morsels & sauces

This one is a no brainer. Especially if you have vowed to eat healthy this winter.  (Yes, we're calling this healthy. It's salad. Go away.) Let's face it, the combination of bacon and eggs is almost always the answer to life's questions. Cobb Salad, Spaghetti Carbonara, and (let's face it) Egg McMuffins. All divine. All bacon and eggs. Coincidence? Nope. But this one, at least, can claim to be a smidgen healthier than all of those.  But if we follow the narrative that France brings us the best in (or at least the foundation of) the gastronomical world (a narrative espoused by many of my own culinary heroes, including Alice Waters), then we need turn only to Salade Lyonnaise, or a classic f risée salad with poached eggs and salty lardons. I say, let's follow that narrative.  With its creamy, tangy, smoky, and umami-based flavors, this little salad(e) hits all the right spots. Let's break it down, shall we? Egg --you have to have the perfect...

I sent a picture of this to my friend, and she said, "What is  that?"  I suppose without context, dumpling soup doesn't look all that interesting. But, people, let me tell you that it is not only interesting but quite good and even, wait for it, frugal. Which might be exactly what we need as we start the new year. So let me set some context because I promise you, this little soup is worth a spin through your kitchen. Canederli Tirolesi is an Italian speck and chive dumpling soup. But wait a minute, you may be gasping--dumpling soup? That seems more Bavarian than Italian, you say. And you'd be pretty close to right. You see, this soup originates in Alto-Adige region of Italy. (Think: Ruffle at the top of the boot.) It's merely a whisper away from Austria and Germany, and in fact was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1915. And most of the inhabitants speak German, Italian, and their own Alto-Adigian dialect. And these dumplings, known as Kn...

Um. I was not expecting this. Not at all. Creamed greens (in the U.S. generally creamed spinach) are those old standbys that no one really admits to making all that much anymore. And it's a shame, for creamed greens are not only good but the can be good for you (if you watch just how much cream you put in them).  From Food and Wine's Creamed Kale  to The Food Network's Creamed Broccoli , lots of people are jumping on the creamed vegetable bandwagon again these days, and I am no exception. However, most of these are very heavy on the cream. Not with this recipe from  Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, the founders of  Food52 .   Instead, this is a bitter mouthful rounded out with only a susuration of cream. As it should be. As you probably already know given my last couple of posts , I have taken up Hesser and Stubbs challenge to spend my Sunday cooking and then sitting back for the rest of the week....

  For Christmas Eve dinner, I make morsels and sauces, which as you know, is my favorite kind of eating. I head out with the husband to procure raspberries, chocolate-covered almonds, brillat-savarin cheese , assorted meats, olives, and marinated mushrooms. I pop open a bottle of champagne. Then we settle in for the annual showing of It's a Wonderful Life or Rudolph . This year, I added these crostini to the buffet.  Bitter, savory, and salty, they were a delightful addition. The warm bean mixture gets a bit of a kick from the red pepper flakes; the thyme and bay leaf lend a savoriness and a depth to this base for building a tower of goodies atop toast. The radicchio needed a tad more sugar than I put in it (so I added a little more to the recipe below--the kind folks at Sunday Suppers  call for 1/2 teaspoon. I called for 1 teaspoon, and added the step of tasting the radicchio to be certain on your sugar content). And the bacon is just gilding the lily. ...

A few years ago, we got a wok. We didn't need  a wok, but we wanted one. So we got a wok . Often those who are not in the know, my ignorant self included, have relegated the wok to simply a vessel for the stir fry. However, one can see the wok truly for what it is: a "cooking pot"--which is precisely what wok  means in Cantonese. I started to get curious about the wok, so I called upon our trusty friend, the internet, to tell me all about it. Turns out, we don't know a ton about one of the most widely used cooking vessels in the world, but people have all kinds of theories. I needed some answers--consequently, I turned to notable  food historian , Rachel Laudan, who had this to say: we don't know much about the (history of the) wok. She reports that some believe that as a Chinese cooking pot, the wok is about 2000 years old; however, as Laudan attests, other scholars date it more likely to about 1000 (or even only 500) years old and suggest that the...

For the Fourth of July, my dad came to visit with his wife, my aunt and my uncle.  After going to the Coliseum to watch the A's (and the Cubs, and I cheered on the losing Cubs, as is usual), they all came over to our place for a backyard barbecue of pork tenderloin, potato salad, and a tossed salad.  It was quite pleasant, sitting in the backyard hearing stories of their growing up. As the husband tended the pork on the grill, my uncle and my dad told stories of my grandfather who commanded performances of delight and surprise for the home movies as his children came down the stairs at Christmas.  Should my father not seem delighted or surprised enough, my grandfather would send him back up the stairs to recreate the moment.  To be honest, my father insisted on a full family portrait on the stairs of his suburban home when my brother, sister, and I were young.  The apple did not fall far from that tree.  I do not make the cats pose on Christmas....

Okay, this is a rambly post, unedited, and filled with a discussion of Christmas, gougères , and Michael Ch abon.  F ollow along : I am one of those people.   I put my tree up the day after Thanksgiving and I would lea ve it up until Epiphany if I could ( given that the husband has endured the tree for little over a month, I cave to the pressu re to take it down New Year's Eve Day ).  I genuinely love Christmas music .   I love Holiday Parties, Holiday Car ds, Holiday Decorations .  Give n that I am not Christian , it do es seem somewhat biz arre that I embrace this season so fully.  But I think I love the way lights shine through ornaments, th e simple joy of keeping in touch with friends and family with a handw ritten note, the presentation of tokens of how one feels to another pers on, the way the house feels warm and cozy once a seven-foot tree has taken up valu able rea l estate, and the feast of rich foods with family around a crowded t...