January 2011
20 posts
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Chicken stewed in tomatoes and olives
This is the most delicious thing I’ve ever made and so, so simple and economical and great for two or for a crowd or just YOU, girlfriend, because you are worth it! Yes! Put down that Fage yogurt tonight!
I ate the leftovers the next morning for breakfast, then again for lunch and dinner until it ran out, all over my crappy rice noodles which the chicken and tomatoes made TRANSCEND to a...
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Roasted Cauliflower Soup with Gorgonzola
Before I joined a national organization that requires you to pay $39.95 for the pleasure of attending meetings, being weighed in public, and searching for things that don’t exist in an online database (almond milk, nutritional yeast, Earth Balance, kombucha, fresh mint, etc.), I made this soup.
This soup has a half a stick of butter in it, but it is a triumph (forgive me for this word...
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Gnocchi with Sage-Shallot Butter: This is Not a...
I have homemade gnocchi in the freezer right now, all thanks to Marcella Hazan and her impeccable gnocchi technique.
Some days, that’s all you need.
That and gas, for your car.
And a car.
Maybe some clothing.
And a pot, to cook the gnocchi in.
And a heat source.
“Most recipes for potato gnocchi call for one or more egg yolks. I find that the eggless version produces finer...
Hard-boiled eggs
One time I taught my basement roommate Jon how to make hard-boiled eggs after we came home from a party. The instructions included “3. Oh shit, the eggs” after we forgot about them when he went for a ciggybreak.
But what I really want to talk about it how my incapacity to throw anything plastic or glass away and restrictive dietary issues met at a crossroads this morning. An empty...
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Dum aloo, prefab
One of my favorite hobbies is grocery shopping in Chicagoland’s incredible enormous ethnic food stores. Valli Produce on North Avenue is an absolute mecca and conveniently located next to a brand new Salvation Army, so you can guess where a lot of my winter break hours were spent. I picked up a 99¢ Rasoi Magic spice packet for dum aloo and made this in 25 minutes. If you have leftover...
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Top Secret Chocolate Mousse - Dorie Greenspan
This top secret chocolate mousse recipe is from Dorie’s latest cookbook, “Around My French Table,” which I received as a gift for Christmas. She says that French women would not divulge their recipe for chocolate mousse, and every recipe she tried herself just wasn’t quite right. Eventually a kind soul sat her down and told her what was the what: it’s the recipe on...
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Teaser for one week from now
Whettin’ your whistles with a little bit of cost accounting:
Fixed overhead costs: $1.96 sunflower jar at Goodwill
Variable costs: $7.49 Skol, 750 ml in case this is disgusting and I don’t want to be stuck with a handle of it. $SupaCheap grapefruit from an 18 lb bag at Meijer
This is what happens when you decide to make mead and write down all the ingredients in your little...
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Turkey, squash, and kale soup for a lil crowd
Oh god, not another butternut stew. Listen, my options are real limited right now. This is a lovely soup to make for when you have three friends over for dinner and goes well with Seagram’s Whiskey. Here’s a cruddy picture of the leftovers that highlights how nice my sister’s DSLR photos are in comparison. I used purple kale, which is really pretty but doesn’t make much of...
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Gumby's Pokey Stix At Home - The Pokey Stix Recipe
I don’t want to say that Tuesdays were the highlight of my college years, because obviously there are better days than Tuesdays. But Tuesdays were the days you could call up Gumby’s Pizza and Buy 1, Get 1 Pokey Stix, a deal called “Stick it to me Tuesday.” I don’t want to say that this is the worst thing we ever did to our bodies, but… it ranks up there.
What...
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BBQ Platter at The Bounty Hunter in Napa,...
BBQ in California is the type of thing that typically makes you say, “Nice try, just go back to making your delicious burritos.” Good BBQ is usually reserved for places like Kansas City, Chicago, North Carolina, so on and so forth. Same goes for pizza. “Nice try. Oh, California. Settle your pretty head down on top of that beach and eat your quinoa wrap.”
Surprisingly...
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Seared Leek Panade with Roasted Brussels and...
Panade based off of the Zuni Cafe Panade Recipe at Orangette Roasted Brussels & Carrots, Citrus Fennel Salad are based off of classic combinations
(Doesn’t it look like the head of a sea lion?)
When I initially made this recipe, I did not follow the letter of the law. I didn’t have 2 hours to slowly cook the panade (which is essentially a savory bread pudding) in my oven,...
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Mexican vegetable stew for everyone
Sometimes you just can’t have gluten, dairy, legumes, corn, and eggs, and your dad doesn’t like curry powder and requested a meatless meal. What are you going to make for dinner to demonstrate that you are worthy of your own set of Penzey’s spices?
An unattractive vegetable fiber-bomb stew, that’s what. This is more of a loose set of guidelines; all you need is the...
