Thanksgiving, Take One

I’m not sure what I love more – cooking and eating on Thanksgiving or the days (sometimes weeks) leading up to it when I pour over recipes, making and revising my plans. There are always more delicious recipes than there is time to make them. This year, I got a jump start on Thanksgiving cooking with an early celebration with my family in Brown County, Ind.

I had the luxury of spending the better part of Saturday making just two dishes – a cornbread stuffing with veggie sausage and a roasted pumpkin filled with crusty bread, cheese, cream and mushrooms. The pumpkin was delicious, but it fell apart early in the roasting process, so it ended up being more like pumpkin slices in a bowl covered with cheesy mushroom bread. Tasty, but not very pretty.

The stuffing process started a few days earlier when I tracked down a package of Field Roast Grain Meat Co. sausages at Whole Foods and got up early the next morning to bake a batch of cornbread. By the time we were ready to start cooking on Saturday, the cornbread had survived two trains and a five-hour car trip and was only slightly worse for wear.

On Saturday morning, my dad and I went into Bloomington to check out the farmers’ market. I was surprised by how much produce was still available – a lot more than you can find at the remaining Chicago markets these days. We picked up some baby turnips – or salad turnips – which can be eaten raw like a radish, as well as some salad greens, squash, pumpkins and a chocolate bourbon goat cheese torta from Capriole Farms in Greenville, Ind.

Of course, we ended up making a feast that could have easily fed twice as many people and ensured lots of tasty leftovers. The veggie sausage – in a smoked apple and sage flavor – was a hit even with the meat eaters. I’m not usually a big fan of vegetarian “meat,” but Field Roast Grain Co. makes a seriously delicious product. You can find the stuffing recipe – with variations for vegetarians and meat eaters – at The Kitchn, and I’ll be posting a leftovers variation later this week.

I was listening to an interview with Nigella Lawson recently, and she was talking about how cooking can be very therapeutic when you’re dealing with loss, and I certainly found that to be true in the past week.

After struggling with health problems for the past year, our dog Clementine was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of bone cancer and passed away early last week. It all happened so quickly and it’s still jarring to come home and not see her sweet little hound face or have her underfoot while I’m making something in the kitchen.

This Thanksgiving, while I miss her terribly, I’m thankful for the nearly four years we got to spend with her.

Chicago Farmers’ Markets: Parting Shots

Most of the farmers’ markets in Chicago closed for the season a couple of weeks ago. Luckily, more than ever are now open throughout November (Lincoln Square) and the winter months (indoor locations for the Green City and Logan Square markets).

There were some colorful finds at the last downtown markets of the year – at the Federal and Prudential plazas. Here are a few:

Best Loved Gourmet Recipes

I was saddened to hear yesterday about the end of Gourmet magazine. I didn’t grow up reading Gourmet – I only started reading it a few years ago, well into Ruth Reichl’s tenure as editor – but there’s no doubt that the magazine informed my cooking and thoughts on food as I became more and more interested in the subject.

The September 2007 issue, dedicated to “Latino Food: America’s Fastest Growing Cuisine,” was probably my favorite. In the weeks after it arrived, I went out and bought a tortilla press, got acquainted with masa harina and made my own tortillas and tamales for the first time.

Kemp’s Black Beans – from Executive Food Editor Kemp Minifie – is one of my favorite recipes from any source. Top five, easy. It’s so simple, but the combination of sherry, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar is brilliant and makes the dish so much more than the sum of its parts. I use it all the time.

I don’t always have the best luck with cookies, but the Glittering Lemon Sandwich Cookies in the December 2008 issue were as delicious as they were adorable. I took a batch of these tiny gems to my office holiday cookie contest last year, and while they didn’t win (you’re just never going to win a contest with lemon cookies as long as chocolate exists), I did get lots of compliments on those “yummy little Pac-Man cookies.”

There were the Wild-Mushroom Bundles with Collard Greens that I made for Thanksgiving last year, the Corn and Potatoes with Heirloom Tomatoes that my parents and I enjoyed on a lazy Saturday last summer with glasses of basil lemonade (that were, OK fine, a little too basily), and Test Kitchen Director Ruth Cousineau’s Strawberry Dumplings that are now my standby dessert for sticky summer days when it’s too hot to turn on the oven.

For a magazine that some have said wasn’t enough about recipes, Gourmet gave me many that I’ll continue to use for years and, more importantly, helped me think about food in a whole new way. It will truly be missed.

Related Posts
Gourmet’s Tamales with Poblanos and Fresh Corn, and Pozole Rojo
Thanksgiving Recap 2008
Potatoes and Tomatoes with Corn-Two-Ways
Black Beans and Rice My Way (Kemp’s Black Beans)

The Kitchn – Recipe Review: Gourmet’s Strawberry Dumplings
Epicurious – Glittering Lemon Sandwich Cookies

Lazy Weekend Frittata

I’ve been working on perfecting my frittatas lately. I found some helpful tips in Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food, which you can read more about over at The Kitchn if you’re so inclined.

I’ve come up with a few tweaks of my own. For instance, when it comes to cheese, I say forget shredding. Instead, I prefer to cut cheese into small cubes so they deliver a satisfying, gooey bite. And a good cheese will always deliver more bang for your buck. I used a great cow’s milk cheese from Saxon Creamery. Sadly, the name escapes me. (I brought Clementine with me to the Green City Market yesterday and I was a little distracted trying to keep her from jumping up and stealing the cheese samples. And now I remember why she usually stays at home.)

For vegetarian frittatas like mine, it’s really important to pack as much flavor as possible into every ingredient. That started with the potatoes, which I sliced and cooked in a skillet, covered, with olive oil, smoked salt and rosemary. The rosemary came through in every bite.

And as a quick alternative to caramelized onions, Mark Bittman-style burnt onions also pack a lot of flavor. I chopped mine up into small pieces for better distribution.

All those little tricks come together to make what I think is a pretty great frittata. None of them take much effort, so it’s still a perfect dish for a lazy day. Add a loaf of No-Knead Bread, and there’s nothing better. Except maybe a leftover slice, eaten cold, no silverware allowed.

Corn Tamales, Braised Beans and Glazed Mushrooms

As much as I love Top Chef, and this summer’s spin off, Top Chef Masters, I’ve never before attempted one of the recipes from the show. I’ve made meals inspired by ones created by the “cheftestants,” but never the actual dishes. Usually, they’re a little more complicated than I prefer for home cooking, and the recipes on the Bravo site often seem a little vague sometimes. But you can get the basic idea.

When I saw Rick Bayless’s corn tamales with braised beans and glazed mushrooms, I knew I had to try it. If you watch Top Chef Masters, you’ll remember this as the gluten-free, soy-free, vegan dish Bayless prepared for Zooey Deschanel and her friends. While my diet is none of those things, I loved that Bayless was unphased by the challenge, saying something like, “Hey, I know how to cook vegetables and beans – what’s the big deal?”

The recipe isn’t overly complicated and doesn’t have a huge list of ingredients, though, again, I do suspect a lot of those recipes from the show don’t include every little thing that’s thrown in. I took a tiny bit of artistic license and used a couple of great local ingredients when I made it for a little dinner party last weekend.

I love to finish a pot of beans with vinegar, and I’d made my first trip to Old Town Oil that morning and picked up a bottle of their fig balsamic, so I had to give it a try. The sweet, mellow flavor complemented the chili flavors really well.

When it came time to glaze the shitakes, I realized I didn’t have the agave nectar the recipe called for, but I had plenty of maple syrup from my friends at Burton’s Maplewood Farm in Medora, Ind. (Find them at the Green City Market and the Downtown Farmstand.)

Maple syrup and mushrooms may seem like a strange combination, but when combined with homemade chipotle salsa, it created a wonderfully sweet, tangy and spicy glaze. Those little mushroom bites were probably my favorite part of the whole dish. The recipe was a hit with vegans, vegetarians and meat-eaters alike. Though I do apologize for the less-than-stellar photo – I was only able to pause for a moment before digging right in.

The Top Chef Masters finale airs tomorrow night, and of course I’ll be rooting for the hometown favorite, Rick Bayless.

Here’s the recipe: Corn Tamales with Chile-Braised Beans, Braised Greens and Glazed Mushrooms

Pimento Cheese: A Southern Classic on the Fourth of July

My grandparents introduced me to a lot of southern cooking, but pimento cheese was never really on the menu. I do have vague memories of eating it as a kid, but it wasn’t very popular in northern Indiana. My mom tells me she used to buy it at the supermarket on occasion.

It’s been mentioned around the internets a bit lately, so I thought I should revisit this spread (not a dip).

I looked at quite a few recipes, but settled on Elizabeth’s from The Kitchn. I made the smooth version and took her advice to let it sit overnight. I just did a quick taste test, and the flavors definitely developed a bit overnight. (And yes, that does mean I just ate pimento cheese for breakfast. Give me a break, it’s a holiday, all right?)

Some other recipes called for mixing chopped pickles into the spread. I couldn’t quite bring myself to do that, but it is pretty tasty with a bread and butter pickle chip. I’m taking a big batch to a barbecue today, and I’m serving it with the basics: white bread with the crusts cut off, Ritz crackers and celery sticks. Can’t go wrong with those, right?

Have a happy, snacky Fourth!

• The Kitchn: Simple Pleasures: Pimento Cheese Recipe

Memorial Day Weekend Salads

Planning a picnic or barbecue this holiday weekend? Don’t forget the salad! And by salad, I don’t mean an afterthought of boring lettuce and bottled dressing. Save that for another time. Or, never. This is the unofficial beginning of summer – it deserves something a little special. Something fresh and seasonal, simple and delicious.

Here are a few ideas from the archives:

• Asparagus Panzanella
• Spring Vegetable Cracked Wheat Salad
• Arugula, Avocado and Fennel Salad
• Fingerling Potato Salad with Cornichons
• Moroccan Carrot Salad
• Cauliflower, Garbanzo Bean and Feta Salad
• Honey Mustard Potato and Yam Salad
• Radish Salad with Parsley and Feta
• Springtime Peanut Noodle Salad (I Miss Felicity Salad)

Have a wonderful and safe holiday!

Grilled Stuffed Portabellos with Spinach and Goat Cheese

I’ll admit, I’m biased. I’m never going to think like a meat-lover. So when I plan a meal, I don’t usually think in terms of meat substitutes. A portabello mushroom, for instance, isn’t a “steak” – it’s just a portabello mushroom. And it’s delicious.

It’s extra delicious when you stuff it with spinach, goat cheese and all kinds of goodness and let it all come together on the grill. That’s just what I did yesterday and it made for a fine addition to a Mother’s Day lunch.

I adapted the recipe from Serious Eats, using fresh spinach instead of frozen and adding some chives (fresh from my parents’ garden), pine nuts and a generous helping of crushed red pepper (spicy!). With herbed goat cheese and a lot of minced garlic, these babies were not short on flavor.

With the spinach and a soft cheese as a base, this is a great recipe for adapting and would work with whatever add-ins you have on hand – sun-dried tomatoes, chopped olives, bread crumbs, any kind of herbs – there are so many possibilities. This is just one:

Grilled Stuffed Portabellos with Spinach and Goat Cheese

• 4 portabello mushrooms, cleaned and gills scraped out with a spoon
• olive oil, for drizzling
• 3 cups fresh spinach
• 1 package herb-flavored goat cheese (5.3 ounce) (room temperature is best)
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper (or to taste)
• salt and pepper

Prepare the grill.*

Drizzle olive oil over portabellos and brush to coat. Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl and mix well. Spoon into portabellos.

Grill for 15-20 minutes, covered.

Enjoy.

*Note: If you’re using a gas grill, check out these detailed grilling instructions from Serious Eats. If you’re using a gas grill, use medium to low heat.

(Adapted from Serious Eats, adapted from Taming the Flame by Elizabeth Karmel)

Dear Deviled Eggs: It’s Not You, It’s Me

Oh little vegetable blog, how I have neglected you. I still don’t have anything original for you, but how about some nice Easter deviled eggs to tide you over?

Two years after my first deviled egg attempt, I decided to make them again. The results? Pretty much the same. Fun to make, well received but I still don’t love them. They’re fine, but hard-boiled eggs just aren’t my thing. They’re pretty though, huh?

I used a recommendation in Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian to mix in spring vegetables – peas, asparagus and radish – and I added some fresh dill.

Speaking of hard-boiled eggs, here are a few that Crystal and I dyed. We dyed them with turmeric, blueberries, paprika, tea and red onion skins. The turmeric+blueberry (green) combination was my favorite, and the blueberries alone and tea worked really well too.

It was a fun little project, but man were there some funky smells coming from the kitchen when all the dye ingredients were boiling in water and vinegar. Whew!

Hope you all had a happy Easter!

Food Reading in 2008

I started keeping track of the books I read on this site last year, mainly to just keep a record of them but also to motivate myself to read more. I doubt anyone pays much attention to my list, but I can’t help feeling good as it gets longer and longer.

I have a habit of reading voraciously for a while and then getting stuck on a book I don’t really like, and instead of just giving up on it or forcing myself to finish, I keep telling myself I’ll get to it and end up not reading anything for a few months. One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2008 was to read more and fight that silly habit – if I got stuck on something, I’d power through or give it up and move on. I’m happy to say I found myself doing the former more than the latter and ended up really liking several books I might otherwise have put down.

I ended up finishing 25 books this year, compared to 14 last year, and I have to say, it’s nice to have actually stuck to a resolution for once, even if it was a pretty easy one. I mean, I do enjoy reading. A whole lot more than I enjoy, say, exercising. But that’s another story. Let’s just focus on the positive for now.

Eight of those books were food related, and not surprisingly, some of them were my favorites this year. Here’s a quick roundup of the food reads I gobbled up (and choked down) this year:

Heat by Bill Buford – My first book of the year, Heat was a great way to start 2008. Buford’s “adventure as kitchen slave, line cook, pasta-maker, and apprentice to a Dante-quoting butcher in Tuscany” was inspiring. I especially enjoyed the unsanitized but not necessarily unflattering portrait of Buford’s first boss in the restaurant industry, Mario Batali.

Skinny Bitch by Kim Barnouin and Rory Freedman – This one wasn’t so much fun to read (plenty of gross-out material) and it’s pretty heavy on the snark, but I was glad to have read it, especially as I was deciding to stop eating meat. The vegan thing didn’t work out for me, but it’s definitely a good read for someone who wants to know more about what she’s eating. Just be prepared – you may be compelled to change your eating habits.

My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud’Homme – I loved every page of this book, a memoir written with the assistance of the iconic chef’s great-nephew. I didn’t know much about Child before I read the book, so it was a delight to learn about her fascinating life.

Alice Waters and Chez Panisse by Thomas McNamee – See my take on this book here.

The House of Mondavi by Julia Flynn Siler – I don’t have a very refined palate when it comes to wine, and I’m not really into studying it. But I do like a good drama, which is what this book promised to be. The first half delivered that more frequently than the second, which was too heavy on financial and legal issues for my taste. Overall, it was extremely well researched, but pretty dry.

Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan – This young adult novel isn’t a food book per se, but food plays a major role in the story. Esperanza and her mother are forced to flee their wealthy estate home in Mexico and become migrant farm workers in California. Set in the Depression, the book touches on the Mexican Deportation Act and efforts to improve workers’ conditions, weaving in descriptions of seasonal foods and bits of fantasy. I think it’s a great read no matter what your age.

Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan – This is such a great little novel (little as in only 160 pages). It’s about the last day of business at a Red Lobster restaurant in Connecticut as told by the earnest, barely-holding-things-together manager who’s always thought of the place as his own. Set during the holiday season in the midst of a snow storm, it’s a great winter read. If you’ve ever worked at such a place, I think you’ll find many of the little details ring true.

Waiter Rant by The Waiter – I got this book for Christmas and finished it this morning. It’s kind of funny that I started the year reading about someone idealistically starting out on his culinary career and ended it with an account of a long-suffering, cynical waiter. The Waiter dispenses freely with the snark and gossip, but he also waxes philosophical and offers often-poignant insights about human behavior. It was a fun, relaxing read for some lazy holiday vacation days.

Here’s to good eating and reading in 2009! Have a safe and happy New Year’s Eve!