You could say I’m on a bit of a soba kick lately. I’ve been slurping up a great bowl of buckwheat noodle soup for breakfast, lunch or dinner almost every day these past few chilly weeks. Let’s talk about the soba in a bit; a really good bowl of any noodle soup, in my opinion, is in the soup. It’s generally thought that a good broth takes hours or even days to make right. But I’ve figured out a quick … Read More
Last Halloween, Dave introduced me to a dish that involves baking stuff inside a hollowed-out pumpkin. He explained that he’d taken it from a Ruth Reichl recipe in Gourmet. This past Halloween, I hosted, and I copied Dave’s (or Ruth’s) dish to a T. (Only mine was in a white heirloom “ghost” pumpkin, and I served a side of beet-and-tomato “blood” soup.) It’s sort of like French onion soup, inside a pumpkin: you stuff stale bread cubes and pour chicken … Read More
I’ve been to Wisconsin a few times, whether traveling for work (involving food) or pleasure. So I’ve gotten a good taste of the dairy state, and even toured the caves of a cheesemaker once. So when I was asked to recreate a recipe from Wisconsin Cheese and Chef Michael Symon’s cooking series, Favorite Foods, I thought it’d be a good way to cook with one of my findings. But also, to maybe overcome a lifelong aversion I’ve had for Blue … Read More
Rather than watering it down with milk and cream, or confusing its flavor with a tomato-laden broth, this soup is all about broccoli, from its florets to its stems to its leaves. You’ll get a big burst of the broccoli with each spoonful of the stuff, and that’s a somewhat new way to experience a vegetable that’s been around (and has been disdained, in many cases) for all our lives. It starts out with roasting the pieces to concentrate their … Read More
Question: Why do we eat coleslaw in the summer, usually? Okay, it’s crisp, sweet and cooling, and I even thought it was called “cold slaw” as a kid. But it’s made primarily of… winter cabbage. And we’ll be seeing lots of heads of those for the rest of the year.
So I entered the Casserole Party this year. It was a bit of a last-minute decision: the same afternoon, I chatted with the annual cookoff’s hostess Emily Farris on Let’s Eat In. It was enough to persuade me to run home and rummage through the kitchen to come up with something fast. After all, that’s what a casserole is best for, to combine whatever delicious things you have on hand in one dish. A casserole dish, to be exact. Well, … Read More
I love making hash browns, but it’s not exactly the quickest route to a savory breakfast. Nor is it the most nutritious; even if using sweet potatoes, which are richer in beta-carotene and cold weather-helping antioxidants than regular, pale potatoes, you’ll spend almost twice the amount of time cooking it to a pleasing softness, and by that time you’ll have added more oils to keep it from sticking to the pan. Winter squash is in season, and I’ve found a … Read More
You know, I have never actually owned a cake pan. I’ve never particularly wanted to use one, either. The spring clasp makes me skeptical. And I guess I don’t see why any food should have to be such a perfect cylinder of foam. As you can probably guess, I don’t have any cake decorating gadgets, and I’ve gotten by improvising them every time I’ve taken on a cupcake task. (Is it a sign of the awesome popularity of the cupcake … Read More
I’m always looking to cook beans in a hearty application that doesn’t involve meat. After all, beans are a protein on their own. From lentils to split peas to baked beans with ginger, chipotle and hoisin, this has offered varied and delicious results. Why am I doing this? I have no idea, I’m not even a vegetarian. I just want to see how best it can be done.
We’re in a fall transitional time, when savory spoonfuls of something warm might appeal, but bright summer produce is still abound. I was going to make some oatmeal for breakfast, but this happened instead. Luckily, by the time these oat groats had softened, it was lunchtime, too.