The Magic of Quiche

I love quiche - it is my favorite comfort food. I mean, a pie filled with breakfast food - what's not to love? But that is just for starters ... it's tasty hot or cold, works for any meal, easy to prepare and can transform leftovers into something new and wonderful! You can change the cheeses and fillings and choose from an infinity of flavors by doing so. The only constants in my quiches are the eggs and the presence of onions - outside of that, anything goes!

On Monday night, I made a quiche for dinner - not only was it tasty and satisfying, it utilized a lot of leftovers hanging about. Back in May (the 21st to be precise - the day they predicted the Rapture) I hosted a ham dinner (which I, and unrepentant heathen, christened Hampocalypse or Hammageddon in honor of the Rapture.) Yes, the primary reason was to get together and share food with some really good friends, but my secondary purpose was to stock my freezer with leftover ham! All of the leftovers from Hammageddon were sliced and then chopped into cubes for future appearances in omelettes, home fries, pasta dishes and, of course, quiches!

But there were other delicious leftovers, too. What about the sharp white cheddar left over from when I made the Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits the other day? Now, I only had 4oz of cheese left and I would normally use up to double that amount, but with the flavorful ham, I really didn't think it would be missed. And I normally use caramelized onions in my quiche, but instead of carmelizing onions just for the quiche, I found a great way to make use of the delicious Onion Confit I made! Easy quiche just got easier! I tossed all of my fillings into the pie crust and then tossed it into the oven - there is no standing over a quiche, you can relax while it cooks.

Scott and I enjoyed it hot (along with some Butternut Squash Soup!) and then I packed away the leftovers. I had a slice for breakfast the next day, reheated at about 350 for 7 minutes in the toaster oven at work - my coworkers get insanely jealous when they are pouring cereal for themselves and I whip out a quiche that looks and smells divine! But I think it tasted the best when I ate it cold last night for dinner.

The temperatures in NJ have been absolutely ridiculous for the last few days - in NJ, we should not be hitting triple digit temps in early June! Gah! As a result of the excessive heat, humidity and sudden weather changes, I had a nasty sinus headache all day yesterday - when I could finally leave work for the day and escape to my apartment to lay down, food was the last thing on my mind. But around 9pm, still too headachey and miserable to cook, I needed to eat something. I scarfed down a few mini-pretzels while thinking of something easy and cold - I felt too crappy to make anything even the slightest bit complicated and it was too hot to eat anything warm! And then I remembered the quiche. Comfort food as simple as grabbing a slice from the fridge and attacking it with a fork - winning!

And it freezes like a dream, too. In fact, I brought the two remaining slices with me to work today - one will be lunch (along with some leftover and frozen Tomato and Roast Red Pepper Soup) and the other will go into the freezer for a future lunch or breakfast. I just wrap them in foil and toss them from the freezer into the oven/toaster oven when I want one!

So there you have it - easy, tasty and convenient - quiche!

I've been thinking ...

I think about food ... a lot.

I usually start waking up long before Scott does - I make a point of lounging around in bed, reading and napping and thinking for a few hours until he wakes up. I swear, his ability to sleep is contagious - before he came into my life, napping was impossible, I was typically unable to sleep past 6am and I had never even heard of blackout curtains. In a mix of joy over being able to sleep so much better and happiness being around someone as wonderful as he is, I like to have a hot, fresh thermos of coffee waiting for when he opens his eyes.

Yesterday when Scott opened his eyes, I offered him coffee, snuggled up while he took a sip (and sighed "Mmmmmmmmm" at the taste of it!) and said, "So - I am already thinking about dinner - how does chicken dinner sound?" Scott makes me happy in a billion different ways, but one of my many favorite things about him is his enthusiasm for the food I make - his reaction to the words "Chicken Dinner" are about the same you would expect to the words "All epense paid month-long island getaway with $1 million in spending money." And this is one of the many reasons why I spend so much time thinking about dinner - I have an appreciative audience!

When I think of food, I am thinking of applying new techniques and flavors to make a delicious meal that is straightforward to put together and memorable. I am a girl on a budget - I need to make my meager ducats go as far as they can and make sure everything I spend is well worth it. I want to maximize my returns - I want to feel like I am making the most delicious use of every ingredient and that everyone who eats it feels like the million bucks I would love to lavish on them if only I could.

So what brought this on? I have been thinking of food again ... specifically pork schnitzel and some fat, gorgeous bone-in pork chops sitting in my freezer, waiting to be enjoyed. Schnitzel calls for boneless cuts pounded thin, not thick bone-end chops ... but I can't get the breading used in pork schnitzel out of my head! So, along with the numbers from my morning reports and fragments of e-mail conversations, pork cooking methods and breading ingredients have been dancing around in my head. And I think I have it!

Baked Schnitzel Chops

Preheat oven to 425
Bread thick, bone-in pork chops as in Schnitzel recipe
Pan fry on both sides until breading starts to get golden, then transfer to baking dish and finish in oven, about 15 minutes, give or take, depending on thickness. (Edit - I did it! I totally tried it and it worked! About 2.5 minutes of frying on each side and then into an oven at 425 for 20 minutes - could have probably been in less time!)

Now, I am sure that I am not the first person to think of this. In fact, I am not even sure I got it right - there could be a serious flaw in my thinking! But that is part of the fun - thinking about the food, anticipating cooking it, troubleshooting limitations with technique, space or ingredients!

I am thinking of making these, alongside some Yukon Gold oven fries with a some of the leftover onion confit as a garnish and some simple veggies to round out the plate. Always thinking ...

Spending Time in the Kitchen

It's been a busy few weeks for me ... I still spend time in the kitchen, but not nearly enough and when there is little time to go around, I skip writing about it in favor or more time in the kitchen! But yesterday found me with some free time, cool enough weather to use my oven and inspiration!

I finally paid my library fines and checked out a few cook books to get some new ideas and perspectives. The first is an old favorite that I have borrowed several times - Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking - I like to revisit it as I get more and more facile with my Japanese cooking. I also picked up Tom Colicchio's Think Like a Chef and Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics - these are two of my favorite chefs and it is always a treat to spend some time learning how they think about food and create incredible meals.

Scott had a busy weekend - he was working an extra shift on Saturday and needed to spend some time doing some yard work at his place on Sunday. Usually we have incredibly lazy weekends that involve sleeping unreasonably late and taking the day at a snail's pace - this weekend was the exception that made me miss the rule! So, to make up for the lack of lazy and to make good use of time to myself in my apartment, I decided a full chicken dinner was in order.

Recently a friend confided that she would never attempt to make a roast chicken because she heard it was really hard and that you had to - gasp - remove the giblets from the cavity. Without leaving time for my filter to engage, I answered back "Roast chicken is what I make when I am too lazy to call for take out." Snotty, but true. Roast chicken is ridiculously easy, but so incredibly satisfying - I happened to have 1 more left in my freezer and figured that this brief break in the temperature is my last shot at slow-roasting a bird until temperatures become reasonable once again in the late fall! This chicken was very basic - salt, pepper, Montreal Steak Seasoning and olive oil - but the skin was crispy and it tasted incredible! I also made mashed potatoes and green beans - old favorites that always go well with roast chicken!

New to the menu were a dish each from Tom and Ina. Scott loves breads and baked goods, so when I saw Ina's Buttermilk Cheddar Biccuits, I knew that these were exactly what I wanted to make for him after a lot of hard work in the yard! They came out perfectly! (Well, perfect considering that I forgot to brush them with egg wash and top them with sea salt!) They were flaky but moist and even the nest morning, there was a subtle crispness to the crusts - fantastic! They remind me a lot of the Cheddar Bay biscuits you get at Red Lobster (I spent some time working there - they are burned in my memory!) - if I were to bake them as drop biscuits instead and brush them with garlic butter as soon as they come out of the oven, I think I would have a dead ringer!

Tom's Onion Confit grabbed my attention when I read the recipe and stayed with me - couldn't stop thinking about it and knew I had to try it! I love carmelized onions, but these are something very different! The white wine vinegar makes them so flavorful and the stock/broth makes the onions soft and buttery feeling! I made these to go along with the mashed potatoes as a sort of condiment, but I know these will now make an appearance alongside pork chops and as early as tonight will serve as the onion component of a quiche. These are unbelievably good and if you like onions at all, you are going to go insane for these!

All told, I was in my kitchen working steadily for a little more than 2 hours - time well spent in my opinion! I watched a movie and listened to some music while I sliced onions, massaged seasoning into the chicken, chopped potatoes and kneaded dough - I honestly can't think of a more enjoyable way I could have spent the time and the true rewards came when it was time to eat and I got Scott's wonderful reaction to all of my creations. For me, cooking is not a means to an end or a chore, but an enjoyable process - it's easy to create incredible and involved menus when your heart is truly in the kitchen.

More Paninis

This past week saw temperatures in the high 90's - my small 2nd story garden apartment is boiling hot throughout the winter ... you don't even want to imagine what it gets like in the summer! I have one air conditioning unit in the entire apartment - it is located in the living room - but even with the air conditioning working as hard as it can, it doesn't even begin to touch the heat in the kitchen. In the summer I am forced to stop using the oven and I avoid the stove top as much as possible - I turn to my George Foreman grill to do most of the cooking and try to dream up as many no cook meals as possible to avoid heat stroke!

This past Tuesday night I made paninis with fresh mozzarella, fresh sliced roma tomatos, fresh basil and grilled eggplant - I cut kaiser rolls in half, splashed both cut ends with balsamic and piled on the toppings before tossing the sandwiches on the George Foreman grill for a few minutes on each side - ridiculously good!

Panini

I have an unholy love for panini sandwiches - grilling a sandwich, IMO, makes the end result exponentially more delicious! A few months ago, I was contemplating my George Foreman grill (for which I also have an unholy love) and realized that among the millions of other things it could do, it could also make a bangin grilled cheese sandwich. Since then I have had many panini experiments, each more delicious than the next! One notable sandwich was inspired by one of Scott's favorites - sliced turkey, Swiss cheese, bacon and cranberry relish on rye. Well, last night's sandwich ( ... which will most likely see a reprise tonight!) was also unbelievably tasty - grilled veggies and goat cheese!

It was ridiculously simple to put together and required only a knife, cutting board, a bowl and George! I started by grilling the vegetables - my vegetables for this sandwich were zucchini, yellow squash and eggplant. My friend, Mara, came by for dinner and catching up, so she obliged me in slicing up the zucchini and squash on a bias (to increase surface area), unpeeled in 1/4" thick slices. From there, they were tossed in a bowl with some olive oil to coat. Meanwhile, I busted into the eggplant - I peeled the eggplant and cut it in 1/2" rounds. I laid those slices out, sprinkled them with kosher salt (both sides) and rinsed them off after about 20 minutes. (If you are unfamiliar as to why I would do this, it helps draw out the extra moisture and bitterness in the eggplant.) The eggplant, too, was tossed in the bowl with the olive oil.

I allowed George to preheat and then grilled the vegetables one grillful at a time. Grill time will vary by vegetable and thickness - about 6 minutes per batch worked well for me and left the veggies with great grill marks. Once all the veggies were grilled, it was time to assemble the sandwiches. I split the kaiser rolls open and began to build the panini!

First, I spread some chevre (goat cheese, the soft crumbly kind) on both sides of the roll, and then topped the bottom half with a nice big spoonful of bruschetta! Now, if it wasn't a Wednesday night that didn't have me arriving home until after 7pm, I would have probably made my own tomato, basil, and onion bruschetta to use on these sandwiches, but the grocery store had a really tasty premade version, so I took the shortcut. (But I do love to make my own brushcetta - especially in the summer when it is too hot to use oven and stove!) On top of the bruschetta, I layered the grilled vegetables and then popped the top of the roll on. From here, the sandwich was tossed on the already hot George until it was grilled to perfection.

The panini was delicious - crispy bread, flat squashed down sandwich, flavorful vegetables, tangy bruschetta and rich, delicious goat cheese that had melted into everything! I haven't been able to stop thinking of it!

Lime Madaleines

I have made Madaleines in many different flavors: traditional orange, lemon, grapefruit ... but even though the lime is perhaps my favorite citrus fruit, I have never made lime madaleines before. Last weekend, Scott picked up some really nice limes and brought them over. Just fat, juicy limes with really nice rinds. I replaced the orange zest that the recipe calls for with the zest of 2 limes.

Scott says that they tasted more lemony than anything else, and he made a great point - they tasted more lemon than the lemon ones! but they were really tasty and the green zest really looked neat in the cookies. So fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside.

We may or may not have housed the whole tray.

Last Udon of Spring

Not the best pictures I have ever taken, but I think you get the idea! :)

Thursday night has been Udon Night at my place for the fall and winter months, but last night we had the final Udon Night until it fall circles back around. That is not to say I won't randomly decide to make some udon before then, but for the warmer months, it won't be a weekly feature in the menu. It kind of warms you up when you eat it - my teensy apartment gets ridiculously hot in the warm months ... I will most assuredly NOT need warming up then!

Ever since I got my little veggie shapes cutters (4 different flowers - I love them!) I have been thinking of differently colored vegetables and how to cut them into flowers and include them in a meal. I decided to do carrot flowers again, but also ... Purple Yam Flowers!

I waited until I was just about ready to bring the udon broth up to a simmer, then busted out my mandoline slicer and sliced up the yam. It has a beautiful purple and white interior! When I had sliced the whole yam, I used the cutters to cut the flower shapes. The slices with the cutouts were pretty whimsical, too, so I tossed the carrot and yam flowers as well as their slices into the udon to bring to a simmer. When the meal was ready, the yams had cooked and I think their flavor brought A LOT to the broth!

This udon was made of: udon noodles, shiitake mushrooms (browned in a pan first), scallions, carrots, purple yams, wakame seaweed and naruto (kamoboko).

Stromboli

Of course I forgot to take a picture :)

On Friday night, I was organizing my fridge a bit while waiting for Scott to come over. I came upon a bit of leftover roast chicken breast, I still had a bunch of bacon hanging around, I had a little Cheddar Jack cheese leftover and a ball of whole wheat pizza dough that needed to be used sooner rather than later. The chicken and bacon stromboli was born!

This is a ridiculously easy and satisfying option for dinner! It took care of a lot of leftovers that might have gone to waste and it was so tasty! And I was able to prep it ahead - Scott doesn't get out of work until fairly late on Friday nights and then he likes to head to his place for a shower and to spend some time with his cats. While he was giving some love to the kittehs, I put the whole thing together and there it was, all set on its baking tray, ready to go as soon as we wanted dinner!

The premade whole wheat dough at my local grocery store is fantastic and was on crazy-sale last week ... there happen to be 3 balls lying in wait in my freezer and since the warm weather is coming (along with my refusal to use the oven in an already hellaciously hot apartment), looks like I am going to have to make them sooner rather than later! :) I have made my own (very tasty!) pizza dough in the past, but sometimes it's worth it to buy pre-made - no shame in a shortcut!

Butternut Squash Soup

I love soup and this is one of my favorites. This Butternut Squash Soup is the perfect blend of sweet and savory - the sage and chicken broth give it a roast chicken flavor aspect and the honey and apples really bring out the sweetness of the squash!

The biggest pain of making this is dealing with the squash, but I have it down to a science. you can always buy a pre-peeled and halved (or sometimes even pre-cubed!) squash at the grocery store, but I am a girl on a budget and would rather hack into it myself and save a little money. I find that a palm held peeler works best - it is really easy to use! It just seems to work better with the size and shape of the squash - I hate my "normal" peelers for this task. (Actually, I prefer this peeler for ALL of my peeling tasks - the other peelers in my kitchen are relics of the days before I discovered this wonderful little palm held peeler!)

Once it's peeled, I use a large chef's knife to cut the bulbous bottom off - from here I slice the top into 1/2" thick rounds and then further cut them to turn them into the 1/2" cubes I need. Then I stand the bottom piece on its cut end and cut it in half. I like to use a grapefruit spoon to remove the seeds and stringy bits, but you can use a knife or a normal spoon - whatever, so long as it comes out. Then I slice that into 1/2" pices and cube that up, too.

It's very simple and very satisfying - one of my favorites!

Roast Chicken

Roast Chicken is something I do REALLY well. As many times as I make it, each time I tell Scott that I am making roast chicken for dinner he makes the most wonderful "mmmmmmm" noise and praises it as if I had spent all day slaving over it. But roast chicken is EASY - in fact, it is what I make if I am not in the mood to cook. It takes less than 5 minutes to prep and it just camps out in the oven for 2 hours. I give a lot of credit to the roasting pan I use - it seems to raise the chicken to just the right height to get a perfectly browned bird! But the real secret to nice browning and a crispy skin is all in the prep. When I am rubbing the chicken with olive oil and herbs and salt and pepper, I make sure to rub some underneath the skin and as far into the legs/thighs as I can reach. It makes the meat a bit more flavorful and moist and it truly does make a difference in the skin.

Ricotta Cheese Pie

I don't make a lot of desserts, but this one I look forward to every year! Ricotta Cheese Pie is one of my most favorite foods! It's sweet, but not too sweet and never cloying - it feels light, yet so satisfying. It is the one desert that my mom would let me have a slice of for breakfast! This recipe comes from my dad's side of the family, but I have only ever had it when my mother makes it or I make it - we usually only make it once a year - for Easter! There is nothing stopping me from making it year round, it certainly isn't difficult or expensive, but there is something to be said for anticipating a certain dish, relishing it on it's particular holiday and as a leftover in the days following and missing it when it's all gone - it's special!

This is also the dish I am bringing to the breakfast potluck at work - as I said before, Ricotta Cheese Pie leftovers were fair game for breakfast in the days following Easter, so why not? Also, it's a cold dish so I don't have to worry about reheating it and I can make it ahead.

It has a light vanilla taste and a light, almost crumbly yet moist texture. The graham cracker crust compliments it perfectly and the cinnamon sprinkled on top as soon as it comes out of the oven is a great finishing touch.

Spaetzle, Schnitzel & Spargel - Oh My!

Ever since I saw the post on Smitten Kitchen, I have been dreaming of Spaetzle! So, I decided that called for a night of German food! And when I think of Germany, I think of my friend Sean - he loves all things German ... and naturally he picked up a Spaetzle press the last time he was there that he offered to loan me for the occassion! He came over on a Saturday night (4/16/11) with a delicious bottle of wine and his awesome spaetzle press!

The recipe I went with was 7 eggs, 2 Cups of AP Flour and 1/4 milk (I happened to have 2% on hand.) After mixing it with my hand mixer, I let it sit in the fridge for about an hour. At first it looked a bit thin, but after it had a chance to rest it was like elastic-y pancake batter ... in other words: perfect!

The intarwebz had a lot of wank over method - some people decried presses and other gadgets in favor of the traditional board, others said not to bother with the board - my decision was made when I couldn't find a board and Sean volunteered his press. Since I never tried the board, I cannot comment, but the press worked fantastically! (And it looks suspiciously like my potato ricer ... I think I am going to give that a try before I go and buy a specialized press!)

It only takes a minute or two for the Spaetzle to cook - you squeeze the press, the batter shoots out below into the boiling water in ribbons and when finished, you fish out the spaetzle and put them in an ice bath. Simple and delicious!

That night, I decided to go all alliterative - some pork Schnitzel and some Spargel (asparagus) were fantastic complements to the Spaetzle. The night Sean was over, I popped the cooled Spaetzle into a frying pan with a Tablespoon of butter and some shallots - both Sean and Scott raved about them! The two of them have both traveled through Germany and had the authentic, real deal, so their compliments meant a lot!

But I still had plenty of leftover Spaetzle ... time to get creative! Not pictured was my Spaetzle Provencal that I made the next night. The shallots and the butter from the previous night's dish got me thinking and I realized that I could treat the Spaetzle just about the same as I would bay scallops. So, I put a few handfulls of spaetzle into a zip top bag, tossed in about 4 Tbsp of AP Flour and shook it to coat them, melted 2 Tbsp of Unsalted Butter into a skillet and added the spaetzle. After about 4 minutes of tossing them around the skillet, I added 2 more Tbsp of butter, about 1/2 C minced shallots (maybe less), some dried parsley (didn't have fresh) and stirred that around for a minute or two and then added 1/3 cup of chicken broth and let that go for another minute or so. The result was delicious!

The next night I decided to try my own version of Kaese Spaetzle - it was my own version because I lacked the traditional cheeses one would normally use! I made 2 small ones to use up the small amounts of leftover cheddar and pepper jack that I had out as snacketizers the night Sean was over. The first one used the leftover Spaetzle provencal, a sliced up, coooked, sweet Italian sausage and some white cheddar cheese and was really fantastic! The other one was cheddar jack and sausage and, while good, the pepper was kind of intense in the pepper jack so it was pretty spicy. You can most closely compare it to baked macaroni and cheese (you bake it at 350 for 20-30 minutes), but the spaetzle was feather light and not at all heavy like noodles can get. I would definitely make this again (and again and again!)

It's the little things

This udon starts with the standard udon base brought to a simmer along with the white ends of the scallions. In addition to the noodles there were enoki mushrooms, shrimp, the green tops of scallions sliced thin, water cress and carrots. The best part about the carrots? I bought myself a set of vegetable shape cutters in flower shapes! Creativity and eye appeal are important parts of Japanese cuisine - why shouldn't food look as good as it tastes? The small flowers are the perfect size for raw carrots in udon to be - enough to deliver their fresh sweet taste, but not a huge overwhelming piece. And they are Pretty!

Frozen from Scratch

Kitsune Udon! Arguably, my favorite iteration of udon. Would you believe in the picture to the left, the only fresh ingredient is the scallion? It's not that I didn't make it all from scratch (well, not the noodles anyway and I buy the aburaage already fried, but I do flavor it myself), but I made it from scratch weeks ago. I love that I can enjoy homemade food that is better for me (and cheaper!) than a store bought frozen entree, but just as easy. Maybe even easier!

When I make the Udon Soup Base, I make enough for 4 servings (well, 6 really - there is always enough for lunch the next day!) Scott and I are only two people, though. So the other half? I freeze it! I just pop it into a quart sized container and it freezes like a dream. When I want to use it, it is as simple as putting it into a pot and bringing it up to a simmer! The aburaage come in a pack of 10 - they don't keep for very long and flavoring them takes the same amount of effort if you are doing a few or if you are doing the whole package - may as well do them all! I just pop the extras into zip-top bags in serving portions and keep them in the freezer for when I need them! One day I will make my own udon noodles, but for now, the fresh noodles come in handy serving size packs and can live in my fridge awaiting the next udon night. The wakame udon comes dried so there is no worry about spoilage (so long a you don't store it like an idiot) and the kamoboko - more specifically, naruto - come frozen, you just need to slice off what you need.

And even though I prefer to chop my scallions fresh, I will admit that I have prechopped scallions in my freezer for those nights that I want udon but I can't bear to go to the store.

I like that I can have a delicious, healthy meal in less time than it would take to call out for a pizza, that I can prep a large batch of ingredients all at once saving time and preventing waste and that I can make the most of my meager dollars. And it really turns out great - you would never be able to tell that it took less effort to put together than making a sandwich!

George

I swear that this is not a paid advertisement - it was inspired by last night's dinner!

There are many reasons to love George Foreman, but for me, it all comes down to the grill! I don't know where I would be without it! That sounds VERY dramatic, but it's true. I live in a small, second story garden apartment - that is important for 3 reasons: 1) I don't have a lot of space; 2) I don't have a balcony or a yard to set up a charcoal grill; and 3) it gets soooooooo hot during the summer that using my oven is completely out of the question. My George Foreman grill solves all three of those issues. I don't have one of the huge models (... yet ...), so it stores in one of my cabinets (right on top of the FoodSaver ... subject of future fangirl post!), out of the way, but still easy to reach. Since I don't have an outdoor place to grill, I can do all of my grilling in the kitchen and it doesn't throw off a lot of heat. In years past I was relegated to a lot of cold pasta salads (which I am NOT a fan of) because cooking was out of the question - now I can make grilled shrimp, chicken, fish, burgers, vegetables, etc. and not make my apartment hotter than the surface of the sun.

It's also really versatile - last night I completely changed what I made for dinner ... the only thing that didn't change was my plan to use George to make it! I would have used it for the grilled chicken I had planned, but I wound up using it to make a grilled ham and swiss sandwich instead! Bonus? I didn't have to use any butter on the bread - I just assembled the sandwich, tossed it on, shut the lid and took it off the grill when the cheese was all melty! When I make turkey burgers and decide to add cheese, I can hold the top half of the grill hovering over the cheese and get it all nice and melty!

George will always have a place in my kitchen - it really is everything that it claims to be!

My Happy Place

This post has been kicking around in my head for a few days, but a simple exchange with Scott last night brought the hazy jabberings of my mind into focus.

I am lucky to have a lot of friends who love to cook and who are also fantastic cooks - they make the best guests and the best hosts! When I am lucky enough to score an invite to their tables I know I am in for a treat, and when I invite them for dinner I know that they are not going to whine or freak out if they see a brussels sprout on their plate or a piece of fish. When I have my more finicky friends over for dinner I wrack my brains trying to find something to serve that they won't mind eating, but when my foodie friends come by the sky is the limit! I can get as creative and flavorful as I like!

Scott is one of those wonderful people who loves to cook and cooks food that I love. But right now, his kitchen is a work in progress - he really can't get in there to cook! Last night we were in my sitting room talking and laughing when I noticed the time and said that I needed to get started on dinner if we were actually going to eat. He asked if there was anything he could do to help. My first instinct was to tell him not to worry about it, just relax and hang out ... but this is Scott. A man who really likes to cook and hasn't been able to in a while. Instead, I looked at him and said "If you want to get your hands on some food and play with knives, of course you can come cook with me, but if you would rather hang out and relax, I can handle it solo." It turned out that he wanted to cook and it was really nice to be in the kitchen with him! He wasn't offering to help out of a sense of duty and being polite, he wanted to cook! I guess the kitchen is his happy place, too!

My kitchen is my happy place.

I spend a lot of time in my kitchen, even if I am not cooking. I have a laptop that lives on my counter so I can listen to music, watch TV and movies, access my recipe blog and search for new recipes. I don't have a large, state of the art kitchen - I live in a 2 bedroom garden apartment so it's really small and it doesn't have top of the line appliances or counter space to display a ton of gadgets and electronics, but it's my tiny kingdom and I love it. Where some might see these as limitations, I see these as important factors that shape the way I cook.

My kitchen may be tiny, but it is arranged to my convenience and liking - I can move around really quickly and rely on muscle memory to grab exactly the ingredient or implement I am after. My kitchen is set up to compliment the way I think - it's all about ME! With a small electric range and oven, I learned to really think through my meal plan - I need to determine whether or not I have the space for everything that needs to happen at once to actually happen. I learned what cooking temperatures can be nudged around a bit to allow several things to cook at once ... and which tempertures are absolutes! And occassionally discovering that it will be impossible to cook the meal I planned due to lack of space has been good for me - it forces me out of my comfort zone and inspires creativity (with what I am cooking AND how I cook it!) Since I have limited space, I have had to really consider what gadgets and appliances I really need. Rice cooker? OMG, yes! I use it constantly, I can cook whole meals in it and the steamer basket is so handy! Microwave? I got rid of it years ago and have yet to miss it - I only used it to reheat leftovers or nuke frozen veggies ... my stove and oven can do that, the microwave was redundant for me.

My kitchen is my happy place because cooking relaxes me and stills my mind. I have had a weird couple of years - stressful and unsettling - but going to a familiar place that is MINE, where I have the final say, where everything is according to my whim, gave me something to hold on to when everything else in my life was in flux. My kitchen kept me sane. I am competent in the kitchen - I have decent knife skills, a good understanding of flavors and an ingredients purpose in a recipe. When I feel imcompetent in life, I go to my kitchen and it makes me feel better. When I am anxious or my head is turning, nothing calms me like chopping and slicing and stirring and basting - the more fussy, technical and complicated the recipe, the faster my head stops spinning. Some people meditate when they are stressed, some people pray ... I put a brunoise on an apple and make apple madaleines. Worries and troubles get lost in the repetitive, precise movements - my head goes empty and the food is all that exists. It's a little mini-vacation from the real world.

But most of all, my kitchen is my happy place because cooking is one of the ways I show some love to the important people in my life. My mother (and the rest of my family, too!) loves coming to my place for dinner - every time she says "It's like going to a fancy restuarant!" That is balm to my soul - my mother is a wonderful woman who loves me beyond reason and I love that I can make her feel spoiled with my cooking. I use the good china, table linens and silverware as often as possible - I like to show people that I think a meal with them is a special occassion, even if its not a holiday or celebration. I like to surprise people with foods I know they like (or foods I know they will love once they try them!) I bake cookies from scratch when talking with friends - sometimes even grownups need cookies after a bad day. I know not everyone sees the world the same way, but I see a home cooked meal as an expression of love - you are fed body and soul, care and expense is taken to plan and make a wonderful meal and it is lovingly prepared by hand with the hope of pleasing and stisfying everyone who will eat it - to make them full in every sense!

It may be tiny, it may not be shiny and new, but it is home.

A Note on Pictures

What is a food blog without pictures? Ummmm ... it's THIS food blog 90% of the time! I am trying to be better - I swear! - but 9 times out of 10 I don't even think of snapping a picture until after I am done eating and when I do snap a picture, I tend to use the camera in my cell phone. The picture below in the St. Patrick's Day post? I was about to dig in when I realized I wanted a picture - I set the plate next to me on the beeeeyooooootiful couch, took out my ancient cell phone and snapped a picture in my dimly lit living room. Classy!

Scott is an excellent photographer and has occasionally taken pictures for me - I think I am going to see if I can get him to become my official photographer! And then you won't have to try and figure out what is dinner and what is my messy living room in the grainy mess I dare call a photograph!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A day to celebrate my smidgen of Irish ancestry, the potato, beer and Celtic punk music! Sweet!

I know corned beef, cabbage and potatoes are "traditional" but they are not what I am making for dinner. (Okay, okay ... there are plenty of potatoes and cabbage involved, but not in their plain, boiled form!) When I was a teenager, I stopped eating red meat. It isn't because "meat is murder" or for a spiritual belief ... I just found that I didn't care much for the taste (exception = venison!) and I just felt so much more energetic and ache-free after I stopped. So, no judgement here if you are a carnivore ... just no red meat recipes either! But until about 6 or 7 years ago, I would "cheat" on St. Patrick's day because I loved corned beef! But sadly, it was corned beef that taught me that after a while without meat, it's best to stay that way.

So, what do non-(red)meat-eaters eat on St. Patrick's Day? I spent some time poking around the internet looking for other Irish foods to make and stumbled upon Colcannon - I had never heard of it before, but was intrigued! Potatoes, leeks, cabbage all in one dish! I made it for the first time last year and Scott and I loved it! And even better, I panfried the leftovers into little colcannon cakes. Delicious!

But what protein to replace the corned beef with? Last year I cooked a whole bunch of Italian sausage in Guinness to go with the colcannon, but ... I was looking for something a little more ... not Italian! Well ... Ireland *is* and island nation ... why not fish? A few years ago I was watching a program on the Food Network about food from around the world and an Irish chef was using the most beautiful seafood that was caught right off the coast! We tend to think of corned beef and lamb and such when we think of Irish food, butnow I think of fish. So, tonight there will be some cod on the plate! Cooked simply - baked in a 425 oven for about 15 minutes, tossed in olive oil and perhaps some sea salt, pepper and marjoram with a squeeze of lemon to finish it off!

Well, the cabbage is already covered in the colcannon, but the idea of "Protein/Starchy side/Veg" is so firmly ingrained in me that I can't leave well-enough alone. And the Japanese principle of having 5 colors in a dish has rubbed off on me (note: the purpose of the 5 colors is nutritional, not just aesthetic. It's not a perfect system, but chances are if your plate has 5 different colored foods on it, you are getting a good range of nutrients! Trufax!) Well - I don't know if I can make it all the way to 5 on this plate, but some carrots would round out the white and green nicely! I mean, it's good enough for the Irish flag and all. And there is something ... blah ... about a plate of beigey white.

So, when I get home tonight, the first order of business is to fire up the stereo, get some Flogging Molly and Pogues going, wash those leeks, peel the potatoes and pour myself a beverage! But I think I am going to stop reserving colcannon for St. Patrick's Day only - it's too good to see on the plate only once a year!

Slainte!

Udon Night

After Japan's earthquake, tsunamis, aftershocks and explosions at the nuclear power plant, I kind of feel a little strange that my first few posts are about Japanese food. It just worked out that way.

So ... Udon night! Scott and I both love Japanese food - back in October 2010, he took me to Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater, NJ for the first time - it is one of the largest Japanese groceries in the US! While I was there, I picked up some Udon noodles and aburaage (among many MANY other lovely ingredients!) for the first time, and next thing you know - tradition was born! We tend to eat Udon every Thursday - we both love it, it is so satisfying and ... I make damn fine udon! Scott tells me that my udon broth is some of the best he has ever tasted and our friend, Fred, always tells me he feels like he should have had to take an airplane to taste something like that! (And Fred and Scott are excellent cooks in their own right! These are compliments of the highest order!)

I make udon weekly not only because I enjoy it, but also because I enjoy the process of making it. It starts on Wednesday night, when I make the dashi I need for the broth. If you don't already know, dashi is ubiquitous in Japanese cooking - it is an ingredient, a stock, a cooking liquid and so many other things! I used to use a method that involved simmering to specific temperatures and carefully adding the katsuobushi at just the right moment, but now it is as simple as adding the kombu and katsuobushi to a pot of cold water and refrigerating overnight. It's not a huge step and the hardest part is digging out the measuring cup to make sure I add the right amount of water to the pot, but it means something to me that I am making my dashi from scratch instead of using instant. I cast no aspersions on the cook who goes with instant dashi (hon dashi) - I certainly take shortcuts from time to time - but I love to cook from scratch.

One of the things I like best about making udon is the creativity. When I first started making udon, I wanted a recipe to work from - Japanese ingredients and their flavors were new to me and I was afraid of getting it wrong. But I didn't really need a recipe ... I needed some confidence! Once I gained a little experience with the ingredients and flavors, I was off and running! I developed a love of shiitake mushrooms (slice them about 1/4" thick and then toss them in a skillet with about a Tbsp of butter and they smell and taste heavenly!) and I began to not only consider taste, but aesthetics as well! I love the pretty pink and white naruto, I love the deep green wakame seaweed, I think renkon (lotus roots) sliced thin, floating like a piece of lace in the broth is beautiful. I like eating beautiful food - perhaps that is one reason Japanese cuisine really appeals to me.

I will also admit that I like the idea of Udon Night - something that Scott and I can look forward to each week. I like the shape that Udon Night takes - I come home from work and take the dashi out of the fridge where it has been steeping and becoming flavorful all night and day. I start washing and slicing and chopping ingredients and putting them in individual prep bowls, waiting for final assembly. I put a large pot of water on to boil for the noodles and I add all the ingredients to the dashi to transform it into udon broth! I enjoy the prep work and it is the kind of prep work that can be done as quickly or slowly as needed, in advance or at the last second according to what works best for the cook! Some nights we are hungry and I get right to cooking, but most nights we relax, fix a drink, talk and laugh for a while before we even think about eating. We can spend the evening as we like without having to worry about timing and checking on a dish in progress.

Japan

I woke up this morning to discover that Japan has been devastatd by an 8.9 earthquake, serious aftershocks and massive tsunami - I was horrified. The images of destruction are unreal - swept away houses burning yet surrounded by floodwaters as far as the eye can see, rubble and debris, power plants on fire. So, my thoughts are with the people of Japan and their loved ones around the workd who are worried and upset - I hope that this resolves as well as can be hoped for.

I think about Japan a lot. I have always wanted to visit - I want to see the fast paced, frenetic cities and I want to see the timeless temples and traditions that coexist - the oldest traditions and latest innovations juxtaposed, clashing or complimenting as they will. Harmony and dischord and the odd phenomenon of discord being a harmony of its own! Though, mostly when I think of Japan, I think of food. I love Japanese food - shopping for it, preparing it and eating it! I love the thoughts and philosophies that go into Japanese cuisine - how precise it is (or how precisely un-precisionlike when that is the intent!)

My first introduction to Japanese food was thanks to my friend Shawn during my freshman year of high school - mall sushi! I had never had sushi before - the idea of raw fish and seaweed clashed with everything I knew about food and what tasted good. But she convinced me to try her cucumber roll - the rice was faintly sweet and tangy, the cucumber was crisp and cool and the seaweed that I had been so hesitant to try was delicious. I had been extremely hesitant to try any raw fish, but my first peice of tuna roll was one of the best things I had ever tasted - the texture and the taste made it hard to believe that it had anything to do with the tuna that came in a can!

For many years, my exposure to Japanese cuisine was pretty much limited to sushi and hibatchi - I saw other items on menus, but for whatever reason, I was happy to stick to what I already knew. I developed a love of cooking in that time - since I am a product of the west, that is where my culinary adventures began, but after seeing Alton Brown make miso soup, I decided to try cooking Japanese food at home. Soon, I began reading Japanese cookbooks and food blogs (most notable justhungry.com - the author, Maki, taught me 90% of what I know through her excellent posts, recipes and articles!) - I learned techniques, flavor profiles, philosophies. In astonishingly short order, I was very confident - I would improvise and make substitutions and I was thrilled and delighted to be able to make it work!

I am far from an expert in Japanese cuisine and cooking, but I truly love it and I am excited to be able to produce a lovely, delicious, authentic meal. I love shopping in the Asian market - finding ingredients that are new to me, choosing beautiful vegetables and fish that fit the picture perfect vision of the meal I have in my head. I love preparing the ingredients - I like making my own dashi from katsuobushi and konbu instead of using instant. I like slicing colorful naruto and arranging it artfully in a bowl of udon. I love lacey, crunchy pieces of renkon whether they are floating delicately in a soup of part of a stir-fry. I smile each time watching dried wakame come to life and delicately drift through a boiling pot and am always mesmerized by the katsuobushi simmering while I am making dashi -its like looking into one of the storms on Jupiter! When I cook Japanese food for others I am always mindful that as beautiful as the final dish is and no matter how wonderful it may taste, they have missed out on some of the best sights and smells and small pleasures that are the province of the cook who gets to prepare it!

I guess one of the reasons I love Japanese cuisine and cooking is because it is a complete sensory experience. To be honest, I think that all cooking, regardless of cuisine should be a complete sensory experience, but it's built in and a vital part of Japanese cuisine. (An example would be all of the Fives in Japanese cooking - 5 flavors, 5 colors, 5 senses, etc - you can read more about it here.) When I am in my kitchen, I am truly in my happy place - Japanese cuisine demands my full attention ... the world just stops as I become absorbed in tasting, chopping and artfully arranging the food. Life goes by so fast and we miss so many of the details and little pleasures - I find it so relaxing to be able to focus on these things in my kitchen.

So - there it is. Last night, I was thinking about Japan as I prepared the udon (Scott and I enjoy Udon every Thursday night!), this morning I am thinking about Japan and hoping for a fast recovery from the devastation, but tonight I will be thinking of Japanese food again as I peel the lotus roots, slice the renkon thin, boil out the tannins and use it in a ginger stir fry - I will prepare this beautiful, lacey vegetable the way it has been painstakingly prepared for years and years by Japanese cooks. Much was destroyed in the earthquake and will have to be recreated and rebuilt, but tonight I will be celebrating something that has thrived and crossed oceans and cultures: the food of Japan.

Reboot

Alright - I am going to try this AGAIN! I think now that I have bumbled and started and stopped a few times, I now know how I want to format and organize this blog. Well, there are actually TWO blogs here ... this one will be the chatty one that talks about food and cooking and I will continue to keep all recipes here - this way I can link posts on this blog to the relevant recipe and not have to wade through my own blathering to find the posts with recipes as they will all be collected together elsewhere.

So, here we go again! Hopefully, this time it will stick!