It's too hot to cook.

What does everyone else do in the kitchen when it's literally over a 100 degrees?  Because me?  I do nothing.  I barely even step in there.

I am sweating as I sit in my air conditioned apartment, and the thought of turning on my oven makes me sick.  I did promise my co-workers a chocolate pie as a thank you this Monday for their help while I was on vacation.

Minimal baking though.  I mean, a ready made pie crust?  Does that even count?  I've only made a few pies in my time, but always from scratch.  Did you know you're supposed to use pie weights with a store bought crust?!  Not me... if only I had watched more of the she-devil Sandra Lee.

Smoked Paprika

IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.

I bought smoked sweet Spanish paprika a few weeks ago, but hadn't used it until today.

I don't know the last time I have been this excited by a spice.  I roasted a chicken, rubbed with some butter, salt and pepper inside and out, with a few garlic gloves in the cavity, and then roasted baby potatoes with cherry tomatoes, tossed in salt, pepper, olive oil and the paprika.  My life has been changed.

so guys (particularly The Kleins)(or is it The Kliens?)(not sure of the spelling)

when you go out in The Bruns for "The Soup" ... where do you go and what is it called? im dying to know here.


also, i am living in a hotel for the past month and for another month, so the most cooking i get done is when i microwave spinach. not fun or blogworthy. im sure i'll be posting like crazy when i finally get back to town and a stove.


EDIT: oh, double ps. post by vanessa. but logged into matt. call me lazy, but i'm not signing in/out just to post a blog about how i dont cook.

Butchering a Chicken, part f'real

Where is the action in this blog?

I used a youtube tutorial and my own novice skills to butcher a chicken a few weeks ago and used a variation of this recipe for Portuguese Chicken.  Since it was so long ago (it honestly may as well be years), I can only tell you what I remember: it was not that difficult.  The recipe or the butchering.

I have a very short attention span and could barely make it through the tutorial and then just decided to start the process and 'feel' for where to slice.  It worked out just fine thank you and was a lot easier than expected.

Butchering a chicken, part two (as in not really)

I never got around to butchering the chicken, and it's currently resting in its entirety in the freezer.  I will definitely try to record the process - although it may be too embarrassing to want to share.

I was recently gifted an iPhone as a belated birthday/Christmas gift, and let me tell you - I am pretty amazed at the photo quality/video.  That being said, I did record a video of a sitting potato au gratin.  Listen to the beautiful soundtrack of steaks sizzling!

p.s. did you know Le Creuset calls this casserole dish an Oval Au Gratin?  So fancy.  Thanks, Marshall's!

Butchering a chicken

I'm going to butcher my first chicken in the next few days.  In the past year or two, I feel like I have conquered roasting a chicken and using the carcass to make chicken stock, so it's only appropriate.

Who's done it?  I'm going to rely on a Bon Appetit pictorial, as well as youtube.

I should quit my job and become a butcher or a fishmonger.

:(

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/dining/26mini.html?ref=style

Late Night Pizza

I made the Master Recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day on Sunday, and it's been proofing in a bowl in the fridge since then.  I put the grill pan on high, turned the broiler on high, and rolled out a mini-pie for myself.  I grilled both sides of the dough, slathered on some homemade tomato sauce (which is one of those things that will never taste better from a jar), tossed on fresh mozz, and then let it finish in the broiler for a minute.

Took about the same time as your average frozen tv dinner.  And much faster than making a loaf of bread from a book that is the ultimate lie.

This has been posted in The Pineapple Spoon Rest too.

p.s. You know there is a specific line in my lease about NOT using knives directly on the counters?  Because there is.

Pasta and Bread

I've been in sort of a cooking funk recently, but two of my friends were coming over tonight and I knew I needed to come up with something.  I don't typically do pasta dishes for guests, but like I said, cooking funk, so I made Mark Bittman's multi-grain pasta with butternut squash and ground lamb.

The recipe calls for packaged cubed butternut squash, which baffles me for a lot of reasons.  Can't someone just do some of the tedious prep work the night before instead of wasting money?  Cripes.  Order take out or cook for real.  Anyway, I didn't take any pictures, but my friend Chris did so maybe I will post those another time.  The dish was pretty delicious and hearty, and the flavors were described as "subtle."  I could tell with Adam's first bite he was wishing it was covered in a heap of tomato sauce.  This is not that kind of pasta dish - how could it be with cinnamon and cumin?

I served it with some homemade bread from the Master Recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, which is a recent addition to my culinary library.

After Meredith asked me to start blogging here, I realized I liked writing about food a lot and started my own blog called The Pineapple Spoon Rest.  I recently wrote a very brief entry about the sham that is bread in five minutes a day. After baking and eating mini-boules three nights in a row, I can say it's delicious, but five minutes?  PLEASE. I read the introduction for the book after I got in the mail, and already forgot what it said (oops), so maybe it described what they actually meant by five minutes (the ease in having fresh bread once you make the initial recipe and can lob off chunks of dough while you're prepping the real dinner), but I don't get how twenty minutes of preheating/dough resting and half an hour of baking equal five minutes.  They should rename the book Easy Artisan Bread and call it a day, and then I would be a lot less agitated.

Oh It's Good to be Sixty

My birthday present from my scuba-diving brother was seven succulent tails of lobsters he caught in the ocean off the coast near San Diego. He sent them via Fed-Ex on dry ice with the dates and locations they were caught. We are going to feast on every one. Tonight, a beauty caught a few hundred yards off the shore at about 35-40 feet was sauteed with vegetables and a black bean ginger sauce and eaten with fresh Chinese noodles in front of the fire. The roses were a present from my husband Larry, the chopsticks were a gift from the Benders and the Gifts of the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh was from my colleague, Jocelyn. It's good to be sixty. You have something to look forward to.

This was supposed to be about Indian food.

I try to bring lunch to work every day, and I try to cook dinner Monday through Thursday and Sunday. I do not often cook from a box or bag, and I try to make everything relatively healthy. But Friday and Saturday are no holds barred, and I love my local Chinese take-out spots. Like, love them. I guess that's how some people love pizza - in all its disgusting, congealed mozzarella glory. I like pizza enough, but I only really love it when it's grilled. There was this place in New Brunswick called Jack 'N Grill, and they used to make really awesome grilled pizza. The problem is they only ever made this awesome grilled pizza once, and every other time it sucked so bad that until Adam and I finally gave up and moved on to Tido's (note to self: discuss Tido 'n His Junkyard Dogs at another point in time).

Al Forno in Providence, RI has the most amazing grilled pizza, which is what the restaurant is famous for. It's topped with strands of scallions, and it's BANANAS. I celebrated my 27th birthday there, and now that I'm heading deeper into my late 20's, I realize how important it is to mark your birthdays with memorable food experiences.

Anyway, this post was supposed to be about bringing lunches, cooking dinners, and how I've cooked Indian food twice in the past week and how much I love it, but then I got distracted by pizza. I'll save my green chicken masala for another time.

New Year's Day Party

These are pictures of our 2nd Annual New Year's Day party. Everyone seems to like the menu, so we will probably make the same things every year. This should make Meredith and Ben very happy because they like to bring home leftovers.

We always have little bowls of nuts and olives and lots of fresh flowers

I made a Gateau Semoline (semolina cake), center, that has raisins and is flavored with vanilla and nutmeg with a caramel glaze.

I also made gravlax, which is salmon cured in vodka for three days. It has a similar texture to lox. We also had crab cakes and french toast casserole. Dieting starts tomorrow!