Month: November 2009

Having been travelling and then sick for the last…oh, I don’t know how long…I am happy to be home and feel up to cooking.  And I’m interested in getting back to the basics of my blog, which is to share more about my kitchen antics.  Tonight I made two yummy dishes that weren’t a match made in heaven.  But each, on its own, was scrumptious!

First, I made New Orleans-style Shrimp.  Nothing could be easier.  Just don’t save the marinade, as the spiciness drifts toward the bottom of the bowl, foil, dish.  The best is at the bottom!

And while this should be served on a bed of rice to soak up the sauce, I desperately wanted to make an orzo dish.  I’ve come across a few in the past week or so, and this one was particularly appealing: Orzo with artichokes and pine nuts.  I added broccoli, and where it suggested tobasco, I added sriracha and tapatio, two of my favorite hot sauces.

While the orzo was not the best complement to the shrimp, each dish was, in its own right, delicious, flavorful and easy.  Even for someone ill after a full day back at work.  I’m just happy to be creating.

Note: For those who don’t get the title reference, look at the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup marketing from the 70’s and 80’s…

At the request of my sniffly, sinus-headachy husband, this afternoon I made potato-leek soup.  It’s very creamy, considering that there is no cream or milk base.  And I nailed the spices on it on my first try.

Here is the recipe I use, though with a starchy-soup, I don’t make cheese toast to go with it.  A little salad or light veggie on the side seems a better option to me.  And as the name suggests, it is a very pretty soup.  Full of flavor and so easy to make.

Here are my adaptations: I used 3 smallish local leeks and as many potatoes as we had in the kitchen, 2 large, 4 medium and 2 itty-bitty babies that were challenging to peel.  I accidentally browned a few of the leeks, and in a moment of panic concern, I added an extra tablespoon of butter.  I also substituted one can of chicken broth for one of vegetable broth, added a bit more salt than the recipe calls for, and used a hand blender instead of a potato masher.  I recommend keeping it a little bit chunky.  A great quick soup that doesn’t need sitting time to develop its full flavor and won’t interrupt Sunday afternoon football.  A win-win situation!

If it isn’t already apparent, I am passionate about cooking.  I watch Hell’s Kitchen, Top Chef (regular and Master’s), Food Network Challenge, Ace of Cakes, Kitchen Nightmares, Iron Chef (original and America) and the occasional cooking show.  I listen to The Splendid Table podcast.  Last month I read “Julie and Julia” and am working through “Omnivore’s Dilemma.”  While I do have other interests including gardening, particularly growing my own veggies, clearly food is my passion.  Two long-standing sources of inspiration, however, are about to exit my life, and it is these two publications that I would like to honor here: Cooking Light and Gourmet.

I have been receiving Cooking Light, courtesy of my parents, for the last 11 years and Gourmet for about the last five. This fall I decided that I have outgrown Cooking Light and asked my mother not to renew my subscription. I just find that I’m a bit bored with it, and I’m seeing too many recipes reprinted over the years.  My decision to end such a long relationship was confirmed Cooking Light’s “new look” which was displayed in the very next magazine on my doorstep. What had been a somewhat scary and agonizing decision for me – ending an 11 year relationship was nothing I took lightly – became the easiest choice in the world.  I hate the new branding.  I can’t tell the ads from the once-familiar monthly features. Everything is bright and friendly and kitty-corner on the page, and it screams out to me that I am no longer their target audience. It makes me feel old.  While I appreciate the years of recipes that Cooking Light has given me, I am ready to say goodbye.

In contrast, I am not ready to give up on Gourmet.  It has been ripped from my hands all too soon, leaving me wounded and lost.  In October, Conde Nast announced that, on the advice of McKinsey and Company, they were going to stop publishing Gourmet.  I understand that for them it was a business decision, but for me it is a very emotional one.  My in-laws said they considered sending me a sympathy card, and it would not have been unappreciated.  Typically the November issues of cooking magazines are my least favorite (I don’t host Thanksgiving or have much say in preparation of anything, so the latest ideas about reinventing the traditional meal are lost on me).  This year, however, I savored every detail.  Expecting a heartfelt goodbye from editor Ruth Reichl, I was surprised to find a standard Thanksgiving and family letter.  I don’t know if Conde Nast pulled the plug so rapidly that there was no time for a goodbye or if it was a conscious decision to exclude it, but I must say that I was disappointed.  It reminds me of the last episode of the Sopranos, where the loose ends just don’t get tied up neatly.  I say that I will boycott Conde Nast products and publications for life, but the anger will likely fade.  In time.

In the meantime, I have been left magazine-less, so I must keep moving on.  I’ve decided that I’m going to start getting Saveur.  I have only read a few issues over the years, and what seemed intimidating to me early on in my culinary days is now very approachable.  It helped that the cover of the issue I picked up in the midst of this turmoil is all about lamb.  This was a hot topic around the time of my wedding, with my husband insisting that we serve it at our reception, and several others, including the inn owner, declaring that most people don’t even like lamb.  We ran out, and my husband will forever be right to call an “I told  you so” about the situation.  So the proclamation on the cover of Saveur, “Why Lamb Rules” was amusing and timely.  And I found that Saveur is not over my head.  In fact, it made me want to raise sheep and sell lamb at a farmer’s market.  Somewhere, someday.

So with the my magazine choices settled, I am ready.  Ready for new inspiration.  For reinvention.  Ready for the biggest changes in my kitchen since…well, really only since June, when we started getting the farm share.  But more change is coming to my kitchen.  So stay tuned…

A couple weeks ago we got together with our the friends we split our farm share with to celebrate a bountiful growing season. We decided to each make a dish or two, and we did little in the way of advance menu collaboration. By little, I mean none. Given how late in the season it is, we ended up with a pretty carb-heavy meal (root veggies are a late-season crop that keeps well), but we didn’t care. Ironically, as much as a reason as the food was for this soiree, it took a backseat to the enjoying each other’s company. However, as this is not a social blog, let me share a bit about the meal.

The true culinary highlight for me was the vegetable quesadillas. The very ones I briefly mentioned in a June post. While I didn’t love them when I made them, their creator, Taina, did them justice. Now I can understand why she adores them so much. Maybe it was her spectacular sous chef husband – let me tell you, these two have an impressive system for quesadilla assembly. Each time the four of us rapidly devoured (by which I mean slowly savored) one quesadilla, out would come another one perfectly cooked half-moon of deliciousness!

We made a couple other dishes, roasted potatoes and Moroccan chick pea stew, and while I don’t mean to diminish them by excluding them here, it was truly the quesadillas that stole the show.

During the evening, Taina and I also lamented a return to regular grocery shopping and meal-planning. I’m not sure it has sunk in yet. Long gone are my concerns about relinquishing control over the ingredients coming into my home and worries of too many rutabagas (we got a half of one this season). Now I can’t wait for next year’s share to start again!

And as we move on, I can’t help being so appreciative of Amanda and the team at Waltham Fields Community Farm as they put the farm to bed and are certainly already hard at work preparing for another great season of fresh local ingredients for my kitchen next year!