Is everyone out of their turkey-induced haze?
Have you all thought of new and exciting ways to eat your Thanksgiving leftovers?
Are you hating turkey by now or are you still in love with the bird?
They, being magazines, cookbooks, the internet etc. tell you to average one pound of turkey per person for the Thanksgiving meal. I, ever dutifully (and thinking about how each person would like a little packet of leftovers), obliged to the extreme and allowed two pounds per person. But with the feast that lay before my guests last Thursday: two kinds of dressing, a duo of cranberries, mashed potatoes, yams, brussels sprouts with chestnuts, balsamic glazed onions, and gravy– lots of gravy, the turkey was almost inconsequential.
Don’t get me wrong, the bird was delicious! Burnished a lovely brown and basted with butter by me, and carved then reassembled magnificently by trusted guest. But I only had two little [...]

I know that it’s almost Thanksgiving. (Gobble gobble, to all of those omnivores out there!) Most of you already are busy planning and cooking your meal. You will have the much-loved side dishes to be paired with the turkey: stuffing is a definite, most likely you’ll have mashed potatoes, maybe you’ll indulge in some creamed onions. While baking an additional pot of baked bean, might be too large an undertaking for you this holiday, I must leave you with this one final recipe before we sign-off for turkey day.
Beans? You might be saying. She’s leaving us with a bean recipe? Yes! These slow-cooked beans were that good.

I hadn’t had baked beans in years. And, come to think of it, I don’t know that I had ever eaten a true pot of baked beans. The baked beans I had eaten came from a can. They were shiny, and coated in a [...]

There is something about potato leek soup that is humbling. It’s cold outside and you pour yourself a cup. You slurp it down while wearing fingerless gloves. Maybe you’re in a barn. It is dusk. Dark clouds are rolling in. It is all very Dickensian.
Humor me.
That might be the potato leek soup that is composed of three ingredients– leeks, potatoes, and water.

But this is the potato leek soup that is made on a Sunday afternoon, at the close of a full weekend. You may be miles away from a barn, but it is still humbling… and satisfying to boot. There  are more than three ingredients in this recipe, but not too many more. In fact, the soup comes together in under an hour, always a welcome direction when you’re busy.
So let’s get down to the “plus” business. Well, there’s stock used instead of water. This adds another dimension of flavor. [...]

Soup or side dish. That’s a difficult one.
Cream corn straddles those two food groups. So let’s just call it a soupy side dish.

Cream corn is good, some might even say great. It is soothing, comforting; it screams summer. (For those of you that haven’t ever had fresh cream corn, it may scream, “I come from a can!”. That’s fine too.) But this cream corn is updated. And might I say, it may be better than the cream corn of yore?
Sadly, I know that in many parts of the country the corn crop this year is dismal, but here in Connecticut it has been stellar. (Not to rub it in.) The corn I’ve been getting at the farmer’s market is super sweet, and bursting with juice. I’ve been buying a lot of corn, and have been making it every which way, so I had planned on making cream corn. As I [...]

Let’s pretend it’s still March shall we, because that is when I prepared this comforting bit of soup. March can be a month of maybes, a time of indecision. Is it spring or is it still winter? The thermometer may reach into the 50’s during the days, beckoning you outdoors, only to fall once again below freezing at night, forcing you to pull on you woolen socks to complete your wintertime, pajama ensemble. It all can be a too much to confront.
When I am tired, maybe a tad lazy, and find myself in the kitchen with nary an idea of what to prepare, this soup is ideal. Cream of Tomato Soup is rich, calming, and satisfying, and can be made with what most of us have in the larder on a good day. It is the apotheosis of comfort food. Macaroni and cheese, [...]

It has been a dizzying few weeks for me, how ’bout you? This is how my weeks went: climb over mountainous piles of moving boxes to get to my computer, sit there for hours, the time punctuated by the occasional beeping of a car horn by some impatient Connecticut driver, and pour through pages and pages of my manuscript edited thoughtfully (and thoroughly) by my editor. Yes, my computer became my best friend, the only other thing/person that I interacted with was my husband…and even that was minimal.
It was difficult having an entirely new state to explore and trying to be good, trying to stick to a deadline, so I knew that this exploration would have to wait. But summer stretches out before me, bringing with it soft serve ice cream cones, baskets full of cherries, and buttery lobster rolls. I can’t wait! Now, with [...]

And then there was buttermilk. But this wasn’t the staunchly tangy stuff that you buy in a carton for making waffles, and then sits in the recesses of your refrigerator, separating, growing more sour, until the carton begins to emit a peculiar odor. No, this buttermilk was pleasingly watery, ever so mild, with just a hint of tang hitting you in the back of the throat. Daniel Patterson’s butter article, also gave a recipe for chilled pea soup with mint, utilizing the newly made buttermilk. With the butter being such a success, I was sure that the pea soup would be delightful. Well, sometimes things don’t work out as planned. They work out even better.
I went to the Union Square Greenmarket on a gorgeous, and busy Saturday, set on purchasing my peas of choice. Well, I should have remembered that one never goes [...]

In the vegetable world, zucchini is a lot like Olivia Newton-John’s character “Sandy” from the 50’s era movie, Grease. On its own it can be a little boring, stable and nutritious, but give it some black spandex pants, and a perm, and Va-Va-Voom! What I’m saying, is that everything needs a little bit of care to be brought from boring to sublime.
Now don’t get me wrong, zucchini is fine. Cut into rounds, steamed, and then sprinkled with Parmesan cheese is, eeh. Sliced into batons, sauteed with garlic, and a bit of red chili flake, now that’s getting better. But it’s still a bit insipid… How about grated? Now that’s what I’m talking about. Grating the vegetable brings a whole other texture to the mix– delicate, creamy, yet crunchy if you choose. It’s versatile: sauteed until crisp and browned, stirred into a batter [...]

Borscht, that often cold, Eastern European, potato-laden, crimson soup– it’s not one of my favorites. I love soup, and I love potatoes, and beets are my BFF (best friends forever), but all simmered together, eehhh… However, looking through the SF paper last week, the food section of course, I saw a recipe for an altogether new beet soup that I knew that I had to try.
Nowhere in the article did it mention that this was a bourgie soup, but made with bright golden beets, and embellished with creme fraiche, how could it not be? I quickly deemed it the Anti-Borscht and the Bourgie Beet Soup. Simple in its composition, using golden rather when ruby beets, and made with just a handful of ingredients, the soup was beautiful to behold and delicious to taste. So rarely do you obtain a soup that is so clear, so honestly golden in color, [...]

Chili is a food of cooking lore. Days are spent with giant pots simmering away on the stove. Women and men don their American flag aprons and head to the county fair for endless chili cook-offs. Secret recipes are de riguer. I’ve never really understood what all of the hullabaloo was about. Sure I love chili as much as the next girl, but I would be hard-pressed to mention a food that can be consumed in a bowl that I would wait hours, even days to consume.

Even an impatient bourgie loves chili, though there’s nothing too bourgie about this chili. This chili, adapted from Rick and Lanie’s Excellent Kitchen Adventures (I know, I think title is lame myself) was good. Rib-sticking and belly warming with just a touch of heat from ancho chile powder, the chili was a solid 7 on a 10 point scale. Simmered, for just about [...]