New Chapters

Medium Raw, Anthony Bourdain
Anyone who read Bourdain's first book, Kitchen Confidential, and is looking for a sequel needs to look elsewhere. Anthony Bourdain has come a long way from the bitter, cynical, darkly humorous, coke-addicted chef in the first book. Now he's a bitter, cynical, darkly humorous food writer/tv star. The main difference between the two books is that Medium Raw, much like The Guinea Pig Diaries, seems to be as much a compilation of separate essays as one coherent book. That said, the essays are still entertaining. The main exception occurs when Bourdain hovers too long on personalities in the food business without sufficiently making the reader care. For the most part, though, he hits his mark. He's witty and often (for me at least) laugh out loud funny. For someone who enjoys Top Chef and felt horrified by Fast Food Nation, this is a great choice. (Note: when tagging this post, I realized I have a LOT of food related tags. I guess I shouldn't be surprised!)

Borrowed from the library

April Showers Bring...

...delicious vegetables! The Dude and I (and Erin and Nujoud) joined a CSA this year, and we are really enjoying it! For those who aren't familiar, joining a CSA basically means you buy a share in a farm's crops and get weekly vegetable deliveries. We have only had two deliveries so far but we are already loving the fresh salad greens, snap peas, and green onions. Part of the appeal of the CSA was also that we would get to try some foods we usually don't eat. This week we had two challenges: beets* and mustard greens. Both of us expected we wouldn't like beets at all; neither of us had tried mustard greens before. We tried both of them (as well as some squash) tonight and we were pleasantly surprised!



For those who are interested, both were easy to cook.
Beets: peel beets, slice, and marinate in a mixture of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic salt, and pepper. Grill to taste.
Mustard greens: cut out stems and roughly chop the greens. Carmelize onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat, then add greens, sesame oil, salt and pepper. Cook the greens until they wilt but not until they are mushy.

I still don't think beets are my favorite vegetable, or even in the top 5 (hey, I love a lot of vegetables) but I enjoyed them!

*Every time I hear beets I think about Dwight Schrute. Bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica!

Pirate Dessert

I few weeks ago I was meandering through the interwebs and stumbled on a thing of beauty: the apple pie-rate ship. That's right, an actual pirate ship made out of apple pie. Immediately this beautiful baked good rocketed into my list of top 10 awesome edibles. Although I make an excellent apple pie (if I do say so myself), I realized that my skills lie in the round, flat pie arena and that even a small fishing vessel, let alone a full sized pirate ship, would be beyond my feeble landlubber talents. So I sent the apple pie-rate link to the most talented baker I know: Erin!

I suggested to Erin that a duo or even a fleet of apple pie-rate ships, perhaps floating through a blue candy see with whipped cream whitecaps, would make an impressive (and delicious) Thanksgiving centerpiece. Oddly though, Erin seemed to think that this brilliant idea might be "too much work" on top of making turkey, stuffing, and all the sides for 12 people while hosting a half dozen family members. I know, I was shocked too. So I sadly resigned myself to a life without an apple pie-rate ship and buried my face in my grog.

That weekend I headed over to the aforementioned Erin's house for one of our favorite activities: a fancy lunch consumed while spending a few hours watching a girly movie whose entire plot could be deduced from a thirty second preview. It's a great time. But this weekend was even greater as she told me she had baked me a surprise. What could it be, I wondered? Eyeball cake balls for Halloween? Some kind of pumpkin delight? But NO! Better!

An APPLE PIE-RATE SHiP!!!



Feast your eyes on its pirate-y, apple-y, doughy glory!



Reader, this was as tasty as it was good looking. Erin has redeemed herself...at least until I get another idea. Like a pirate's treasure island made out of baked goods. Hmm...

*Please excuse the terrible picture quality; another skill I lack is using my phone camera!

Howdy Strangers!

I have been neglecting the blog lately and had great plans for a big post today about one of my favorite holidays. Then, 4 slices into prep for our beef and Guinness stew, I cut my finger (my middle finger, of course). So now I have a big paper towel wrapped around it which makes typing a challenge. I guess you'll all just have to contain your excitement for a few days; not a challenge I'm sure. In the mean time, happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Snack Time!

I have two events in the next two days for which I need to bring food so tonight I made a big batch of oatmeal craisin chocolate chip cookies. Can you tell what I had extra of in the pantry? As I was taking them off the cookie sheets to cool I saw that one had split and turned into a heart. Too bad I'm a little too late for Valentine's Day!


Of course, I wouldn't want to feed anyone else something that I don't eat myself, so I figured it was my duty to do some...um...quality control. Yeah, that's what it was. I'm happy to report the cookies passed!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have a lot to be thankful for this year since it has been full of milestones. The following are in calendar order.

• I'm thankful for my beautiful home (we closed 2 days before Thanksgiving last year and ate dinner in our old place surrounded by boxes).
• I'm thankful for my crazy goofy gorgeous dog (who as I write this is almost fully recovered from his surgery and just ran upstairs to terrorize the Dude).
• I'm thankful for my wonderful family and amazing friends (who came together from across the globe for my wedding and completely overwhelmed me with their love as I started down the aisle with my father).
• I'm thankful for my parents (even though I am not with them today, I'll be on the phone with mom at noon ET to sing along to Alice's Restaurant. You should try it sometime.)
• I'm thankful for the Dude, who is now my husband, and who makes me laugh and treats me like a queen.

We're cooking our first turkey today (and by "we" I mean "him") and having friends over for dinner tonight. It's going to be a good time. I hope all of you are surrounded by joy and stuffed by turkey today! Happy Thanksgiving!

PS Copying from Erin, leave your best turkey impressions in the comments!

Overheard at Work: The Bacon Craze Has Gone Too Far

Engineer #1: A turd would taste good if you wrapped it in bacon.
Engineer #2: Yeah man. Especially if you dip it in some garlic butter.

Summer Book Reviews

I have put this off for a while so instead of three books I have FOUR for you! Try to contain your excitement everyone.

My Life in France, Julia Child and Alex Prud'homme
As I mentioned in my last book review, I was trying to read this so I could go see the movie. Not a problem. I started it on a Friday and was done by Saturday night. This book was so engaging and fun; it really felt like Julia was just chatting with me. It was fascinating to learn more about her life and how she went from an American in Paris to the Julia Child we all know. My first introduction to Julia was when I was young and my mom watched her show on PBS. I remember thinking of her as the woman with the funny voice who used lots of butter (not too far off!). I was surprised to learn that Julia was interested in the science of cooking and spent days recreating recipes to ensure that they worked every time and could be replicated by the home cook. The book was a great read for everyone, even if you're not into cooking. I did see the movie a few days later and enjoyed that too. They had clearly done a lot of research and the Julia portion of it was accurate and hilarious. Two drumsticks up!

Book of Lies, Brad Meltzer
I first read Brad Meltzer's books in high school. He was like a younger John Grisham then and I enjoyed it. Now he's trying to be the next Dan Brown and frankly it's not working. The plot did keep me interested but the characters were flat. The addition of a Biblical basis for the plot seemed contrived. I think he was a better writer when he came up with his own story lines. I would recommend his earlier work, such as Dead Even or The Tenth Justice. Still, this is not bad if you're looking for a quick vacation read.

Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass, Natalie MacLean
This book was a shower gift from some very special ladies. In it, the author takes you all over the world of wine, from Burgundy in France to Napa Valley to Chile and Australia. She did get a little wordy and technical at times but I learned a lot about how wine was made and it definitely made me want to try a real tasting some time. The last chapter gives recommendations for what types of wine to drink with different foods so that will be a great reference for me.

Sarah's Key, Tatiana De Rosnay
I had read a review about this and then stumbled on it again in the bookstore. It blew me away; I read the whole thing in less than 24 hours and that includes a work day. It's the story of a young Jewish girl in Paris who is rounded up to be sent to the camps. Her brother hides in their secret cupboard and she promises to return and let him out. Sixty years later an American woman living in Paris discovers a connection to the story and sets out to discover what happened. The action goes back and forth between past and present. It's haunting and gripping. The characters and plot are well developed. This book was amazing and I expect all my readers to clamor to borrow it.

How much do you cook?

Today I read a really interesting article in the New York Times. Go read it, then come back.

Ok, back now? Thanks!

For those of you who cheated and didn't read it, the article is about how cooking has changed in the last 50 years. We spend less time preparing food in total, and much of what we call "cooking" now is really assembling prepared ingredients. Despite that though, reality shows about cooking are doing well and the Food Network is highly successful.

I enjoy cooking and I think I am a decent cook. However, I am not someone who comes home from a long day at work and thinks "Boy am I stressed. I am going to cook a big meal to make myself relax!" The Dude and I do make most of our own meals, but during the week we use plenty of frozen vegetables, 90 second rice, prepared pasta, and bottled salad dressing. I do like cooking from scratch and finding new recipes but it's more of a hobby than a daily routine. Part of why The Dude and I try not to eat out too much is because we definitely eat much healthier at home...even an unhealthy home meal is usually better than what we'll get at a restaurant. I definitely agree with the article that eating more prepared foods contributes to obesity.

I'm curious to hear what other people's habits are like. How much do you cook? Is it still "cooking" if you don't make everything from scratch?