morsels & sauces

Do you really need a recipe for this salad? Not really. Do you sometimes need a nudge to eat better for yourself than you have been? Probably. Or at least I know I sometimes do. Consider this your nudge. This Cobb Salad from the fine folks at Food52  claims to be a rebellious kiss off to the more traditional Cobb Salad. And sure, perhaps it is. Normally a classic Cobb Salad would have tomatoes, chicken (or turkey), bacon, and iceberg lettuce. So, I suppose this is a nice riff on the Cobb Salad, wherein the beets stand in for all things meat based, olives make a briny appearance, and the dressing has eggs blended right into it, rather than just having your hard-boiled eggs scattered across the top of your shredded lettuce and cubed chicken.  Bonus:  The beets get their own vinegar infusion during the steaming process. So while they are not truly pickled beets (a favorite around these here parts), they have a little zing to them. Which I always appreciate. And I love me

Let me apologize by saying that you will have to turn on your oven for this recipe. So start early in the morning. Or really late at night. Because, people, it has been hot out there. But once you do, once you fire up that oven and roast these tomatoes, once you layer them atop a thick lashing of homemade yogurt cheese mixed with fresh herbs... I promise, this is worth any hot kitchen. Especially if you roast  a lot of tomatoes so that you can make this simple, light meal for dinner, and then have it again for breakfast, and if you plan it just right, for lunch again, too. As you may know, I am a fan of David Lebovitz . He's a great chef, of course, but on top of that, he's a great writer. He's been blogging for years , l ong before it was trendy to be a food blogger, and his book The Sweet Life in Paris  is the go-to gift for any foodie who is actually traveling to Paris or just wants to do so via arm chair. So it's no surprise that I am cracking open his

Is it too hot to cook inside? It sure was this Sunday in the Bay Area. Smoking hot. Of course, there are two answers to hot weather: grilling and gazpacho. We did both. (Gazpacho found here   to come later, I promise .)   This little lamb skewer comes from none other than my favorite person, Diana Henry--this time from her cookbook,  A Change of Appetite . (Want to read a great review of this book?  See here .  While Alex Guarnaschelli says she loves the book, she finds that it's culinary whirlwind tour a little discombobulating and she's not sure what she would turn to this book for. I do. I turn to it whenever I want something light and fresh and filling without weighing me down. And that happens throughout the year--be it on a hot summer day or after enjoying too many holiday treats come January. I know exactly why I come to this particular Diana Henry book.) So the husband fired up the grill and made some lamb, which was simple enough. Shockingly simple, indee

We have been away--I have gone back to Illinois and then the husband and I went up to Mt. Shasta to see a volcano and to hike around. But we still need to eat.   Is it Tuesday? (Okay, truth here, it's Saturday, but this dish will do anytime during the week.) Do you, too, need something to eat? Are you willing to put in 30 minutes? Do you need a revelation in broth? Well here's the little soup for  you, no matter if you're traveling or hanging out at home. The meatballs are a snap. As many of you know, I am huge fan of Diana Henry , in part because she takes ordinary ingredients and whips them into fine flavor combinations. More importantly, though, she does so without a lot of fuss and fanfare. Just make a meatball. Then put it in a broth.  But before you do that, why don't you make your broth a little more flavorful? Don't have time?  Let's not talk nonsense. All you need is 10 minutes, some ginger and some chiles. If you have homemade bro

In this  Cook Your Books  series, I have chosen 15 books to read in 2017 based on somewhat arbitrarily chosen categories. My theory (bogus it might turn out to be) is that all 15 of these books will somehow connect to food. And I plan to write about that food.  And it turns out that these entries are a sort of long-form blog-post. So settle in. This sixth installment is a book published this year . No doubt, I feel a kinship to Mark Twain. The summer of 1984, I went to  Hannibal, Missouri , with my family. One hundred miles north of St. Louis, Hannibal boasts being the boyhood home to Mark Twain and the inspiration for Tom Sawyer's spelunking adventures and picket fence white washing and for Huck Finn's hogshead barrel sleeping. It was also the site of numerous family and school trips. But one trip stands out in particular. Instructed to buy one souvenir, I lingered over plastic trinkets and snow globes and novelty spoons, I am sure. But something in me wanted more.

Life has been complicated as of late.  From switching jobs again to moving homes, from having our new home burglarized (man, oh man!) to a quick visit back to Illinois, my personal world has been somewhat hectic. (The burglary was scary, but everyone's okay, including the cats. And we're still in the annoyance of figuring out insurance. No one was home and the damage was, all things considered, minimal.)  I could say something pat that this is an uncomplicated dish in response to a complicated world, but I think this dish is a little more nuanced than that as were the experiences of the past three months. But one still needs good food even when trying to figure out insurance itemizations. From Tara Brady's  Seven Spoons , these baked eggs  have some complicated spice mixtures. It is similar to   shakshuka , and I can get behind anything that pairs eggs, tomatoes, and spices.  When I was young, I used to make scrambled eggs with every spice imaginable from t