morsels & sauces

We spent the weekend away up the California coast, where the days (and nights) are cool and foggy, if you're lucky. (Sunny and bright, if you're not.)  As you know, I love the cold density of the fog and the way it nudges you towards sitting next to a fire and reading that book you've been avoiding for no other reason than sheer laziness. I will admit it: I read three books this weekend. Three. On Monday morning, I woke up late and I made this beautiful bowl of oatmeal. However, this was no oatmeal. It was fancy oatmeal, from  Tess Ward's  The Naked Cookbook . First you soak the raisins in Earl Grey tea, not only infusing them with flavor but also ensuring a caffeine pick-me-up for the morning (I guess you could go with decaf if that's your fancy). Then you toast the oatmeal with a little orange zest. Let's admit it here and now: the toasting is what makes this oatmeal nutty and sweet perfection. While it all may seem a li...

The husband has been learning how to make cheese. I am learning how to gain weight.  Last week it was chevre, as featured here.  Then it was feta.  Now it's Valencay . I approve of his new hobby. Our refrigerator is filled with jugs of goat milk, our counter is covered in cheeses in the beginnings of their aging process, our shelves are becoming stacked with cheese molds, and the cooler rotates cheeses in and out, depending on their needed temperature. And I am filling out my pants even further. Enter salad for dinner. His chevre is a beauty--creamy and slightly sweet--perfect for pairing with cherries.  And cherries are everywhere right now. So I have been soaking them in alcohol to make my own maraschino cherries , pitting them to make jam, and eating them in the backyard (spitting the pits into the grass in hopes that maybe one will sprout). Add spinach, arugula, basil, and almonds, and people this salad is b...

I love poppy seeds. These kidney-shaped black seeds from the opium poppy are highly nutritious, for they boast high levels of iron, copper, calcium, potassium, manganese, zinc, and magnesium. Further, they are a good source of B-complex vitamins. They even are chock full of oleic acid , which helps lower LDL or "bad cholesterol."  But let's face it--I love them because I like to pop them with my teeth. As a teenager, I always ordered the lemon poppy seed muffins or the lemon poppy seed breads when faced with the vast array of pastries at the coffee shop. As I munched the overly lemony pastry, the seeds would pop and crunch.  And according to Wikipedia (site of all reliable information), it's a fine thing that I have enjoyed them, for they not only promote health but also wealth and, apparently, invisibility.  That just might be the opium talking. I did a lot of experimenting with this recipe, but I leave it--for the most part--intact b...

About 20 years ago, I decided I wanted to be a better cook.  Scratch that.  I wanted to learn how to cook, which meant anything I made was going to be better than the feeble attempts I had made at boiling for water for pasta and cracking open a jar for sauce.  I took three major steps to learn to cook: Read cookbooks (see Greens, because I wanted vegetarian) and follow all of the steps; Subscribe to cooking magazines (hello Cooking Light ); Take cooking classes. The first cooking class I attended was on Braising and Roasting--why braising and roasting, you might ask? You might even be wondering why I didn't start with something a little easier, perhaps. However, I was joining my future-mother-in-law in her series of cooking classes, and, well, that's what was offered that Tuesday night. Voila: braising and roasting. However, had this cookbook, Slow Fires , from renowned New York chef Justin Smillie been around, I wouldn't really have neede...

It has been a little while since I have posted; suffice it to say that with the start of the new school year, the cooking has taken a backseat, or if you owned a station wagon in the 70s, the way-way back. The preparations for school have been in the driver’s seat, careening around like a teenager with a newly procured driver’s permit. However, don’t let it be said that I haven’t been thinking about cooking—and thinking about it a lot—even if I haven’t been doing as much of it as I would like. I recently received an advance copy of Heidi Swanson’s Near & Far , a cookbook set to come out on September 15. You know it’s a good cookbook if one of your first thoughts is that you want to buy the hardback, full-color cookbook as soon as it’s released—which is precisely what I intend to do this Tuesday as a bit of a birthday present to myself.   Heidi Swanson is the reason a lot of food bloggers became food bloggers. The original intention of her site— 101 cookbooks...

I love me a grain. What I don't love is my overdependence on refined wheat. As I have mentioned before , I have snapped up gluten-free cookbooks not because I am gluten intolerant, lord no. In fact, I love gluten--what, with its pleasing protein elasticity that makes my breads rise in a light and poofy way. However, I want said cookbooks because they push me out of my comfort zone and into the world of amaranth, millet, teff, quinoa, wild rice. What is downright delightful about Maria Speck's new cookbook, Simply Ancient Grains , is that she sets up a parade for all of the gluten-free grains to attend, and the ensures that those wonderful whole grains that have gluten (such as barley, rye, bulgar, farro, freekah) all have a place in the marching band. Simply ancient grains is Speck's sophomore collection, following her delightful debut  Ancient Grains for Modern Meals , which was published in 2011 and gifted to me that year by one of my fathers-in-law (he has gre...