dinners of note

Roasted asparagus with miso butter and a poached egg from the genius that is the Momofuku cookbook. I was lucky enough to find this lovely book on sale at one of the Borders that is closing. It's beautifully put together, different from a traditional cookbook. There's plenty of amusing narrative, great photos and the recipes are more of a challenge, which I love, until they call for molds and space I don't have. Note to self, get a commercial kitchen and lots of money...

they draw and cook

A lovely new find: They Draw & Cook, a collection of artist-submitted illustrated recipes. All so different and beautiful and not to mention delicious sounding!

dinners of note

Reasons why I just want to go to culinary school...

Potage parmentier avec artichauts à la sauce hollandaise

just kidding...

or not.

I have been slowly making my way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking but with considerably less drama than Julie Powell. I don't know if it's because I'm having some kind of quarter life crisis too but I think I'm doing it more as just a fun cooking project and because I love all things French. Contrary to the book's ample criticisms, I've enjoyed cooking from it quite a bit so far. What makes this book so not-user-friendly is why I like it. I like the precision and detail that makes a recipe 4 pages long. I relish in the process of making a meal and have never much been drawn to the ready-made age of Rachel Ray. Granted, I don't really intend to cook kidneys, and I have witheld a tablespoon or so of butter here and there, but I'd rather spend hours with Julia Child than 30 minutes with Rachel Ray any day.

things I like to make - the kitchen edition (list 5 of 52)

Messes I like to make in the kitchen:

• Apple butter
• My super secret vegan sloppy joes
• Crumbly tasty eggless cookies like polvorones (and most anything from Smitten Kitchen)
• Dough. Pizza, pie, dough!
• Pizza. With pepperoni and mushrooms and spicy sauce or with garlic and broccoli and olives mmmm
• Cupcakes. More the creative flavors and decorating than anything else
• Anybody's favorite, for their birthday or something special. That's the best.

a little kick

I made this incredibly delicious bourbon pumpkin cheesecake from a recipe adapted from Gourmet by  the talented blogger of Smitten Kitchen. Which, by the way, has got to be my all-time favorite food blog, I just want to make every recipe on there!

ooshy gooshy

Honey Caramel Peach Pie from Gourmet Magazine

I've always left pies for winter desserts but this one, if you add a few different types of peaches, is still fruity and light enough for summer, with or without some vanilla ice cream!

There's something about baking. Making everything from scratch, setting out and prepping the ingredients. I could do it all day. I don't know what it is about the really basic stuff that fascinates me, but I've always wanted to go even more basic.

Making your own crackers or preserves is far more impressive to me than baking a pie. I want to learn to can and jar. And all those simple tricks from Cook's Illustrated or Real Simple, I wish I had those catalogued in my brain. 

That Animal, Vegetable, Miracle lifestyle, I want that. That, and that 50's demand for style and class where I get to prance around in pouffy dresses and have it be perfectly acceptable to sass everyone. 

burgers & bikes

In attempting to save money as well as make sure we don't waste food, we've been trying to plan weekly meals so that we use up as much as we buy. So, we made burgers 3 ways. The other two ways don't photograph so well so use your imagination.

First, we made a veggie Big Mac: Gardenburger with cheese, tomatoes, pickles and thousand island. Whoops, I mean "special sauce". 

Then, I made a gardenburger with cheese, ketchup and, bear with me, a fried egg. I know, weird, but so incredibly delicious. The best veggie burger I've ever had, ever, was in Cambodia and it was covered in shredded white cheese and a fried egg. Oh, and it cost $1. I often try to recreate it but nothing has lived up to it yet.

Finally, we made a variation of this recipe for portabella burgers with balsamic mayonnaise. We used chive cream cheese and altered the herbs a bit. So good, you could just make the portabellas and serve that with rice if you're too fancy for burgers.

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On another, possibly just as irrelevant note, I completed the 130K SPAN the Rockies race yesterday in 6 and a half hours. Slow, and painful, but fun. It wasn't at all what I was expecting. Lance Armstrong was not there, waiting to demoralize me for not being competitive, and though the first 30 miles were a tough, slow climb, the rest was much milder. And soaring through a canyon at 30mph is just as fun when your knees are in excruciating pain. Boulder to Ward to Lyons to Hygiene to Niwot to Boulder. Beautiful! I can't wait for the even more laid back Venus de Miles ride in two weeks!

The Perfect Pizza

The other day, in a lazy state of recipe-planning, we decided to just make an improv pizza... and it turned out to be the best homemade pizza ever. Really. Want the recipe?

1 can of Pillsbury pizza crust (I bet it'd be even better if you made your own)
2 tbs. olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 cup of spicy red bell pepper pasta sauce
1 cup (or more) of mozzarella cheese
8 oz. crimini mushrooms
chopped fresh spinach
pepperoni (we just bought the prepackaged gross kind so I'd guess some fancy one might be better)
1/2 cup of cheddar cheese

- Roll out the dough onto a pre-heated pizza pan, making sure to keep the center thinner than the outside.
- Saute crushed garlic clove cloves in olive oil until brown then brush entire crust with your fancy homemade garlic olive oil. Make sure not to make it too soggy or the center won't cook all the way.
- Spred the pasta sauce on the dough, again making sure that the center doesn't get too piled down with sauce or toppings so that it gets crispy in the oven.
- Sauté the mushrooms and spinach in a saucepan with a little oil.
- Put the toppings on: mozzarella, mushrooms, spinach, pepperoni, and lastly, cheddar.
- Bake according to dough instructions, until the crust and cheese are slightly browned.

Delicious!

Home sweet mess

It was my impression that after graduating, I would have plenty of free time this summer. I mean, there's no real schedule to follow and no assignments, so wouldn't that make sense? Apparently not. I've never been busier in my life. Most of it though, is a good busy, like moving in to a new place.

There has to be some real talent involved in moving, unpacking, and putting everything in its place within a few days. I, it seems, am completely lacking in those skills. Our rooms are nicely divided by half-opened boxes, some natural disaster seems to have occurred in my closet, and with a bike in every corner it looks like the Tour rolled through here early (which would actually be pretty awesome).

Regardless of the mess and the fact that I can't remember where I've put anything in the kitchen, so far there has been time to do the "practice cooking" part. Last night we had a lovely dinner of asparagus mushroom risotto and tomato & herb bruschetta, both recipes from my Vegetarian Times cookbook which is a favorite whether or not you're a tree-hugger. Both came out delicious. Bigger bread for the bruschetta would have been nice, but I put holes in the tops of the slices to fill them with more tomato mix. The risotto never comes out looking as good as it tastes so it didn't get a photo shoot. Something to work on!