A Chat with Soup & Bread Founder, Martha Bayne

It's on! Soup and Bread, a cozy tradition from Chicago, is making its way to Brooklyn for the first time this Thursday. Over in the windy city, it's a free, open-to-the-public weekly dinner at the Hideout bar and music venue, where staff, friends, cooks, musicians, and whoever's willing donate pots of homemade soup to serve. It's a culi-charity (has that been coined?) event designed to be low-key, easy to participate in, and fun for the community, especially in the middle of a freezing Midwest winter. And, it's raised thousands of dollars for the Chicago Food Depository, by passing around a bucket for donations at each Soup and Bread.

Carrot Walnut Scones

Ever had a really good, juicy carrot? Not the kind that's all white and dehydrated like your skin in the winter, I mean a plump, bursting balloon of sweetness, with a few wisps of fuzzy roots and wrinkles, maybe, but a thin skin that betrays its more-orange-than-an-orange flesh? Thankfully, I have. And it'll never be forgotten. Granted, I can eat carrots any way, shape or form: raw, cooked, juiced, shredded or mashed -- and yes, wispy and dry as my skin right now, too. But it's a whole other level of enjoyment when the ingredient is at its prime.

White Bean Puree with Poached Egg

Sometimes the simplest things really are the best. I'd planned to cook, eat, and write about an elaborate dish on my day off. It would be exciting, colorful, and completely novel. It would also somehow incorporate soaked and mostly-cooked white beans, which I had leftover. After a morning of deliberation and preparation, it was done: sour citrus wedges, briny olives and mealy white beans, unexpectedly brought to congress with plenty drizzles of olive oil. But once it was photographed and poised to be eaten, I found that I didn't really want to shovel it down. It was just a bit much.

Food Obstructions III is February 7

It's time once again, folks. The Food Obstructions III is happening at The Gutter on Sunday, February 7th, and of course we're giving it a corny Valentine's Day kiss. Reddy or not! Here are the five obstructions to your dish: -Cannot contain onions or garlic -Must contain hearts (of palm, artichokes, celery, an animal, candy hearts... you name it! Just don't say you simply cooked it "with heart") -Must include an ingredient that is red -Cannot require utensils to eat -Must include an ingredient that is rumored to be an aphrodisiac

Cassoulet Marocaine (and a recap of the Greenmarket Benefit Cassoulet Cook-Off)

I've been having a love affair with beans lately. This may have happened by default, with so few fresh muses in season to cook with, or else a newfound appreciation simply gained on its own merit: beans are infinitely versatile, used in every cuisine, hearty, and nutritious. They are the main ingredient in comfort foods of so many cultures, like the French cassoulet. But beans also have a stigma attached to them, especially in our meat-loving culture -- that of a "poor man's protein." (And please hold the gas jokes.) "Beans are not enthusiastically embraced by everyone," Ken Albala wrote in Beans: A History. "More than any other food, beans have been associated with poverty." Yet thanks to them, and to a dizzying bar full of folks enthusiastically embracing them, beans have made the Greenmarket of New York City $2,500 richer.

Apple Cider-Braised Kabocha Squash with Golden Raisins and Onion

Sick of the same old squashes? Bored of the brainless old ways to cook them, too? (i.e. Roast until tender. Puree into soup.) I think this happens just about every January. It's the winter's-here, we've-done-our-soup-thing, home-cook-head-scratching blues. The holidays are over, and reality has sunk back in; it's back to the daily grind. And what? You're coming down with a flu, too? Yep, you've got it bad. Better get some antioxidants in the system, STAT. Luckily, eating squashes (not just in soups) are pretty good at doing that.

My Favorite Food Books of 2009

My bookshelf overrunneth. I used to feel this rush whenever my fridge was brimming with food, usually after a summer CSA pick-up, and the need to immediately bestow this farm-fresh goodness upon everyone I knew. I can't give away all my books, however, and lending only goes so far. But I still want share this bounty of great food literature, somehow. They say that book publishing may be in danger, but according to Lynn Andriani, who moderated a panel on "The Future of Food Writing" last week at Housing Works Bookstore, food-related titles have actually increased in sales last year. And 2009 saw a great deal of really good ones. Here are some of my favorites, for what it's worth. I've enjoyed reading and getting inspired by them, and it's only fair to give credit where it's due. I hope you find them fascinating, too.

Oat Goat Chip Cookies

The taste of goat's milk is hard to articulate. There is a world of verbiage that others have affixed to it, but language fails me here. It's not pungent, I don't think... and it isn't mild enough to be called "buttery." But it seems too potent for the word, "earthy." Whatever it is, it was such a novel tastebud sensation for me when I first detected these inscrutable traits -- by accident, smothering asparagus (grassy, sulphuric) and scrambled egg (slightly metallic) in an omelet several years ago -- that my face turned a wild flipbook of expressions, from shock to curiosity to disgust. The mind rejects such an unexpected onslaught on the body, and I decided that I hated goat cheese that day. Time and again, I would taste it and the once unfamiliar flavor became less overwhelming. But the thrill is not gone.

Kimchee, Spinach and Goat Cheese Frittata

What is this, la-dee-da? It's a frittata. La-dee-da. No, it's really not la-dee-da, it's eggs, with pickled cabbage and spinach in it. Okay, well maybe the goat cheese is a little la-dee-dah, but it's used pretty sparingly. So the whole dish is most certainly not a fancy one. It's just what you call an omelet if it had never been flipped, so you don't have to master the art of French cooking like Julia Child and have that euphoric moment once you get the hang of flipping it right -- but it's euphoria eating it, all the same.

Cheeseburger Dumplings

Hold the fries with these: who needs them when you have a crisp on the bottom, chewy on the top homemade noodle encapsulating a juicy nugget of better-than-Grade-A beef, with melted shreds of sharp cheddar and caramelized onions inside? That's a happy meal for me alone. Alright, and some soy sauce (or ketchup? I can't decide!) doesn't hurt for dipping.

What’s Hotter: Spicy or Sweet? (call in to chat!)

The perfect date meal, you name it, go! This has been one of my favorite questions of 2009 (happy New Year, by the way!). Until recently, I may have asked the same friends to describe their dream dinners way too many times, but now on nearly every episode of Let's Eat In, I get the chance to put it to a great new pair of guests each week. From food writers, sex writers, musicians, and overall food fanatics, each awesome expert has had something equally inspiring to say. It's a bit of a research project, for no good reason but fun. Two of the most commonly voiced food choices I've heard overall on this have been devilishly spicy, or deliciously sweet. So now, I wonder, what is the most romance-worthy flavor profile: spicy or sweet?