblings did as well.
Each house offered up it's own special dish, each excellent in it's own way. So, my friends, here is an ode to my many family members and friends who made with the love and the food while we were in NYC and gave us a trip to remember.
The highlight at Gran Fran's house was the Linguini with Clam Sauce. I have made this countless times, but it never, ever, turns out like Gran Fran's. She manages to get the sweetness of the clams t
o come through alongside a little bit of spice and tangy flavor of the Anise flavored liquor. I recall this being a favorite birthday meal while growing up, and such a comfort food to me.
Delicious!!
That's not to say that Joe didn't also deliver the goods. Take, for exmple, his Tuna or Egg Salad, and you will never need to buy pre-made again. I recall eating either of these after school on Peperidge Farms White Sandwich Bread. There is a kick from the cayenne that is offset by the mellowness of the celery. I have yet to find a better or equal salad of this nature. But, these days I tend to eat it over salad greens (I have already discussed the carb intake, in direct relation to keeping my girlish figure at my age...need I say more?).
Bacon, which always factors heavily into my vacation breakfast rotation was another standout on this trip home. Iz, who should just be rena,ed "Little Miss. Bacon", was in Pig Heaven (yes, pun intended, thank you very much). Gran Fran offered up bacon everyday, which Miss Iz gladly accepted.
Not only was our bacon always cooked perfectly, but it was also cooked with no mess and no fuss. The secret?? Cook it in the oven at a fairly high heat for a bit longer than it would take on the stovetop. I have tried his new-fangeled idea, and oh the joys of bacon -tastic flavor without the slippery floor/stovetop/walls to deal with.
It's a dawning of a new bacon era around my house!
Last, but most certainly not least, The Roast Beef. Joe mqde this for us one evening, under the tutelage of Gran Fran (via phone from her office), though I believe he can make this one without the phone calls. Talk about juicy, flavorful meat. Oy! It was just divine. I donùt have much more to say on this, except that you must make it, and come to the table with an empty stomach so you can be sure to eat as much as possible. And, I would say some nice horshradish mayo would be the only addition I would make to Joe's recipe.
I could go on and on here, but that might tap me of recipes for posts to come (OK, thqt is highly unlikely), but this is enough to give you the flavor of our summer vacation.
You can never get enough of your old-time childhood favorites, and with Gran Fran and Joe around, I will never have to!
Combine Tuna with Celery and Scallions, mash it with a fork, add salt, pepper, cayenne. Mix in about two tablespoons of mayo, and then determine how much more you need as you mix.
serves 4 to 6 people
serves 4 as a side dish
1 Lb Bacon (best quality that you can find)
serves 4 people
1. Set pasta water up to boil. Sprinkle with not too much salt; clams are salty. 2. Clean clams thoroughly under cold running water; scrub with brush 3. Warm the olive oil gently with the garlic, until garlic turns golden 4. Over medium heat, carefully add liquors 5. When alcohol evaporates, add clams and turn heat high and put a lid on pan. 6.Clams should cook in less than 5 minutes. 7. Add pasta and a dollop of pasta water. Stir over medium heat to combine. Add parsely; serve.
