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Fiery persimmon chicken

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Thanksgiving dinner was a big, rich, traditional affair, followed Friday by pizza and Saturday by dim sum, all of which left me craving nothing more than fresh, bright flavors with a minimum of fat by Sunday. Because dim sum was preceded by a stockpiling expedition to the Asian market, I had big, new jars of sauces whose expiration dates hadn’t passed who-knows-when calling out to me and a recipe from Cookthink that served as inspiration for that light meal I was craving.

For our Sunday dinner, I brined a chicken in kosher salt and brown sugar for a few hours, rinsed and dried it, then marinated it for about 30 minutes in a mixture of sambal oelek, dark honey, and heroic amounts of garlic. In the meantime, I halved a two stalks of celery and laid them out in a roasting pan with two carrot sticks, half of a red onion, and some peeled, chopped fuyu persimmon. Just before I put the bird in the oven (at 500 degrees for an hour), I stuffed the cavity with the remaining half of the red onion and another peeled and chopped persimmon.

Because the chicken was so moist […]

Happy blogversary to meeee…

Thanksgiving weekend marks two milestones for me: Moving to Ringwood, and starting this blog. Two years ago, I decided that moving the contents of my surprisingly spacious East Village apartment in January would’ve been a bad idea, so Gil and I moved everything to Ringwood over the course of November, finally finishing Thanksgiving weekend. It gave us almost four months together before the wedding, and was a real boon. Marriage AND suddenly living together would’ve blown my mind. Taking this in stages, no matter how compressed, was a blessing. And though I grumble a bit about Ringwood and its lack of restaurants, groceries, and proximity to the city, blessed is the best way to describe how I feel. I get to wake up in a house THAT HAS ITS OWN WASHER AND DRYER (you New Yorkers know what I mean), drink coffee, and share my life with this man:

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How could I not feel blessed?

And then, just one year ago today, I decided to start this little blog as a means of keeping my mind occupied during long, slow work days. I don’t even remember what those are anymore, but this site quickly morphed into […]

A slog, some fog, and a wonderful dog

cookie1a.jpgI worked longer than the expected four hours Wednesday, but less my typical nine, which threw a wrench into Gil’s big plans for holiday baking. He went all Woody Allen on me: “Can I leave the butter out on the counter long enough to pick you up at the train station? Will it meeeelt? Should I keep it in the fridge until we get home and start the whole process later? I don’t want to poiiiison anyone.” I don’t know a LOT about baking, but I figured that unless our kitchen counter spontaneously combusted, the butter couldn’t possibly get too soft for a standard cookie recipe. So he stopped the handwringing long enough to make the trek to Fair Lawn, then came home and baked his famous chocolate chip cookies Wednesday night. They garnered the expected “oohs” and “aahs” at our potluck Thanksgiving dinner, as well as knowing winks that I’ve managed to turn him into a baker. “Ha!” I say thee, “Ha!” I provided the recipe, but he didn’t learn baking from me, since I usually make with the burning.

Oh, and speaking of burning … !

Wouldn’tcha know it? I learned a wonderful […]

Happy Thanksgiving

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Feeling snackish

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Roasted hominy, three ways (from front to back): With Singapore curry blend, with harissa and fresh orange juice, with ras el hanout and lime juice.

True colors

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When I saw PURPLE! and GOLD! cauliflower at the Ringwood Farmers’ Market* this weekend, I had a magpie moment. I’m a sucker for any oddball produce on display, especially if it’s a zingy color, so, of course, I picked it up. It helps that football season’s still going strong and LSU continues not to screw things up too badly on the field; making a gratin of my alma mater’s colors isn’t an opportunity afforded me everyday, after all.

What was lovely in its original state could turn messy and ugly in the oven, I knew, but I forged on, armed with a can’t-fail recipe for a traditional gratin from the incomparable Clotilde of Chocolate & Zucchini. In my typical fashion, I made substitutions, but they were very minor — gruyère for the comté and not even a whisper of nutmeg, a spice I loathe. And you know what? The saturated hues of the cauliflower were a little disconcerting at first, but it was so silky, rich, and delicious we weren’t put off for long. Next time around, I’ll […]

The view from my window

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Bad, bad, Alton Brown

Alton Brown’s cakes don’t rise. They ascend.

In the spirit of Chuck Norris Facts, Charlie Hatton gives us Thirty Facts About Alton Brown followed by Thirty MORE Facts.

via Blog d’Elisson 

Nifty, thrifty leftovers

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Those of you who are sick to death of bread pudding, feel free to skip this post. Maybe it’s uninspired, but when a dish is this open to interpretation, it’s a slam dunk when I’m not feeling terribly creative. So when my friend NJ showed up at work today with a bag of Zadie’s whole wheat challah rolls for me, I knew at least a couple of them would make an appearance in a bread pudding this very evening. Not that I had any plans at all for dinner, but there were a few things in the fridge in danger of turning soon and, frankly, assembling this is second nature to me at this point.

But this is a savory one, more in line with something you’d eat for dinner instead of brunch. To get things started, I cubed three of the challah rolls and set them aside in a medium bowl. I sliced one clove of garlic and cooked it in a little almond oil over medium heat until it was lightly browned, then added about two cups of thinly sliced kale to the pan. Once the kale started to wilt, I […]

Brussels sprouts, by request

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Our invitation to Thanksgiving dinner came with a request this year — “Want to make that great brussel sprout recipe you sent me?” How could I say no when I spend so much time proselytizing about the virtues of this neglected sprout? And so armed with the recipe I first tried last year, I set out to recreate and, if possible, improve upon it last night. The aroma wouldn’t be an issue since Gil’s out of town, and I couldn’t take the chance of bringing a substandard dish to this most sacred of American food holidays.

While I loved the original, I thought there was definite room for improvement there. It was maybe too uniform and needed another layer of flavor, so I took my friend Mew’s suggestion and added pearl onions to the mix. Now that I was on a roll, I thought surely a dusting of pecorino romano couldn’t hurt anything, not after using so much heavy cream already. Next time I might try it topped with bread crumbs for extra crunch, but I’m happy enough with this version to serve it to a bunch of hungry friends and probably a […]