When I know it’s going to be an especially busy week for me, complete with late nights and long commutes, I like to plan at least a couple of easy meals that can be prepared quickly when I get home. Often, these take the form of picnics in the living room — a selection of cheeses, maybe salami, definitely olives (for me, at least), and a little wine. But sometimes I want something more substantial, which is when having a decently-stocked refrigerator comes into play.

For this quick cauliflower soup, I sautéed three thinly-sliced medium leeks in a little butter until soft, then added some chopped garlic and gave it about 30 seconds in the pot before adding one head of cauliflower florets and (this is key) fresh chicken stock to cover. I usually make this with low-sodium chicken broth (shhhh — don’t tell Ruhlman!), but the real stock makes such a huge difference I don’t think I’ll be going back. Once the cauliflower was soft, I added salt to taste, then gave it a whirl in my blender (filled halfway, knob off the lid, covered with a dishtowel), and we were ready to eat. Because I had a bunch of parsley on my hands, I made a quick parsley oil with the stems and a combination of olive and avocado oil, but I don’t think it added enough to the dish to make it a requirement.

It was just the thing to end one day of an already-long work week — simple, nutritious, and tasty.

…already in progress.

Yes, I really have missed cooking, so I took the opportunity to fire up the oven this morning when it became clear there wouldn’t be enough milk to go around for our standard bowls of cereal. But what we did have was the basics — eggs, butter, flour, sugar, lemons, and just enough milk to make a simple but elegant breakfast of Dutch baby pancakes. These were adapted from a recipe I found a while back at Orangette; we didn’t have half-and-half on hand, so I made do with equal parts lowfat and evaporated milk, and used only half of the butter called for, just because it was already pooling in the center of the pancake when I took it from the oven.

No? You can’t see the butter? Sorry, I focused on that gorgeous browned crust before it flew too close to the sun and fell back to earth, but trust me, the butter is there. I love these Dutch babies because the texture is somewhere between a custard and a pancake — very eggy and light, and not cakey at all.

That light flavor and airy texture is greatly enhanced by a liberal dousing of lemon juice, which brightens everything. I mean, just look at it — this is one happy breakfast. I can imagine this would be completely delicious with orange juice instead of lemon juice, but it’ll be difficult to change a thing next time; this was a real treat and just as easy as throwing together a simple breakfast of eggs and toast.

Oh, and let’s get a close-up of the finished pancake, shall we? That little pool in the corner is butter and lemon juice, and should, if my calculations are correct, make you weep and run to the kitchen to make this yourself.

recipe after the jump

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It’s been an interesting 10 days or so here, a stretch of time in which I managed to do almost no cooking, if you can believe it! Oh sure, there was the Greek chicken experiment of last weekend in which I discovered a deep dislike of dried oregano, which tastes a lot like aspirin to me. But once it was scraped off, the leftover chicken was pretty good in a cobbled-together chicken and broccoli casserole in cheese sauce — nothing fancy, but it warmed me during the cold days at the beginning of the week.

Last Wednesday night was for dining out in the city. I met up with Claudia of cook eat FRET at Insieme for a getting-to-know-you dinner and had an absolute ball. The food ranged from sublime (Oh, branzino, where have you been all my life?) to Why Is This Even On the Menu? (Sweetbreads, liver, etc. appetizer — I’m looking at you), but bookending the meal with a rye-based Manhattan and pear eau de vie turned out to be a really good idea, and made the late bus ride home much more enjoyable than it otherwise would have been. And Claudia? She was every bit as warm, funny, and opinionated as you’d expect from reading her blog. I don’t even remember the last time I spoke to people sitting at a table next to me, but she just radiates such a good vibe we were all chatting away by the end of the meal. It was loads of fun and I’m already looking forward to her next visit to the city. (No picture of her or the meal because my rassafrassin’ camera died just as I was snapping the first picture.)

Of course, after this holiday weekend, travel is absolutely the last thing I’ll be doing for a while. Gil and I left home bright and early Saturday morning to enjoy Survivor: Tulsa for the evening. Five years ago last week, our friend Doug was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Thanks to the skill of Doug’s doctors, his utterly positive attitude, and the support of his family, he has thrived; he and his wife Shannon (one of my great friends and former grad school roommates) have adjusted to their new reality with tremendous grace and courage and have brought two lively, smart, and happy boys into the fold. And so Saturday night, friends and family (and lots of kids) filled their new home in Tulsa to celebrate this occasion and wish them many, many more celebrations of the kind. I, for one, am already looking forward to the 10-year party. (Click on the picture below to view the full flickr set.)

The night ended far too soon (as it would’ve even if it had lasted till dawn), and the next morning we boarded another flight to St. Louis to surprise Gil’s brother for his 40th birthday. I was standing behind Gil and didn’t get to see Bo’s face when he walked in, but I hear he was appropriately shocked to see Gil standing there. As always, it was fun to catch up with Jane and Miriam (my sister- and mother-in-law, respectively) and Jane’s parents were as inviting and funny as ever. And my nieces. Oh, my nieces! Well, you’ll just have to view the flickr set to see their shenanigans. I don’t know how Bo and Jane keep up with them, and if I’m ever sorry we won’t have kids, it’s when I’m with the girls. To say they’re silly and funny and spirited and smart is selling them short by a mile.

Hope you all had a great Presidents’ Day weekend. If it was filled with even a fraction of the friends, family, and fun ours was, you’re lucky people!

Hi, all. We’re back from a whirlwind tour of the Midwest — two cities, four Embraer flights in 50 hours, and lots of fun with family and friends. Because our flight was delayed yesterday, I haven’t had a chance to go process my pictures, but they’re coming — hopefully tomorrow.

Hope you had a terrific Presidents’ Day weekend.

I bought a nifty set of Photoshop actions today and spent some time playing with them. I still have hours and hours of messing around before I fully explore what they can do, and I’m not sure how helpful they’ll be with the food photography, but they’ll certainly be useful for getting a nice, editorial look on candid shots.

If your email inbox was anything like mine last week, you learned that there’s no easy route to planning a Super Bowl menu. I was bombarded with ideas to make my feast special! To add some zip to the game! To stay healthy and still enjoy my favorite football foods! Some missives advocated the tried and true — hot dogs, wings, burgers — while others sought to elevate the whole day by encouraging more complicated fare. Me? I’m a true believer in the KISS principle when it comes to sporting events; the most complicated thing I ever made for a Super Bowl party was a big pot of red beans and some pimento dip for snacking.

This year, I had trouble deciding between a roasted pork shoulder and chili, but came down on the side of chili, mostly because I got started late in the day and didn’t have time to properly marinate and braise or smoke the pork. Keeping with our mostly (red) meatless tradition since the new year, I decided on a turkey chili. I do have a soft spot in my heart for veggie chili, but watching the home town team play in the big game was no time to wimp out and go completely meatless.

But turkey chili can really be blah and lifeless, can’t it? Honestly, it’s never won me over enough to be my go-to chili, so I decided to make a few changes this time to add some character and depth of flavor. For starters, I dug deep in my pantry and pulled out two bags of dried mystery mushrooms I bought on my last run to the Asian food market. One bag was “Chinese Black,” but I really have no earthly idea what the other bag contained. All I know is they smelled earthy and smoky and were practically begging to be part of the meal.

With that part of the equation out of the way, I dug even deeper in the pantry for some dried New Mexico chilies I knew had to be in there. Lucky for me, the bag was still sealed and the peppers still pliable rather than desiccated ghosts of peppers past. So I tried my hand at making my own chili powder! I just threw things in at random, but I was really, honestly, pleased with the results. Next time, I’ll look up a few recipes and buy different types of chilies for a more customized blend, but even my shot in the dark was better than bottled chili powder.

As always, this chili was a boozy affair, liquored up with a bottle of ale and splashes of tequila and whiskey (Jack Daniel’s this time). And, of course, I stirred in some dark chocolate at the end; it elevates the dish to something special without anyone being able to put a finger on what magic you worked, exactly.

Oh, I almost forgot! The Frito Pie part! Many months ago, I was tagged by Jennifer of Last Night’s Dinner to do a writeup of my most embarrassing favorite foods. I’m more embarrassed at not doing the post than by any of the foods it would contain, but Frito Pie would have to be at the top of the list. Properly prepared in a roadside snoball stand in a humid southern state, it features beanless Hormel Chili poured into a split snack-sized bag of Fritos, and topped with cheese (nacho, natch), lettuce, and tomato. Some might add mayonnaise, but I can take it or leave it. Since snoball stands, humidity, and proximity to southern states weren’t available Sunday, we did the best we could and were quite pleased with the results.

recipe after the jump

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Now get out there and vote!

recipe after the jump

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It was another “meh” experience, I’m afraid. Turning to the incredible new Gourmet site for inspiration last weekend, I found a lovely photo of Algerian flatbread and knew, just knew! that I had to base a meal around it. The description alone of the flaky, seasoned breads sounded good enough to eat, and the technique promised to be satisfyingly repetitive and exacting, very appealing to the OCD side of my personality.

Since I’m too lazy to do the kneading thing anymore, I adapted the recipe just a touch to take advantage of Sir Mix-A-Lot, who appears infrequently here, but always saves the day when he does with his untiring arm and stylish good looks.

I set the mixer to low speed and let it do its thing to the dough for about 5 minutes, instead of the 15 minutes of hand kneading called for in the recipe. I’m completely smitten with this machine. After letting the dough rest for an hour in an oiled bowl, I was ready to start the fun stuff, so on to the preparations!

Step 1: ROLLOUT! … ROLLOUT! … ROLLOUT! … ROLLOUT! Hmmm…where’s my big shoe?

Step 2: Spread the dough with cumin, paprika and turmeric-spiked oil.

ROLLOUT! … ROLLOUT! … ROLLOUT! … ROLLOUT! (That song’ll haunt your dreams. You can thank me in the comments section.)

Step 3: ROLLUP! … ROLLUP! … ROLLUP! … ROLLUP! (See what I mean?)

And then there was more of the rolling out (continue humming along), but I’ll spare you the picture. If you’re curious, just scroll up to the second image. It looked just like that, only orangier.

Step 4: Cook the flatbread in a hot, dry cast iron pan until puffed and browned in spots, like so…

And that’s that. They were pretty easy to make, but I dunno. They tasted a little, ahem, flat. (Sorry!) I think it’d be a pretty easy fix just to add more salt to the dough; with all of the spices in there, they were pretty flavorful otherwise.

I’m so glad I took the recipe’s advice and served the flatbread with shrimp charmoula. Holy moly, that was good stuff, definitely good enough to make again soon, even if the bread doesn’t accompany it.

recipes after the jump

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