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!