One of the best wedding gifts we received was a four week membership to a local CSA. I really love the idea of a CSA not only because it is a fantastic way to eat local and support the local community but because the randomness of what you get is a great excuse to get creative in the kitchen. Last weekend’s CSA bag included sweet potatoes, onions, some beautiful garlic, mustard greens, apples, kale and a whole lotta jalapeños. A strange collection of foods to be sure but when combined with my desire not to go to the grocery store on Tuesday after work there was enough inspiration to pull together a pretty damn good dinner.
This is a recipe that has been sitting in my drafts for a while now. I just needed to get the right picture of the dish before I could post it – which requires time and that is something I find myself in scarce supply of lately. There are only two weeks left until Ry and I head back to the midwest for our wedding and there are lots of things that need to be done in that time. Ah, the glories of a DIY wedding. I really can’t complain though because we have the most incredible family and friends who are all contributing to make the three days of wedding celebration come together.
Eggs are one of those ingredients I find myself falling more and more in love with every time I crack one open – and that is saying a lot considering I have spent hours cracking eggs for various pastry items. Recently I’ve been trying to improve my egg preparation skills by tackling some egg-centric classics. While I’m still trying to get restaurant quality poachers just right I have managed to create a carbonara recipe that I will someday put on a restaurant menu.
Now, the concept behind carbonara is one that I discovered by almost backing my way into it. When I was honing my soft boil technique and got tired of simply eating the delicious yolky on toast I began tossing a few with udon noodles and some salt. THis has now become a quick -and oft prepared- meal in our house. So, when I discovered that yolks were a central part of classic carbonara the experimenting began.
It’s been nearly two months since I packed up my bags, left my wonderful community and home in Philly and moved up to New York and I can finally report we are settled in to our new place. We’ve actually been in our little Brooklyn apartment for a month – taking our time to figure out what stays, what goes and where everything goes – it was only my mom’s pending visit that really lit a fire under our asses to get everything finished. So we put all the clothing away, shelved all the books and hauled away all the donation stuff last weekend and I am really pleased with the home we’ve managed to put together.
I really should get used to my life being a total roller coaster but nearly 30 years in and it still throws me off a bit when some new big change happens. So for the last 3 weeks I’ve been adjusting to the idea that in a week I’ll be a New Yorker. Yep, with a slightly sad heart and a whole lotta excitement I’m closing the Philly chapter of my adventure, packing up our home and heading to New York. It’s a big leap into a new position and life but one I am more than ready for – in no small part due to the super fantastic group of friends and family who await us there. Continue Reading →
I consider myself pretty lucky that my parents always invited us into the kitchen with them when they were making meals. My dad is a recipe kinda guy and was always cruising through cookbooks for ideas to try while my mother loathes recipes and usually just cooked according to taste, memory or curiosity. From the two of them I learned a lot about cooking and experimenting in the kitchen, something I thought every parent imparted on their kids. However, over the years I have realized that is not the case. In fact, most of my friends have a very limited understanding of how to cook or improvise when making a meal. I am always happy to share my kitchen know-how with friends who ask.
I come from a solid meat & potatoes family. When I was a kid in Montana we ate a whole lot of venison because that is what my dad hunted. We weren’t the wealthiest folks so we really relied on what my dad brought back from his hunting trips and what my mom grew and/or canned. We ate venison stew, venison jerky, BBQ venison, venison burger – you get the idea. It was a pretty simple way of living but it is also exactly the ethos at the core of the localvore movement experiencing a major resurgence today. I have to give my parents major credit for starting me off right. It definitely shaped who I was, in particularly it taught us to value the food that ended up on our table. Continue Reading →
