happy valentine's day

My version of the Valentine's day rose... one of the stinking variety.
To roast garlic: cut the top off, set in a piece of foil, douse with olive oil, wrap it up and bake at 400 degrees for an hour. It gets nice and sweet, and is so tender, it's perfect for spreading on bread.


Smoked salmon pasta.
I used the recipe here, but doubled the amounts for the sauce, because I like mine to be a bit saucier.


Mint-chocolate cake, with a slightly molten center.
This recipe is also from Simply Recipes, which I'm finding to be a fantastic resource. It's organized really nicely, and has gorgeous photography.

tomato soup & cheesy bread

steak with mango & scallions

Based on this recipe from Everyday Food, but if you're too lazy to click the link, here's what you need to know:

-Flatiron steak, seasoned with salt & pepper, cooked medium-rare under the broiler (10 minutes, flipped halfway through). After cooking let it rest for 10 min., then slice thin, against the grain (you'll have more tender steak that way).

-Arrange the steak on a leaf of boston lettuce, with some sliced mango and scallion.

-Vinaigrette for the top: 1/4 cup lime juice, 1 TBSP oil, 1 minced garlic clove, and chopped cilantro.

On the side is just some cooked Chinese noodles, tossed with sliced scallions, a bit of oil, salt & pepper.

homemade pizza

I started out by making this whole wheat pizza dough, and then topped the pizzas with some of my favorite things...

pizza #1: Mix ricotta cheese + generous amount of dried basil + 1 minced garlic clove, and spread on the pizza. Top with sliced prosciutto and shallots (the prosciutto gets nice & crispy in the oven, like bacon).

pizza #2: Jarred pizza sauce + sliced fresh mozzarella + sliced olives and marinated mushrooms.

The pizza bakes for 18-20 minutes on 450º, and if you follow the recipe's instructions to make the dough and freeze pre-made pizza shells ahead of time, it makes for a very quick weeknight meal. You can pull them right out of the freezer, top them, and bake them. No need to even thaw them.

eggs for dinner

Who doesn't love eating breakfast foods for dinner?
This was a little experiment, which happily turned out deliciously.
You'll need:

1 egg
vinegar (for poaching the egg)
olive oil
butter
1/2 c dry white wine
shallot
lemon (zest + juice)
lime
parsley
salad greens
dried apricots
whatever kind of bread you like (toast for on the side)

Start with a poached egg: Bring a saucepan of water to a gentle boil (there should be bubbles on the bottom of the pan, but the surface should not be rolling). Add 1 tsp vinegar per cup of water that you're using (the acidity helps the egg hold together in the water). Drop the egg in, and cook for about 4 minutes (this will give you a runny yolk—if you prefer a more solid yolk, give it a couple more minutes).

The sauce (amounts are approximate—it depends on your taste):
Mince a shallot and sauteé in a small amount of oil with a dash of salt for a couple minutes on medium heat, until it's softened but not brown. Add the white wine, some lemon zest (about 1 tsp), and a squeeze of lemon juice (not quite half a lemon's worth). Bring to a boil, and boil until reduced by half. Melt in a few pats of butter, and turn heat off. Add some chopped parsley, and finish off with a fresh squeeze of lemon juice (just a few drops).

The salad: mixed greens + thinly sliced shallot + sliced dried apricots.

The dressing: roughly equal parts fresh lime juice + olive oil, seasoned to taste with salt & pepper.

merry christmas

giant pizza bubble

...a delicious cavern of airy goodness :-)

egg & cheese sammich

Good morning!

original sin

My fascination with taking obscenely delicious food photos can be traced back to this moment, and this photo (which was taken by my darling Tony).

(at this point, you really must take a moment to click on the photo to view it in its full high-res glory, if you haven't done so already)

It was June 2004. We were in London for a couple days, on our way to Cyprus. We stopped in this little place near our hotel for breakfast—Tony went for the full-on English Breakfast, I think I opted for something a bit lighter. At the time when he was taking this photo, I might have been making fun of him a little for doing it, but when I saw the photo I was speechless.

This was also the moment when I fell in love with the digital camera (I still had a film camera at the time). I was absolutely amazed and enthralled with the insane amount of detail it produced—specifically in looking at this very photo.

Incidentally, though we were only in London for 2 days, we went back for this very same breakfast the next morning.

happy thanksgiving

oh, ok. Here's the "before":

colorful salad

I started out with the intention of just having a simple salad with greens, walnuts and dried cranberries, but then started adding a bunch of other stuff that looked good.

Here, we have greens (bagged spinach-radicchio mix), dried cranberries, walnuts, mandarin oranges, crimini mushrooms, pomegranate seeds, and crumbled feta. The dressing is a bottled raspberry walnut vinaigrette.

A note about pomegranate seeds...



I've always been perplexed by the pomegranate. Really, all I knew about it was:

-The juice is supposed to have magical health benefits.

-The juice is tasty, if not a tad intense (like cranberry juice on crack).
-The juice is extremely expensive.
-The Pom Wonderful brand has adorable packaging design.

But, as far as what a pomegranate actually is, I really had no idea.
Is it fruit? Is it seeds? (turns out, it's both)

So I bought one, on a whim, to do a little investigating. Basically, it's made of these pithy chambers that contain tons (hundreds?) of these plump, red seeds. They're kind of like jumbo versions of the little pulp sacs that make up a citrus fruit, except each one has a seed in the middle of it (which is fully edible, and delightfully crunchy).

The method I used to get the seeds out is to score the fruit in quarters so it pries apart easily. Take a piece in your hand (with the skin facing up), hold it over a bowl, then just whack it repeatedly with a wooden spoon. The seeds fall right out into the bowl (pick out any pieces of pith that fall into the bowl). Word to the wise: do not wear white when you do this. Though not incredibly messy, there was a tiny bit of splatter involved— and that pomegranate juice will stain (like red wine).

buttermilk waffles

(topped with banana, pomegranate seeds, honey & cinnamon)




The recipe (if you are health-conscious, shield your eyes):

2 cups flour
2 TBSP sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup (one stick) butter, melted
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Looking at that recipe, you might think these waffles would be terribly dense, but actually, they come out remarkably light and fluffy (just don't over-mix the batter).

buttermilk mashed potatoes

I don't have an exact recipe for this, but here's what I did... cut 4 red potatoes into small (1"-ish) cubes, put them in a pot of salted water (enough to cover the potatoes), and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 10 minutes, until the potatoes are nice and tender.

Drain the water out, and mash with a potato masher. If you don't have one, use a whisk, fork, or anything else that passes for a mashing device (besides your fist, you'll burn yourself).

Add a few pats of butter and a little bit of milk (maybe about 1/4 cup). Mix around to combine. Then add a little bit of buttermilk, to the desired consistency. Season with salt & pepper, and add some fresh chopped parsley.

(If you don't have buttermilk, you could just substitute more milk. I just happen to have some buttermilk on hand that I have to use up.)

my goodness... my guinness!

Can anyone guess the theme of my cooking this weekend?

Guinness beef stew:




Guinness-chocolate cupcakes:



I found the cupcake recipe here (which has become one of my new favorite sites!)

The stew recipe came from Everyday Food mag, but I tweaked some of the amounts to this:

4 lbs beef chuck (in 1-1/2 inch cubes)
1/4 c flour
2 cans tomato paste (6 oz. each)
2 lbs new potatoes
1-1/2 medium onions (cut into 1 inch pieces)
10 garlic cloves (sliced)
almost all of a 32 oz. carton of beef stock (or two 14.5 oz cans)
1-1/2 bottles of Guinness stout (you'll just have to drink the leftovers)
1 box frozen baby peas (thawed)

Basically, put all of that (except the peas!) into a 5-quart dutch oven pot, season with salt & pepper, cover, and bring to a boil on the stove (stir occasionally). Then move it into a 350-degree oven and cook for about 2-1/2 hours. After you take it out, stir in the peas and season again with salt & pepper.

This recipe will make a giant 5-quart vat of stew, so cut it down if you want to. I made the full recipe, and now have several containers of leftovers in my freezer, that will come in handy on a cold night when I don't want to cook.

brownie

I do the majority of my baking from scratch, however, I prefer to make brownies from a box mix. They're all good in my book, but the one above was made from the Ghirardelli mix, which has recently become my new favorite. The mix includes a packet of chocolate sauce, which I think contributes to the intense chocolatey-ness of the brownie.