Minimally Invasive

The Whitest Soup

Amy — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 01:44:07 +0000

Until I posted this picture on my Facebook page last week, I had NO idea that there are people in this world who don’t like white foods! Taste and texture issues? Sure, we all have them — I despise mint and don’t like mix-ins in my ice cream — but it never occurred to me that one color could be such a turnoff across the board. So to all of you (like my brilliant designer-friend Jenn at Seahorse Bend Press) who are white foods-phobic, I apologize in advance for today’s post. I blame Martha Stewart for my recent obsession with cauliflower soup. Making this recipe started the ball rolling and I’ve been playing with it ever since, paring ingredients each time to get to the essence of the soup. Like potage parmentier, I suspect this is a soup that can take endless amounts of noodling around, but doesn’t need it at all. What I did amounted to more of a technique than a recipe. I roasted cauliflower florets and trimmed, chopped stems with a drizzle of olive oil and salt & pepper till it was slightly caramelized and the flavor was concentrated. While that was roasting, I sautéed a chopped onion and a [...]

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A New Look + The Winter Market

Amy — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 03:34:45 +0000

It’s done! Nearly eight years after starting this blog, I gave it a major design overhaul last week! And thank goodness; I just couldn’t look at that raggedly old thing any longer. My lack of anything resembling technical knowledge kept me from tackling it for all those years, but I figured I’d give it a stab, because how hard could it be with one of WordPress‘s highly-praised themes? But still, I couldn’t do it alone, so here’s a big thank you to Gil for setting up a test site and to our friend Jason, who helped me get this behemoth up and running yesterday. There are a few new features here that I’d like to tell you about. First of all, there’s a top nav to help you get around and a proper home page with some fun features! I’ll likely add some functionality to it in the future, but for now, you can find recent blog posts as well as projects there. Think of the Projects page as a portfolio-lite; it has a few selected images from projects I’ve worked on (mostly cookbooks) along with descriptions and external links to each. To see more of my photography, just click on [...]

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Photo Shoot: The Wood Pit BBQ

Amy — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 19:04:29 +0000

Earlier this week, I spent a great afternoon with Lawrence and Kim at The Wood Pit in Montclair, NJ, shooting images for their website. Gil and I have been a huge fans of this restaurant since we fortified ourselves there before a Willie Nelson concert last year, so I was thrilled to finally go behind the scenes and watch Lawrence work his magic. I so rarely write about restaurants here, I’m sure I didn’t tell you about it on any of the occasions we visited, but if I had, it probably would’ve gone something like this: “Amazing BBQ. Go. Now.” It’s a small, friendly place that gets all of the essentials so right I’d have a hard time recommending anything in particular, but if pressed, I’d encourage you to start with an order of chicken wings followed by the brisket on your first visit. Brisket’s the true test of a barbecue place (IMHO) and I’m pretty sure they’ve earned the tag “The Best BBQ in New Jersey” on that dish alone. And don’t forget dessert when you’re there. Kim bakes Southern-style sweets with a twist; she sent me home with a huge piece of her bread pudding with crumb topping after the shoot and [...]

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Because I Haven’t Posted About My Dogs in a While

Amy — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 12:34:37 +0000

Playing OT for the Ringwood All-Necks — Otis B. Driftwood Roth! Awww, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, darlin’… I swear Ru really isn’t as anxiety-plagued as he always looks in photos.

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I Kid You Not

Amy — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 14:33:28 +0000

After visiting the gang at Edgwick Farm again last weekend, I realized I never told you about my very first visit there back in February when my friend Chris, her sister and I took a tour of the farm. We saw the whole operation up close, starting with the goats that supply the milk for Edgwick’s wonderful cheeses at our farmers’ market. You might’ve heard that goats are friendly. I had, but didn’t realize what an understatement that was. It’s like being welcomed into a big, hairy, affectionate family. But let’s cut to the chase. We visited when we did in February because the first big wave of births had just finished and OMG BABIES — attention-seeking, hungry babies, all adorable, soft, cuddly, and nearly impossible not to kidnap under our coats on the way out. One of these things is not like the other. As you can see, the mamas loved their Christmas tree buffet. I asked our tour guide, Cara, if they avoid putting out trees that had been treated with chemicals in the water but she said the goats just tend to steer clear of them on their own. Clearly my jacket, my friend’s lens cap and so [...]

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You Put the Lime in the Coconut

Amy — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:40:11 +0000

Could this holiday weekend be off to a better start? There’s no snow in the forecast and it’ll be warm enough to ditch my coat! SPRING IS HERE, and not a moment too soon! To celebrate, here’s a little gluten-free treat that’s appropriate for both Passover and Easter, which overlap this year. I’ve posted about macaroons several times, but these Lime-in-the-Coconut Macaroons are a delicious spin on the original. The lime zest and reader-recommended tablespoon of juice are a perfect complement to the coconut shavings and put me in a tropical state of mind, which this glorious weather only encourages. Spring fever: Catch it! And really, how gorgeous are these eggs from Nina’s Red Barn Farm? They’re practically ready for Easter without any dyeing at all.

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A Crêpesplosion in My Kitchen

Amy — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:49:27 +0000

When Gil and I visited Quebec City last July, I toured the city on foot during the day while he was working. My very first stop was the year-round farmers’ market down along the water. It was July, so produce was abundant and I ate my fill of flavorful wild blueberries and local cheeses, but once I tried Marche ou Crêpe, my breakfast for the week was decided. No tourist trap, this; it was out of the way enough that I never ran across huge crowds, plus I enjoyed a delicious crêpe each morning that sustained me through a day of climbing the hilly, winding streets. Since then, I’ve tried my hand at making crêpes from time to time without much success — my sad little pancakes tear or fold over on themselves, inevitably imperfect thanks to my substandard technique — so when Kasha suggested a cooking/shooting play date around the theme of crêpes, I jumped at it. If you don’t know Kasha, she’s the brilliant mind behind The FarmGirl Cooks, one of the faces of Bialas Farms at the Ringwood Farmers’ Market and, as it turns out, a crêpe-maker extraordinaire. So we got together last Thursday and I think I’m [...]

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Just Some Mushrooms

Amy — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:34:49 +0000

And not even the prettiest specimens, but delicious sautéed with bok choy and garlic, drizzled with soy sauce and sesame oil. Serve over hot rice with some gochujang and kimchi and enjoy.

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Finally!

Amy — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 20:05:00 +0000

After choking down loads of dense, eggy breads, biscuits and pancakes that felt like they were expanding in my throat, I decided coconut flour just didn’t live up to its reputation as an exciting (or even acceptable) paleo/gluten-free flour. No matter what it was blended with, the results were off just enough to remind me that I was eating a substitute for the real thing. But high praise from Jenny at MFAMB for a chocolate chip cookie made with a blend of coconut and almond flours* but no eggs led me to reconsider. The recipe at Cookie & Kate sounded deceptively simple, so I went straight to the kitchen to test the vegan version** with coconut oil (which you can see above). After cooling them on the pan until they were firm enough to be handled — 10-15 minutes — I bit into a delicious, standard chocolate chip cookie that was crisp at the edges and soft in the center. I defy anyone to identify them as gluten-free by taste alone. Naturally, I also baked a batch with butter instead of oil (just above), but I made a few other big changes at the same time: I browned the butter instead of just melting [...]

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Punched-Up Broccoli

Amy — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 14:55:37 +0000

Roasted vegetables. < yawn > Sure, why not? They’re easy to make and tasty enough, but damned by faint praise. When was the last time they thrilled you? On a menu, they’re usually the healthful choice rather than the one you expect to knock your socks off, and at home, the basic olive oil/salt/pepper/garlic toss isn’t exactly setting the world on fire. So it’s always nice to add a little pizzazz to them. This Food & Wine recipe for roasted broccoli sounded promising on the pizzazz front. It’s roasted very simply, then tossed with a garlicky compound butter and broiled for a few minutes to brown the top. Because I didn’t have four pounds of broccoli, I worked with what was in my refrigerator, adding some carrots sliced on the diagonal to bulk up the dish, and messing around with the compound butter a bit. I ended up with a bagna cauda-inspired butter by blending in a little anchovy paste and some meyer lemon zest (though regular lemons will work once meyers are out of season). All in all, it’s a delicious way to punch up some roasted vegetables without much added work. For a more substantial side, I’d probably top it with breadcrumbs [...]

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