Sassy Radish

Hi friends, this is a guest post from a friend of mine Debbie. Realizing that I’m the last person who should opine/review things relating to mommyhood, I asked Debbie to guest post (something I’ve never previously done). Debbie’s got this book out called “Parents Need to Eat Too” – and it’s a guide on how to manage that whole making food, feeding your baby, and not having a total breakdown. The whole concept of managing to make food and caring for a baby/toddler/child is, thus far, has eluded me. I’m sure it’s in too distant a future, but for the time being, all I’ve got to worry about besides feeding me and Andrew, is that our cat doesn’t starve. So – enjoy the guest post and I’m returning full force this week.

Continue reading baked gnocchi alla puttanesca.

I am in the final stretches of the manuscript before I hand it off to my co-author and she puts her finishing touches on it and then off it goes to the editor – wheee!

So my narrative is pretty boring these days. It goes a little like this.

Continue reading Grapefruit Pound Cake.

As I write this today, I have one thing on my mind – taking risks.

A year ago today, I left my job in finance. Actually, technically that was a year ago yesterday. A year ago today, I woke up, showered, got dressed, and set off to Melissa Clark’s house to work as her interim assistant. On January 31st, I was packing my desk and signing separation agreements, on February 1st, I was chopping garlic. It couldn’t have been a transition with less fanfare, but to me, that was the best way to plunge into the unknown. No time to sit and pontificate – there was work to be done and things to be learned.

Last night, as we were clearing the table, Andrew looked at me and said, “If a year ago, I had told you you’d be where you are today, working for amazing people, finishing one book and starting another exciting project, would you have believed me?”

No, I wouldn’t have. I probably would have laughed and hugged him, grateful that he believes in me as much as he does.

My old therapist says that we should believe in ourselves just as much. She says that if we had a friend who doubted us as much as we, at times, doubt ourselves, we wouldn’t even speak to that person. And she’s right. Who wants to be friends with someone who undermines and second-guesses her?

I don’t want to wax poetic and say you’ve got to do what you love. It’s not my style. Everyone has to choose a path that is right for them, whatever it means to them. For me, it meant jettisoning my career on Wall Street and plunging, head first, into the world of food and writing.

I don’t celebrate this blog anniversary because I’m too lazy to really figure out when it began. And I’m often remiss in remembering important dates. But February 1 will always be a special day in my heart. The day I took a leap hoping that the universe had a net for me to fall into.

It’s been a glorious fall thus far. I can’t wait for more.

I was all ready to write about grapefruit cake until I realized it’s about one week to the Super Bowl. Suddenly, instead of homey cakes and cup of tea, I am craving wings, chili, and beer. Oh, and seven layer dip.

It’s funny to me that in our relationship, I am the one with the football affectation. I insist on watching games, and I even downloaded one of those apps on my phone that tells me what the score it, in case I can’t watch the game in person. Andrew on the other hand, flips through geeky weather magazines while the game ensues and watches the game out of the corner of his eyes. This year, however, the Super Bowl is particularly important to us because our home team, the New England Patriots (now, don’t y’all Pats haters be hatin’) are going to square off against the New York Giants. The last time that happened, Pats suffered an abysmal loss, having totally fallen apart in the second half. Hopefully, that won’t happen again.

Continue reading seven layer dip.

Our household is in hunker-down mode. Dinners are tried-and-true stand-byes. Things we’ve I’ve made before that we love that don’t require hours at a time. Quick, easy weeknight meals are our fast friends. I’ve finally become inseparable from my slow cooker and all I can say on that is, where has it been all my life?

Needless to say that recipe development, at least what I like to do with it, has come to a screeching halt. At least for the time being.

Until I hand in the manuscript for the kimchi book due in, gulp, a few weeks, I don’t have much bandwidth or desire to experiment. I’ve got enough static in my head as it is. For now – I focus on what I know best. Meanwhile, Forrest labors tirelessly. Sundays are, apparently, for office hours. At least between naps anyway.

Continue reading midnight pasta.

Let’s not beat around the bush. Everywhere you look these first few weeks of January, you’re going to see a lot of soup. Because, it’s the New Year – which means a new leaf, new resolutions, new plans. I guess that also means soup? I’m not complaining; soup is one of my favorite things to eat. Let there be soup, I say!

I, for one, don’t have any resolutions this year. Not one. There’s plenty already to keep me busy and I want to focus on things already in motion: a wedding this summer, a book in the making, and something else I can hopefully tell you soon about (and no, it’s not a baby). But it’s very, very good, I promise.

Continue reading parsnip leek soup.

I’m writing this in my future brother-in-law’s apartment while everyone is still asleep. Not his future apartment. The apartment is current. He is my future brother-in-law – in six months he will be one. We’re in Cambridge, Massachusetts for a New Year’s Eve wedding – whee! 2012, we’re going to be greeting you with flutes full of champagne, all dressed up.

2011, you’ve been an amazing, beautiful, generous year to me. A career switch and an engagement – amazing!

I did a complete 180 and went from working in finance to really, honest-to-goodness, no reservations, trying to eke out a career as a food writer and a recipe developer. And it has sort of been working! Hooray! When I was leaving my job in late January, I was really, truly scared. I felt like I was taking a leap into the great unknown. But despite my fear, despite not knowing what the future held, I felt a sense of elation, not dread. Right around the same time, Andrew had moved in, and we were settling into a real pattern. We were building a home together; a life.

And then, the day before my birthday, Andrew proposed, which really was the most amazing, lovely thing that could’ve happened. I’m still aglow, many months later. 2012, we hope you’re ready for our wedding. There’s going to be much merriment and jubilation!

I really wanted to leave you, 2011, with a recipe. I owe you, and you readers, at least that much. But somehow December spun wildly out of control. But in a very very good way. I promise to deliver some good news in 2012. For now, let me leave you with a handful of favorites from the year – the ones I returned to more than a dozen times. Happy New Year to you all! See you in 2012!

Tuscan Kale Salad with Pecorino

Rice Pudding with Coconut Milk

Coconut Ginger Fried Rice

Salad Olivier

Coconut Green Curry Mussels

Fried Chicken

Lobster Rolls

The Stone Fence (Plus!)

It’s the day before Christmas, which means, in our household, that I’m playing Christmas music, minus the actual Christmas celebration. But it’s still Hannukah, which means we get to combine our love of fried foods with the annual tradition of Chinese food. But more on that later. I’ve something up my sleeve for you tomorrow.

Today I want to talk to you about pasta.

Continue reading Creamy Mushrooms with Pasta.

I wanted to include cookbooks before, but I got distracted and forgot. Still, many lovely books have come out this year and I wanted to include a handful of my favorites. Cookbooks make excellent gifts, but the trouble is with so many cookbooks out there, how do you know what is a good cookbook? You have to leaf through enough of the book and read the recipes, visualize them, understand the mechanics behind it, to really, truly judge a book. I know that some folks prefer books without photographs or illustrations (they seem like books geared towards serious cooks), others won’t even touch a book unless each recipe comes with a glossy picture. Both, I think, are misleading. Each book merits its own analysis. What is the goal of the book? Does the book meet the goal? Do you want to cook from it, and if not, is this something you want for inspiration, for ideas, for a future project? Or does the recipient in question want any of those things…

A few of these books are books I have put on my Wish List and Wedding Registry. This is by no means a subtle request that people gift them to me. I have, simply, not gotten around to getting each book, because, as you might suspect, being a freelancer, I have limited funds. Andrew will also remind me that being in a New York apartment, we have limited shelf space, but while he does that, I’ll put my palms over my ears and hum “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to myself and miss the whole thing. What? Space? Who?

So without further ado, here is my list.

Lisa Fain’s The Homesick Texan Cookbook
I’ve known Lisa for a number of years now and have been an avid reader of her blog. I love her turn of phrase, love her unfussy language, love the fact that every time I read something of hers it immediately makes me hungry for the very thing she talks about. I’ve had the book on my hands for a number of months and have made the pulled pork tacos as well as her incredible chili. Both I failed to photograph, hence there’s yet to be a blog post on it. But my ambitious plan next week is to make her kolaches! They remind me of something similar my grandmother used to make – I suppose it all makes sense, since kolaches stem from Eastern Europe, and so do I! Lisa also is a masterful photographer with an eye for not just the small, minute, beautiful details, but also for the sweeping splendor of the Texan open space. It’s a gorgeous, mouthwatering book, beautifully written, photographed, and bound to make a homesick Texan (even if you hail from somewhere else) out of you.

Michael Ruhlman’s Twenty
This is one of my Wish List mains (hint, hint!) but a book that I’ve leafed through enough to (almost) memorize by heart. Here, Michael Ruhlman gives you the building blocks of thinking like a cook, which is something we all could use, no matter the skill level.

Melissa Clark’s Cook This Now

I know, blah blah blah, I know Melissa Clark, blah blah, I can’t possibly be unbiased in my review of her book. And yet. I can be. I cook from it on an almost weekly basis. Not because I know her, but because the recipes are attainable for a weeknight dinner, are delicious, and huge on flavor. I’ve gifted this book to many a friend now, and I hear the same feedback every time, “This book is amazing! Thank you thank you thank you!” It is. And in the day and age when you are promised “30 minute meals”, and you and I both know it’s bollocks, these might not be 30 minutes, but you can make these dishes tonight, or any weeknight of your choosing. Melissa is a busy writer with a toddler – she’s not making this up. And the stories are sweet and heartwarming too!

Jacob Kenedy’s Bocca
This is another wish list favorite. But man, oh man, this book is A-MAZING! Admittedly, I’m going through a bit of an Italian food phase where I really can eat pasta and contorni pretty much all day long. There’s an ocassional Thai or sushi craving. And as of this morning, I’m nursing a fierce dim sum yen, but that’s neither here nor there. This book is so beautifully written and photographed that I kind of just want to tell everyone that I’ll talk to them in a week, turn my phone off, go into the kitchen and just cook everything out of that book. Also, I want to be in those pictures – they are, in a word, evocative.

Nigel Slater’s Tender
I plan on gifting this myself this holiday season. I know that some ladies dream of massages and sparklies, but I humbly dream of Nigel Slater’s Tender. Again, the photography, the writing, the simple, loving approach to vegetables from his garden, are all beautiful. I don’t remember last time I’ve been so smitten with a book like this. Again, I’ve leafed through it so much in our neighborhood book store, that the store clerks are giving me strange looks, “Go and just BUY it already!” I think I shall.

Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty
My favorite place to eat in London last fall when we went, was Ottolenghi, and we ate some amazing meals on that trip (minus the grouse – that we didn’t like!). Upon returning to the States, I immediately ordered “Plenty”. Even though Ottolenghi himself isn’t a vegetarian, his vegetarian recipes are so delicious, one wouldn’t miss meat in the slightest eating his food, which is boldly spiced with Middle Eastern / Israeli spices that he grew up with. I’ve cooked so many things from the book (every one stellar!), and one of my favorites: Salt and Pepper Tofu is not to be missed.

Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Every Day
Heidi doesn’t tell you to eat health food. Heidi wants you to eat good, clean, delicious food that happens to also be healthy – and to be good to your soul, body, and spirit. Her vegetarian recipes are a marking of a truly resourceful, inventive, flavor-driven cook. One of my favorite things that I’ve been making with leftover quinoa, the quinoa patties, are delicious and healthy. Reading Heidi’s book makes you want to be in the kitchen with her, see the world through her lens, and be nourished.

Food52 Holiday App
I just spent two hours leafing through (leafing, as in an iPad, get it?) the holiday recipes on Food52 Holiday App and can I say something? This is truly wonderful stuff! Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, the site’s creators, have really outdone themselves here! There are cocktails for drinking, cookies for indulging, snacks for your guests, gifts you can make, and main courses that make the season even more festive. I’m going to be using it so much, Andrew might not get access to his (did I mention the iPad isn’t even mine? Ha!) iPad until after the New Year!

For all my talking about being a bourbon lover, I am an embarrassingly pathetic (read: light) drinker. And Andrew is no better. Between the two of us, it takes us about three days to finish one bottle of wine.

You read that right. Three (3!). Days. Kind of sad, if you ask me.

Continue reading the stone fence (plus!).