Category Archives: recipes etc

handy cross reference catagories

02.21.08
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One Handed Breakfast

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On Saturday I had brunch with a friend at Namu on Balboa at 6th Avenue — fine place that — and broke into a rant about Michael Pollan’s book In Defense of Food. I really believe in his way of eating and can’t help going on about it.

On the subject of breakfast, Lisa said she would like to eat fresh food but she has two pre-teen daughters and teaches. Mornings are hectic, to say the least. Her first class is at 7:30, so she eats a Trader Joe’s power bar in the car during her commute. “I have to be able to eat with one hand,” she said, “something not messy. I don’t like what I eat for breakfast, but that’s the way it is.”

I don’t have that problem, but was thinking about her plight the next morning. I put together a breakfast that was not messy, and while I ate at the table, what I had could have been eaten in a car with one hand, from a container rather than a dish.

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  • Piccoline olives
  • Anchovy stuffed olives
  • Hard boiled egg, quartered
  • “Mikes” cheese curd (with peppers) from Spring Hill Farm, available at a Farmers Market near you. Continue reading →
02.20.08
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IN DEFENSE OF FOOD

An Eater’s Manifesto

I tacked this onto the end of Super (Bowl) Food, but it’s too important to be hidden there, so I’ve reprinted it here.

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FOOD IN THE AFTERMATH
The day after the Super Bowl, I went to a talk and book signing by Michael Pollan regarding his new book, IN DEFENSE OF FOOD, An Eater’s Manifesto at a local bookstore. His mantra is on the cover: Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants. I’m reading the book and urge you to do so, as well. Michael Pollan is an engaging speaker and packed the house. He has a lot to say and his talk was peppered with humor. You can see an NPR story on the book here.

Back home, Carol had already eaten dinner. With Pollan’s words in my head, I started my dinner. Leftovers from the Party crudités were in plastic bags in the crisper, and I had saved the trimming scraps from the prep, as well. Yellow and green bell peppers, broccoli stems, and celery sticks, as well as some slices of the Speck ham would make a nice stir-fry.

I sliced an onion and sautéed it in olive oil, added the other vegetables and cooked those with a little white wine until it had nearly evaporated. While that was going on, I sliced the ham into strips and stirred those in along with some beef broth. That cooked down nicely for a few minutes and I had dinner.

Food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Yum.

Then Tuesday, for lunch, I mixed the leftover stir-fry with noodles and a touch more broth. Oh, my, Yum!

02.06.08
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Super (Bowl) Food

Food and the Super Bowl

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This year we hosted our XIth Annual Super Bowl Party for Super Bowl XLII, the New York Giants vs. New England Patriots. Having lived in Newton, Massachusetts for 24 years while raising our kids, we are dyed-in-the-wool Patriots fans; but not all those invited shared our views.

In years past, we themed the food around the teams playing (Baltimore Crab Cakes, Carolina BBQ, are examples,) but last year we ran up against Indianapolis. What the heck would you do with Indianapolis??? So we punted and did a country ham, because we like country ham.

In any case, this year we had some good theme choices (New England Clam Chowder vs. Manhattan Clam Chowder, Lobster vs. NY Steak,). We recently returned from Europe, and particularly Spain, where we delighted in the Tapas. What great food for a party, finger food, little paper plates are good; eat bites of what you want, when you want, as much as you want, throughout the game. Continue reading →

01.28.08
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Sunday Supper III

Sunday Supper was so good and quick and easy, I just had to share it.

Sunday supper is a time when cooking and eating is an imposition, especially the cooking part. Whether we’ve been watching football, on a day trip, coming home from a Giants game, cooking a soup or stew for later in the week or just vegging out and trying to get through the entire Sunday New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle, it’s a time for ordering in Pizza or Chinese. But we can’t do that every Sunday. (We can’t?)

We’ve gone through a few phases:

The ordering in phase,
The leftover phase,
The peel and eat shrimp phase, that was the latest, and frankly, I’m tired of shrimp — or easy substitutes such as squid or scallops.

It’s January and the market is full of roots: beets, carrots, potatoes, and celery root, parsnips, turnips and the like. I scored a few pounds of beets and a couple of fine celery roots. The beets went to Harvard Beets and Pickled Beets and a couple of pounds are left for Borscht. That’s a lot of beets, our pee will flow red for days and days. Continue reading →

01.16.08
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Ham Loaf

For Super Bowl XLI We hosted our XIth Annual Super Bowl Party and about ten people showed up, a nice size crowd for our flat. For this, we bought half of a Country Ham and served the ham on small rolls with horseradish mustard. There was lots of other football food, as well as betting and whooping and carrying on, though nobody was really a Colts or Bears fan.

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After the game and after the last glass of wine and after the last ham roll, a lot of ham was still on that bone. We needed to come up with some way for the two of us to take care of that ham.

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I’m a big fan of meat loaf… why not Ham Loaf. Back at Columbus West High School, lo those many years ago, a couple buddies and I took an elective of Home Economics, Cooking. In the late 50’s this would be described as a girls course, guys took shop and metalwork. I took those too, and hated them. I signed up for Cooking because it seemed interesting, and, oh yes, to meet some girls. Cooking was way better than metalwork. I don’t remember all that we did in that class, but table setting and napkin folding stick in my brain, aside from the cooking. Chopping and baking led to the thing I remember best; our final project, Ham Loaf. I remember it was really good and it wasn’t something that my mother made, so it was new to me. Unlike meat loaf, it was tangy and sweet-and-sour. Continue reading →

01.07.08
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SQUASH THREE TIMES

Ravioli to Noodle Soup

We got these humungous winter squash in our Mariquita Farms Mystery Box.

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Mariquita Farm was my go-to for many vegetables at the Farmers Market, but they left the market to concentrate on supplying restaurants and CSA.
Just when I was about over missing them, I got an email from Julia that she would bring vegetable boxes a couple times a month to distribute at one of their restaurants where they deliver. Just make a $25 order by email. They call these deliveries Mysterious Thursdays, as they also offer a “mystery box” made up by Andy.

The squash sat outside for a week or so until one Saturday morning Carol just hacked up one of the big ones and baked it. Now what to do? We weren’t excited about making pie or soup or gratin.

SQUASH ONCE

Well, I hadn’t made pasta for a while, how about Squash Ravioli?

For basic research I tend to consult with Cook’s Illustrated online. We’re sure of finding a basic, proven recipe and we can go from there. Their Pumpkin, Prosciutto, and Parmesan Filling for Pasta looked good, interesting and easy. Just mix your baked squash with a little minced prosciutto and fresh sage leaves, grated Parmesan cheese, an egg yolk and freshly ground nutmeg.

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The already made sheets are under the green towel. Continue reading →

01.07.08
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Soup for Lunch

Bean Vegetable Soup (mine)

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I love beans. I love most any kind of beans, but as with any food I like to know if they’re fresh, and where they come from. The heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo are fresh and clean. For my all purpose needs, I usually get the Marrow beans, but those are out of season just now, so I’ve been using Cranberry Cargamanto, a worthy substitute, lately.

My wife, Carol, does not share my pleasure in beans. Oh, she’ll eat them as a small side accompaniment to a main dish if they are disguised with greens or radicchio or some such. But I will be eating the bulk of the beans, so when I cook up a pot of beans, I need some good ideas on how I’ll be eating them.

I’ve devised a great lunch fall-back of bean and vegetable soup. It doesn’t take long to prepare and tastes really good. Continue reading →

12.04.07
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Squid

This ain’t your Calamari

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When I saw the recipe for Stuffed Squid With Wilted Salad in the New York Times, I thought I would keep my eye out for squid, haven’t had that for a while. I haven’t done stuffed squid since a party at my business partner’s house back in Boston, that would have been in the late ‘80s.

My go-to squid recipe lately has been Squid with Black Pepper, Vietnamese Style by Mark Bittman, and I’ve done that several times, even for guests. So this would be a welcome change of pace.
What do you know? Shogun Fish at the Farmers Market on Saturday, had fresh caught local squid arrayed neatly in ziplock bags. Oh boy, now is the time.

Cleaning squid is messy, but not difficult. I cleaned them Sunday afternoon. There were 10 nice size squid in the bag.

squid-ingred.jpg Continue reading →

11.30.07
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Salad Niçoise

Salade Niçoise

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The first time I remember having Salade Niçoise was in a café in Paris in 1979. I was alone, having lunch on a lovely August afternoon.

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Of course August is the time when nearly all Parisians take holiday. My family and I were lucky enough to exchange houses for the month with a French architect, an acquaintance of a close friend. Our flat was a third floor walk-up (69 steps) so we were careful to plan our comings and goings. Situated on the Left Bank near Invalide, we were able to walk or take the Metro nearly everywhere. After breakfast, we could each go our own way (the kids were 11 and 13), sometimes for the whole day before assembling for dinner to exchange tales of our ventures.

The salad was served on an oval plate with a pile of tuna, surmounted by three anchovy fillets in the center. Green beans, tomato wedges, a quartered hard boiled egg, black olives and sliced potatoes were arranged around the tuna and dressed with a vinaigrette. Yellow potatoes! I had never seen yellow potatoes. I carefully took a bite of each ingredient — starting with a potato slice — and savored each bite. I hoped the experience would never end, but of course the plate was not infinite, and when I reached the last bite, perhaps an olive, I was wholly satisfied. Continue reading →

11.09.07
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Patterns in Food

, and elsewhere

Rob Forbes, writing as Studio Forbes sent an email newsletter essay recently entitled Patterns in the Public.

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The essay inspired me to take a look at my photos to look for patterns, and sure enough I found some (a beet salad above). They range from food (obviously) to ball games, to architecture and the city, and from arranged patterns to those that just happen.

Since many of the pictures involve food, I pronounced them fair game for this website. For those not involving food, I hope you find them interesting, bearing in mind that my career is architecture.

My pictures are un-cropped, but you can imagine the pure patterns that would present themselves with cropping.

Enjoy. I enjoyed taking every one and was pleased to have a reason to assemble them.

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Tomatoes, oven roasted, then frozen are a great way to bring a taste of summer into the depths of winter. Continue reading →