The Preservation Kitchen. Canning for a New Generation. If reading material is any indication, this is going to be the summer of packing things into jars. And if not jars, then bottles. Still, though I am perhaps past the desperate early-April rush to consume the first fresh greens of spring right now, this minute, I have neither the budget nor yet the patience to actually commit any of my market finds to long term caning storage–no matter how lovely the little spears would look lined up on my pantry shelf. Still, I was anxious to do something with all these recipes and glassware I’ve been gathering, so this weekend, I split the difference and did a bit of quick pickling… Continue reading »
Playing With My Food
This post was inspired by two things. 1. The $14 salad I ate last week that arrived looking like an SNL sketch ripping on modernist cuisine. Once I tamped down the snarky commentary in my head, it tasted so delicious I was shamed (at least until the check arrived) for my quick judgment call. An 1/8 of a pound of split pea pods and artichoke hearts perched on a slick of fennel dressing (accented–I’m not making this up–with a single, paper-thin radish slice) never tasted so lovely. 2. The fact that when I opened the refrigerator to figure out dinner last night, nothing was cooked besides the beets, and it was already 8 p.m. Oh, and part 2b. I had… Continue reading »
Pancakes with a Heart of Gold
There’s a restaurant here in Baltimore that Brian and I pretty much regard as an annex of our own home: Golden West Cafe. Considering the frequency with which we dine there, you’d think I’d have tried everything on their rather extensive menu, but I am a child of habit and pretty much restrict myself to two (super awesomely satisfying) dishes. There used to be a third. At some point, however, my beloved lemony pancakes, the ones flecked with zucchini and onion and stuffed miraculously with a slice of brie cheese in the middle, disappeared from the menu. I don’t know where they went or why they left; they didn’t leave a note. They did make enough of an impression on… Continue reading »
Easter Egg Cocktail: The Sergio Leone
Since we didn’t color Easter eggs or bake an Easter ham, I was on the hunt for something to celebrate the holiday. A recent interest in exploring cocktails that make use of raw eggs led me to several recipes that had obviously been posted in advance of this weekend for people just like me. Of the bunch, the Sergio Leone cocktail, caught my eye as much for its tip of the hat to the famous spaghetti Western director as for the fact that it was the only one I could mix up with the supplies currently available in our not-too-shabby-but-clearly-lacking-in-some-areas home bar collection. I love the tang produced by bourbon and fresh lemon juice. And with the maraschino acting as… Continue reading »
Indivisible: Kitchen Fail Edition
This was meant to be my inspiring Easter recipe post. That, as it turns out, just wasn’t to be. My idea was this: I would raid the used book store for old cookbooks and unearth lovely recipes for quaint and classy baked goods from their disintegrating pages. And so it was that I began work on a Finnish Coffee Bread–perfect for your Christmas, er, Easter table! I knew disaster was lurking, even before I started. I didn’t want to deal with a “ten-plus cups of flour” dough volume. Did that stop me? Yes! Until I tried to do the math and the division by three became increasingly ridiculous. I got to the “4 eggs” and, since I had never made… Continue reading »
There Can’t Be Only One: Spring Asparagus
Spring asparagus. Not the dry and woody and confusingly available in the grocery store in January kind, but pencil thin and freshly picked. Who could limit themselves to just one bunch (@ $2 each!) per week? Not I, said the little cook. And so, after asparagus tart, there was asparagus…well, pesto, in a sense. Puree in another. Sauce? Condiment? Dip? Yes, yes, and yes. Pass the crackers. Hell, pass a spoon. After my “first of spring” produce splurge this weekend, I had stretched the grocery budget too tightly to handle a whole cup of pine nuts, and so I swapped in the walnuts I already had in the pantry and saved the few pine nuts available for garnish; it was… Continue reading »
