Where The Wild Things Are

Just another update from Florence! Things are going well here. I have plans to visit Siena tomorrow and a vineyard in Chianti this Saturday with folks from our school and I am very excited about it. Other than that, I’m in class from morning till evening Monday through Wednesday.

Oh, our power has gone out twice now. apparently using the oven and anything else causes us to blow the fuse. This also causes us to loose hot water. After 5 days, we finally got our hot water back. nothing like showering with freezing cold water.

Classes are going well. I’m slowly beginning to understand the Italian language. It’s difficult though, and it doesn’t help that my brain has suddenly decided to remember how to speak French! Yes, between English, Farsi, and the little French I know, speaking in Italian has had its entertaining moments. Maybe if I decide to learn German in a few years I’ll suddenly be able to speak Italian correctly. My teacher is very patient though, and I’m appreciative of that.

Cooking class is, well it’s been an adventure all by itself. Tuesday, the day after the whole Mackerel ordeal, someone at the school thought we needed to learn even more about fish! So we made FISH SOUP! What goes into fish soup you ask? Well, let me tell you (warning, you may want to vomit after reading this): squids, calamari, shellfish, mussels, dogfish (??), and small fish. After they cook for a little while, they go through a food mill to separate the bones and stuff. Doesn’t that just sound YUMMY?? Yeah, moving on…

We also made Polpette Di Baccala, or Balls of Salted Cod fish. Now, this was one of the better foods we had made. They were basically like crab cakes with cod in them with a delicious tomato sauce to accompany it. Take a look for yourself (yes, I did decorate this plate)

Fried Cod Balls

And finally, for dessert, we made Buccellato, which was a sort of bread topped with strawberries set in red wine for an hour.

Strawberries soaking in red wine

Delicious! As with many of the other recipes, there are a few things I would change, but still, it was a great starting point! This was my main project for the day. I avoided both other dishes due to the presence of fish again. I even resorted to cleaning dishes so I could avoid the fish.

Well, I think that’s all for now. Gonna continue enjoying my thursday. I call it my thursday, cuz i get to spend it however i want. Oh, and I promise, the next post will have nothing to do with fish. Even better, maybe it will be about wine!!

Ciao,

Sheila

Cookbook Addict

I don’t know what it is about a cookbook that makes me want to curl up on the couch, wrapped in a blanket and flip through the pages, dreaming about the next recipes I’ll try. And it’s not just the pictures and the references to roasted meats, fresh herbs or chocolate anything. It’s the whole experience – from planning the meal / menu, to making the grocery list, to shopping for the ingredients for my next masterpiece, to actually cooking it and it turning out right, and finally to having people enjoy my creation (and even ask for seconds!!). It’s a very rewarding experience.

That being said, I must have at least 30 cookbooks. Some I absolutely adore and refer to them regularly like the Barefoot Contessa ones. Some I always go back to for specific age-old recipes that have been successful over the years, like the Betty Crocker red binder (classic!). I won’t even get started on my collection of printed recipes and hand-written ones on bits of paper and notecards.

I love them all equally and they each have a special place on my bookshelf. I’ll enjoy pulling one out and leafing through the pages for inspiration. I have cookbooks on my nightstand. Cookbooks in the den. Cookbooks in the kitchen. The pages containing my favourite recipes have splotches on them that have been wiped away (with cloth or finger), and I love that. I make notes on the pages for substitutions that I’ve made, cooking times, other changes that worked well. Books should show some wear and tear – it shows that they’ve been loved. And that can’t be wrong.

Purgatory's Kitchen

Reality Show #2.  That is, if I survive “Targeted” …..

I know, “Hell’s Kitchen” is already taken by the spokesman for culinary onanism, and I don’t need the name anyway.  As much as I dislike my kitchen, it’s not hellish, but it does feel like a place of never-ending penance from which I pray to someday be delivered.  

 

Perhaps there are a few cooking/lifestyle shows that have a shred of real life in them, but not like mine.  Viewers will be amazed that I can pull off anything more complicated than a peanut butter sandwich using an outdated kitchen that was badly and cheaply updated by a previous owner in the mid ’80s.  

 

My stove is vintage 1920s.  We have to light it with a match, which is why my two boys still cannot make their own grilled cheese sandwiches.  Next to the stove is our dog’s large crate, the top of which handily doubles as extra counter space.  Dishwasher?  Yes indeed, handed down from a friend years ago, it’s a harvest gold, roll-to-the-sink, hose-hookup classic, but what I love more than anything about it is that… it washes dishes.  Floor:  old maple floorboards whose planks are far enough apart to fit whole Cheerios; one could fashion a meal out of all the food particles to be found in the crevass-riddled, uneven surface (anything dropped will roll east).

 

 

Twenty-seven Hail Marys may not be enough

 

 

Despite the picture I’m painting, I’m a pretty good cook most of the time, you just may not want to see how it’s done.  Therein lies the thrill of the reality show.  Dropped food on the floor?  Let’s dispense with the 5-second rule, which is ridiculously stringent when a good 5 minutes will do.  In my best Julia Child voice I’d chirp, “Who’s to know?”  Do you like to see chefs work with fancy appliances and utensils?  Years ago I whipped up a multi-dish full-on chicken dinner and trimmings using nothing but a teaspoon, all the while cradling a 6-week-old infant in my left arm.  Iron Chef, my ass – they’ve got nothing on the One-Armed Chef.  Though I don’t even drink coffee, I’ve lovingly ground coffee beans for Mr Crow with a mortar and pestle, looking and feeling like a peasant in an antique Columbian lithograph.  Our kitchen compost bucket is a plastic detergent tub, not a celebrity chef-designed….uh, plastic bucket.  For suspense, tension and cliff-hanging two-part episodes, we occasionally host holiday dinners for Mr Crow’s enormous family, sometimes staging – if not exactly entirely cooking – dinner for 38-40 people.

 

To keep things interesting on my show, I’ll happily lick my fingers like Nigella Lawson and bend over the dishes like Giada – my boobs are bigger but probably won’t film as well as hers.  I always love how Nigella’s fridge shows unlabeled plastic baggies of leftovers and lots of Snickers bars.  Mine has a whole cow eyeball in formaldehyde which I use when teaching Sensation & Perception; it was obtained from a student who’s father has some unclear connection to the Erie County Medical Examiner’s office, but he offered, and that’s not the kind of thing I turn down.  It’s right between the homemade fig and rosemary jam and a ramekin of bacon grease.

 

Food Network, enough with the “Overweight Guy Eats Weird and/or Diner Food” programs.  Get real.  It’s the least you could do after unleashing Rachel Ray on the world.  We have a place in Purgatory for you, if not lower down.

 

 

Charming kitchen vignette designed to distract you from the harvest gold dishwasher

 

 

 

rice pudding'ed

Thank you Columbus for finding this chunk of land and allowing me to have the day off today. Amen. I used to eat rice pudding as my mid-day pick me up in NYC because they are at every other store, but not here. So I made my own tweeked from this recipe.

And it was surprisingly easy. Cook some rice, add some sugar, milk, spices…voila!

Just look at that steam!

Recreating an Atticus Classic: Black Bean Soup with Cumin & Jalapeno

Tim and I are spending a quiet long weekend in the Berkshires.  Given the cool mountain air, I decided to make soup.   I asked Tim what kind of soup I should make.  He answered (very definitively), “black bean soup, like Atticus.”  Tim never demands particular foods or dishes so I decided I would try to recreate a classic from one of my all-time favorite spots in New Haven.  I probably went to Atticus almost everyday my junior and senior years at Yale.  It was conveniently located between where I lived, where most of my art history classes were, and the Yale Daily News where I spent countless hours.  The had the most amazing soups, breads, and capuccino granitas! I found the below recipe on Epicurous.  The recipe looked too simple to be truly amazing but then I read the reviews.  Everyone had the same reaction — wasn’t expecting much but the flavors came together beautifully.  I have no idea if this recipe is remotely close to Atticus’s but it was delicious.  I do know that Atticus uses a pork base.  This recipe uses chicken broth.  If you want to make the soup vegetarian, just use vegetable broth. Instead of pureeing 3 cups of the soup in a blender, I used my immersion blender.  I just pulsed the immersion blender 20 or 30 times to thicken the soup.  The only other change was using petite diced tomatoes with jalapeno.  I also added the fresh jalapeno but the spice really wasn’t overpowering. I served the soup with feta cheese, avocado, and scallions. Plus, we had a simple cheese quesadilla.  Overall a very delicious meal that I will be making again.

Black Bean Soup with Cumin and Jalapeño
Bon Appetit

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 to 2 teaspoons chopped jalapeño chile with seeds, divided
• 2 15- to 16-ounce cans black beans, undrained
• 1 15-ounce can petite diced tomatoes in juice
• 1 1/2 cups low-salt chicken broth

for serving

• Chopped fresh cilantro
• Chopped green onions
• Crumbled feta cheese

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrot, and garlic; sauté until vegetables begin to soften, about 6 minutes. Mix in cumin and 1 teaspoon jalapeño. Add beans, tomatoes with juice, and broth; bring soup to boil. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook until carrots are tender, about 15 minutes. Transfer 3 cups of soup to blender and puree until smooth. Return puree to pot. Simmer soup until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and remaining 1 teaspoon jalapeño, if desired.

Ladle soup into bowls. Pass cilantro, green onions, and feta cheese separately.

Today I cooked tagine....

I got this recipe from delish.com.  I made it with pork chops since that is what I had on hand.  Tagine is a Moroccan stew and it was cooked in the crock pot.   It was very good, sweet with exotic spices which I love.  I might use canned tomatoes next time because the skins were tough.  Very good dish however.  Here is how it’s made~~~

Ingredients:

1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into 2 inch cubes

2 medium tomatoes, coarsely chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1 15 ounce can of garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup chicken broth

1/3 cup raisins

2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

5 thin, lean pork chops

2 cups plain prepared coucous

1/2 cup green olives

Directions:

In a 6 quart slow cooker, combine squash, tomatoes, onion, garlic, beans, broth and raisins.  Combine the spices and sprinkle over the chops.  Place the chops on top of the vegetables.  Cover and cook according to the manufacturer directions, low 8 hours, high 4 hours.

Ten minutes before serving, prepare coucous according to the package directions.

This is a great fall meal!  Enjoy!

Can't Eat Right? Drink a Shake

I have been reading bits and pieces lately about the health and wellness of our nation.  It is scary.  The increase in High Fructose Corn Syrup consumption among Americans alone is disturbing.  Well, I guess maybe it is only disturbing if you give a shit about your health.  I don’t know why people think it is so oddball and weird that I am extremely health conscience.  If anything, I think it is more screwed up that people are still eating donuts and HoHo’s in the year 2009.  I also think that achieving health in our nation is a pipe dream.  If people wanted take care of themselves, they would be doing it already. 

As I have mentioned previously in other posts, I’m not advocating six pack abs and marathon-like endurance.  That is not the point.  The point is that people are choosing television over getting outside at 2p.m. in the afternoon on a Saturday, in the Summer.  Think about that.  Better yet, look at the statistics regarding kids under the age of twelve in modern day society…  I heard from Brian Grasso on a podcast like a year ago that 1:3 kids under the age of twelve was either OVERWEIGHT OR OBESE.  Come on people.  What are these parents doing while there kids are pre-disposing themselves to disease before they even enter middle school?  Nintendo Wii is cool, but it isn’t going to get you into shape by flailing your arms around for 2 hours a day… bowling.

The rant is over.  What I really wanted to touch on is how on-the-go eating is kind of an art.  Maybe more like a planned science.  It isn’t that difficult once you make it habit.  The best way to create a habit (a good one) is to stay disciplined and do it everyday.  Eventually it becomes second nature, and you will even find yourself stumbling upon better ways to effectively complete your habit. 

For example preparing food.  The ideal daily food intake involves whole foods throughout the day.  Sometimes, based on the environment or the time constraints, it might not be an option.  Nutrient shakes save me on a daily basis.  Seriously, analyze the following ingredients of my preferred shake:

Blueberries

Banana

POM (pomegranate juice)

walnuts

protein powder (maybe the most sketchy out of all listed)

probiotic plain yogurt

milk (enough to bring it all to a drinkable liquid)

 

Best drink ever.  The best part about the way that I eat is that I genuinely enjoy what I consume on a daily basis.  Plus, I can justify everything that I eat.  When you can whole-heartedly justify everything that enters your mouth, my best bet is that you will then be on the right track to healthful food consumption.  Stop counting calories, and start putting things into your body that are rich in nutrients, and make sense.  Proper nutrition is just common sense.  I get the general sense from speaking with people is that most people know what they SHOULD be doing when it comes to food and exercise.  What is glaringly obvious is that despite KNOWING, they are AVOIDING.  It’s an interesting psychological battle.

 

Cheers…