Okay, I know this has been a pretty sad excuse for a blog lately (and yes, I can just hear some of you saying “lately?”–don’t think that I can’t 
). But really, I have a good excuse–actually a couple of them. Excuse no. 1 is that for most of December I was baking cookies like a madwoman–homemade gifts are nice in theory, until you get around to the making part. Excuse no. 2 is that David and I are planning on adopting, and, crazy people that we are, were trying to get all our paperwork in before Christmas (which didn’t quite happen–big surprise). So I’ve been lucky to have enough time to cook, much less blog about what I’m cooking. The good (?) news is that once we get through our homestudy, I’ll have *tons* of time to blog (and will probably be doing so incessantly, just to have something to do other than twiddle my thumbs–and drive everyone around me nuts–while waiting).
Still, I have been cooking, and some of the things I’ve made have actually been pretty darn good. One of my Christmas presents was “My Bread”, by Jim Lahey, the “originator” of the no-knead bread recipe (okay–I don’t buy that for a minute, because I know there have been similar recipes floating around for quite awhile, but I suppose he deserves some props for popularizing it, I guess), and I’ve made a couple of less-than-beautiful-but-still-terrific-tasting loaves–I’m a convert. I can’t wait to try a whole grain version.
Also, this recipe from The Splendid Table’s Weeknight Kitchen e-newsletter (and their book, “How To Eat Supper”) is pretty amazing–not to mention forgiving: last time I made it I forgot to toss the veggies with several of the ingredients, and added them late in the roasting process, and it still turned out well. I’ve left out the basil and sage, added pinenuts, subbed parmesan for asiago, used whole-wheat spaghetti instead of bowties, or used kale instead of escarole or frisee; I’m sure other, similar types of squash would work, and other winter veggies might be really interesting as well. There’s also no reason why you couldn’t leave out the dairy, although you might want to add an extra glug or two of olive oil at the end to keep it from being too dry. Nutty, caramelized, cheesy goodness, and it’s fairly cheap AND good for you–what’s not to love?
Late Breaking News:
For anyone who, like me, lives in the Belleville/Canton/western Wayne County area, there’s a new CSA on the block: Pallet Gardens Farms (the farm’s not new, but the CSA is). In addition to a broad variety of veggies, the owners, the Mackalls, are offering breads, jams, eggs and meat (I’m guessing smoked turkey and/or ribs, based on their info packet) from their sister business, the Alabama Rib House. The prices seem pretty typical–$550 for a full bushel which feeds 4-6 for the 20 week season, and $325 for a half bushel. They also state that they follow “natural” farming practices–no chemicals or pesticides. David and I are going to give them a shot this year, and I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. If you’re interested in more info, their number is 734-461-4834.
… the recipe I made for last night’s MLFB cookie exchange:
Real Onion Dip
(slightly adapted from “The Improvisational Cook” by Sally Schneider)
2 pounds yellow onions, peeled and sliced thinly (1/8”)
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, olive oil or, like I used, bacon fat
1/2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp sugar
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup Greek yogurt (or, if you and dairy are on speaking terms, sour cream)
Melt butter or bacon fat in a large nonstick, cast-iron or otherwise heavy skillet over moderately low heat. Add onions, sprinkle with salt and toss to coat. Cover and cook until the onions have released their liquid (13-15 minutes). Uncover, increase the heat to moderate, and, stirring occasionally, cook until the liquid has evaporated (about another 10 minutes or so). Sprinkle with the sugar and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the onions are caramelized. (Schneider says this should take about another 10 minutes, but it took me a good 20-25 minutes–maybe I was just being too conservative with the heat. If I hadn’t been in such a hurry, I would’ve taken some photos of the stages of the process, but, suffice it to say, you want these puppies to be a really rich, mahogany brown.) Remove from the heat, salt and pepper to taste, and let cool.
At this point, you should have approximately 1 cup of caramelized onions (if, for some reason, you have more than that, you can always keep them in the fridge to use elsewhere–they should keep at least 4 days). Chop the onions finely, and mix with the yogurt/sour cream. Add more salt and/or pepper if you feel it needs it, or maybe a squeeze or two of lemon juice.
Personally, I thought this dip wasn’t bad, but it was a little on the sweet side. I’m thinking next time, I might experiment with adding a bit of beef stock somewhere in the process (to give it more of a French Onion-y flavor), or maybe just some finely chopped bacon.
Okay, I feel a little silly posting about this, but my husband assures me that this will be of vital interest to the rest of human civilization, so here goes:
A couple of weeks ago, said hubby and I were sitting at a picnic table outside of the Historic Parshallville Grist/Cider Mill, taking in the lovely and quaint surroundings, the babbling of the brook beside us, the slight nip in the air of early Fall … and inhaling some pretty fabulous donuts along with our fresh-off-the-press cider. Still, there was no way we were going to eat the entire dozen donuts we had purchased, so we got to talking about what to do with the remainders. Of course, there’s always that old standby use for any stale bread-y baked good: bread pudding. But, as I said before, we were inhaling those donuts, and had gotten through about half of them already, so there wasn’t really enough left for a decent pudding. Then it occurred to us, well, what would you do if you just wanted to revive them? I was of the opinion that if you just microwaved them for 15-20 seconds, to heat them through and steam them a bit to de-stale them, then fried them briefly in a pan with a bit of oil to restore that bit of greasy crunch all really good cider-mill donuts have, you might be able to come out with something relatively close to a fresh donut.
Guess what? It actually worked!
Okay, so I’m not Christopher Kimball–it was still a fun experiment.
The recent MLFB Oktoberfest/Soup Exchange (which, sadly, I was just too busy to attend) reminded me of a truly weird German soup I once had. (more…)
Yes, it’s taken me a ridiculously long time to get these up here (blame it on overtime at work), but finally, here’s the photos from the Michigan Lady Food Blogger get-together at Hollerfest: (more…)
Friday evening David and I decided to go out to eat, as we had a bunch of gift certificates from restaurant.com* burning a hole in our pocket, including one for a place in downtown Plymouth. Somehow, despite the fact that we’ve been living just a short drive away for something like 10 years now, we’d never managed to do more than just drive through Plymouth, but now we know what we’ve been missing out on, we’re definitely going to be going back. (more…)
I’d written a few blog postings before, and people I knew kept telling me I should blog,
but the perfectionist/procrastinator part of me kept thinking, “yes, but I have to have
a really cool blog name first.” (more…)
(Note: This is a long-ago post from a previous blog I shared with my husband. Since it’s food-related, I decided it should live here.)
Recently, I read a blog posting on eGullet about cookbooks for kids, and how they’ve changed over the years, and for the first time in a long time I thought of my first cookbook.
(Note: This is a long-ago post from a previous blog I shared with my husband. Since it’s food-related, I decided it should live here.)
Okay–lest everyone think that all I do is eat at expensive restaurants and then carp about them, here’s what I’ve been doing in my own kitchen lately. And yes, I’ve been cooking up a storm…
(Note: This is a long-ago post from a previous blog I shared with my husband. Since it’s food-related, I decided it should live here.)
David and I went to Vinology recently and, in true literary form, I think the decor of the place was pretty much a metaphor for the whole experience: it held a tremendous amount of promise–it’s really quite nice inside, reminiscent of some of the more modish big-city restos I’ve been in, and you’d never know the space once housed an office supplies shop. The ambience is upscale, yet casual (the bar seems to dominate the whole place, even though there’s a partial wall between it and the main dining area), and the art is quite lovely and creative–excepting the big poster of New Zealand wine producing areas hanging askew, as posters are wont to do, at the back of the dining room. That poster, despite being thematically appropriate, just didn’t belong in that room, was just one tiny element that threw everything else off. That was pretty much the theme for the evening–much was done well, but there was always some little thing not quite right.