morsels & sauces

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...

Friends, there are so many kinds of kimchi, it's almost overwhelming.   Here are just a few:  10 different kinds of kimchi   and   7 more kinds .   And, people, that's just the tip of the cabbage--there are about 200 more kinds (at least according to   Lucky Peach ). This strong, briny, and  somewhat fizzy amalgamation of veggies is steeped in ginger and g ochugaru (red pepper flakes) for a few days or a few months. And it is so tasty. In all its forms. It should come as so surprise that I have never turned from any banchan (those delectable little side dishes served at Korean restaurants)--fermented, salted, fresh, fried, or otherwise.  Given my proclivities for morsels and sauces, you can imagine that banchan is my favorite part of a Korean meal. And kimchi is always well represented--in its many forms--among banchan . And in my attempts to be a better educated kimchi eater, I can pass on this much about kimchi (with so...

It has been dark and cold and rainy here lately.  In other words, it has been perfect.  And when it is perfectly dark and perfectly cold and perfectly rainy, what's the best thing to do? Make a hot beverage and curl up with a good book. So I turned to David Tanis, whom I adore, and I made my own chai. Come with me on a journey far, far away, will you? A journey to the exotic land of Eugene, Oregon circa 1997. I was a 22-year-old graduate student on a vacation to see a dear friend whom I had met while abroad. She was (is!) funny, urbane, and left-coast. She looked like Rachel from Friends. At a time when everyone wanted to look like Rachel from Friends . (Let's face it: we all still  want to look like Rachel from Friends .)  She could drink a pint and she could dance well into the early morning. She was game for adventures at Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland, and she dragged my tipsy butt home from bars in Edinburgh. She hiked with me through bogs in Co...

People, I had pears. Lots of them. And this bounty of pears had been bestowed on my school by one of the families who had oodles of fruit. He donated much of his fruit to Urban Farmers , which in turn donates the food to food banks and other organizations that will accept fresh fruit for those who need it. What he didn't hand over to these organizations, he dropped off in our faculty lounge. And so I packed a bag of under-ripe pears, pears that were (quite frankly) as hard as baseballs, and I brought them home, unsure of what to do with them. I spent a Saturday morning thumbing through cookbooks. Should I make a crisp? What about a chutney? And then I alighted on Marissa McClellan's recipe for slow-cooker pear butter, and it seemed the perfect solution for a rainy weekend. And you all know  how I feel about a rainy weekend. (Hint: Love.)  You may know McClellan from her jaunty blog Food in Jars , or from her three wonderful cookbooks , o...

Friends, there was rain. Oh, just the right amount of rain, and my great fear in writing about the rain is that I made it go away. I am superstitious like that.  (My superstitious streak was solidified this week as I watched my beloved Cubs win the World Series.  I won't tell you about my good luck charm for fear of messing it up, but let's just say she knows who she is, and she better be watching next year as well!) And in the rain, the husband and I have been north, to wine country to sip on some reds in the Rhone style. Didn't that sound pretentious? (I have no  idea what that means, by the way.) I would like to pretend that I know anything  about wine, but the reality is--and one might argue rightfully so--I only know what I like. And it ain't in any particular style that I can discern. Sometimes it's big and fruity and other times it is lip-smackingly dry.  But the husband I went to Sonoma last weekend and sipped ...

I am a big fan of Diana Henry (and have written about her here  and here ). She is cheeky yet thoughtful, sophisticated yet simple. This cookbook ( A Change of Appetite ),  one I turn to time and again to up my salad game, is her gander at healthy eating .   Her take is simple:  More veggies, less meat. Heavy on freshness, light on processed foods.  And Henry takes us on a whirlwind tour of healthy food from across the world. From Scandinavia to Cambodia, North Africa to Peru, this cookbook opens up a world of possibilities for the healthy palate.  I have been thinking about my diet more these days.  One of the most important people in my whole life is in the midst of a health crisis, and we have been talking a lot about food that is good for you. There's a lot of misinformation out there. A lot of advice that contradicts itself. I just want something that is simple and easy to follow. Enter Diana Henry. She ju...