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Busy day soup

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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 […]

We now return to your regularly scheduled program

…already in progress.
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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.

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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 — […]

What’s going on

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 […]

A quick update

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.

Fun with Photoshop

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.

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We are headed for tomorrow’s sunshine

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18-1 Frito Pie

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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 […]

Super Fat Tuesday

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Now get out there and vote!

recipe after the jump

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How flat was my bread

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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.

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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 […]