Garlic is my only friend...

OK...I think I'm going to have to call that garlic scape pesto a bust.  Maybe I went too far down on the stalk's roots; maybe the arugula's bitterness is what's overwhelming me; maybe I'm just not used to eating anything made with the recommended amount of olive oil.  But between the overpowering pungency of the garlic, a strange, off-putting bitterness, and the overabundance of olive oil...I don't like it at all (although it was much better cold yesterday than heated up today).  Yet I still have about 2 servings left in the fridge, and I'm going to have a hard time throwing them away for no reason other than the taste...

Oh, well.  I brought 1/2 the head of red leaf lettuce from this week's haul for a salad, had a hard-boiled egg and some dried cranberries too.  I didn't eat much of the pasta...but I may have had a small bag of chex mix to make up for the carbs I was missing.  I can't go without them!

GARLIC scapes pesto

Man, not feeling like anything today.  Crabby, emotional, blah.  Lady hormones leave a lot of emotional stability to be desired. 

But at least I maintained enough of my sanity not to give in to said hormones' ferocious cries for a cheeseburger-and-fried chicken feast for lunch, and ate the relatively healthy pasta, salad (CSA lettuce) and almonds I brought for lunch.  And a nectarine.  Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

Let me tell you something about garlic scapes: the word "garlic" should be bold and a font size at least 300x larger than scapes.  STRONG was this pesto!  And even though I threw a handful of arugula in to temper the garlic, its peppery bitterness that I usually find so appealing in salads was distracting here.  I think this would be greatly improved by using 1/2 basil, 1/2 scapes, then proceeding as written.  Even that's not how I did it, that's how I'm editing the recipe Julia shared.  Otherwise, it's a pretty good pasta.  My coworkers just might not bother me as much today.  Hey, that makes it a pretty great pasta...

Recipe after the jump.

stale bagel and fresh coffee

Still rockin out every morning with the brand-new, ultra fancy coffee pot.  Love it.  But since my brain's still shut off from the weekend, I couldn't get my act together to bring breakfast for myself.  Luckily I found some old bagels in the snack jar in our office kitchen (only 8 people share it, so it's not quite as gross as it sounds to pillage food from shared spaces) from last week, apparently.  It was up for grabs, and I was doing the grabbing.

With strawberry jam and a teeny bit of butter--the amount that didn't melt all over the toaster and counter when set the pat next to the toaster to warm up a bit....

....and we're back!

Long weekend in NYC with 8 of my favorite girls left this bachelorette a little brain-dead and sleepy the past couple of days....so much so that I resorted to an all-frozen, prepared food dinner last night (Trader Joe's chicken egg rolls and orange chicken over Uncle Ben's boil-in-bag brown rice, with CSA broccoli on the side) but now I have returned to my senses and am back in the game...er, kitchen. 

This week's CSA haul (thanks to A who picked it up for me Sunday, when I had completely forgotten...)

1 head red curly-leaf lettuce
1 bunch spring onions
1 big bunch of curly-leaf kale
1 large head of broccoli
3 giant garlic scapes

I first was introduced to garlic scapes last year from this same farmer.  They are the tops/shoots of the garlic plant.  Cutting them off helps the garlic bulbs grow, but they also are good to eat.  You can cook them like asparagus (cutting off the woody bottom ends) or use them for their garlicky green flavor in other dishes.  Julia shared a garlic scape pesto recipe that I tried last night...more details to come. 

Kitchen toys

After my first, amazing bridal shower last weekend, I was stunned at the generosity of my family and friends...particularly with one gorgeous gift from MIL and GIL:

How pretty is she?  I've wanted a kitchenaid artisan stand mixer since always...and NOW I HAVE ONE!!!  Wheeee!

And, I spent 3 hour rearranging my kitchen on Sunday to throw old things away and make room for the new toys I got at the party...like an amazingly quick, delicious coffee maker; airtight, stainless-steel canisters; beautiful artistic pottery platters....

And a GORGEOUS end-grain butcher block, a sharp new Wusthof boning knife, and pretty flavored oils and vinegars in my new cooking station (I know it's a little blurry):

The tupperware you see on the block is full of Key Lime Meltaways, a huge batch of which I used to inaugurate my Kitchenaid and to wrap up as little gifts for the girls at my batchelorette party this weekend.  They are easy to make (and FULL of butter) but I have to say, they aren't my favorite.  I love snowball cookies at christmas, and these remind you a lot of that (shortbread-like texture, tossed in powdered sugar) but they were a bit too delicate and perhaps not tart enough for me.  When I eat citrus, I want the pucker. 

Blah....

Just not feeling it today....maybe its the 25 work projects that are all due this week, or maybe its the fact that my boss is not out of the office for several weeks...but I just can't motivate to do anything--work, blog, think.  Surfing the interwebs is about as much as I can handle.

Unexciting 1/2 whole-wheat bagel with OJ for breakfast, unexciting work catered lunch (some sort of sweet jerk chicken, rice, waaaaaay overseasoned veggies, corn, and bizarrowraps) that wouldn't look any more appetizing in a photo (and I'm just not nerdy enough to whip out a camera in public....yet).

But y'all should swing back here tonight.  Boy, do I have dinner planned....

In the meantime, I have 6 starburst waiting for me.  And a whole lot of internet to catch up on reading.

Storms affect dinner plans

Wow, mother nature.  Sorry to piss you off.

Tonight was the first time I've ever heard the tornado sirens go off in Chicago in 7 years.  Serious storms rolled through right after work and dropped inches of rain, brought heavy winds and threatened both hail and tornadoes for a few hours.  With no basement, we hung out in the stairwell and listened to the wailing sirens...and thinking about dinner.  Nope, not going to grill the steaks I had planned in the lightning factory.

Instead, I mixed up a batch of tuna pasta and peas, the second batch of which we've eaten in as many weeks. I grew up making this salad on hot summer nights, that humid season when having no air conditioning means the oven and stove are off-limits.  Simple, with a few twists.

Garlic Parmesan Bread on the side, a rare unhealthy recipe from mom.  Oooh, but good.  Recipes after the jump.

Did somebody say sundae party?

Jesus christ.  In a moment of weakness before lunch, I spent 10 minutes searching aroudn my purse, desk, floor, etc for a dime.  One little dime.  See, I had 45 cents, and the bag of sun chips I wanted from my office's snack machine are 55 cents.  Who knew a dime could still buy so much?

Then I realized that I don't really want to eat sun chips.  I think I do, but the healthy kale & rice I brought will serve a body much better than sun chips (especially after I added the leftover caramelized onions and browned pancetta from last night's flatbread feast...mmmm).

Yes, willpower won over.  That, or the fact that I remembered we have an ICE CREAM SUNDAE party at work today...let's see how willpower does with that challenge.  (I'll be happy with a small sundae. I don't need 500 spoonfuls of hot fudge...keep repeating that.)

Today's lunch--remainder of Monday's Kale Au Gratin doctored as described above, and some cherries.  I need some more cherries.

BAGEL LOVE

I love bread.  Period.  It makes me actually personally offended and irate when I hear people promoting the Atkins BS diet.  Because there is just no way in hellio that eating that much animal fat, saturated fat, dairy fat, and cholesterol, while eliminating whole grains and fruit from your diet, can ever, EVER be construed as healthy.  Sure, it may trick your body for a while and cause you to lose weight, but it sure as shit ain't HEALTHY.  But, I guess we have this idea that thin=healthy, so whatever means to that end must be good for you, right?  Does. Not. Compute. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I eat far too much refined white flour and sugar, and probably not enough whole grains and fructose, but I try.  But if a bagel comes sneaking my way, there is just no way I can resist.  Something about that chewy crumb gets me every time. 

Leftover 1/2 everything bagel from yesterday's Au Bon Pain order + 1 Tbsp veggie cream cheese + leftover OJ + black coffee = hey, hump day isn't so bad after all!  The fact that I motivated (or A motivated me) to get to the gym this morning makes that 1/2 bagel totally earned and extra delicious, too. 

Clearly I haven't enough patience to properly focus my shot (too tempted by the bagel's lusciousness, I suppose), hence why you see blurry seeds but a perfectly clear grocery list in the background. 

Still working on forming a habit

So mad at myself right now!!!  I just made awesome, delicious, gorgeous flatbreads for dinner, and I forgot to take any photos of them.  I guess I'm still getting used to the blogging thing and remembering to get out the camera before I eat. Anything standing between me and my next meal stands in danger of being trampled over as I desperately seek to get FOOD IN MOUTH.

Oh, woe is me, because they are all gone right now, and since I can't eat anymore of them I would love to be longingly staring at photographs of them.  Suppose it will teach me to remember next time to grab my camera, not my fork.

Moving on, I used 2 6-oz portions of pizza dough and stretched it extra thin to make flatbreads.  I'm not really sure how they are different from pizza, or if they really are different at all, but I always think of flatbreads as crisper, more lightly topped versions.  One was a spicy black bean number with chipotle oil and a little pepperoni.  The other was a spin on salad-topped pizza with pancetta and arugula.

Baked on a pizza stone, of course, cause it makes an irreplaceable difference on the crust.  Seriously, invest in one even if the most you ever do is bake frozen pizza or reheat takeout.  It makes a strong, crisp crust like nothing else, but you have to use a pizza peel (or a cookie sheet, cause that's what I got) to slide the uncooked pizza onto the stone.  Now that's a fun skill to master (master, who am I kidding.  How about gets right about 70% of the time).  At first they all either stick to the peel or get distorted, lose their toppings, or get shredded during the transfer--an endlessly frustrating cycle. Or the cornmeal flies all over the bottom of the oven, creating a pleasant burning smell that permeates the kitchen an crust.  But then, just once, one slides off the peel and onto the stone like a charm...and you feel like the coolest person in nerd world.  Totally worth it.  Recipes after the jump.

The last of the radishes

Leftovers made a predictable return in my rushed lunch today.  And, since I forgot to turn my camera to "macro" focus it's not a very clear shot of my over-the-hill radishes and last night's gratin.

I still like the Kale Au Gratin dish, although the texture problems are more apparent in the microwave.  It's dry.....but tasty, I swear (although I agree that it's one of the ugliest things I'm made in recent memory).  A little more egg, a little more cheese, some cream/stock would improve greatly.  Although what really can't be improved with dairy fat?  Tastes bad, just cover it with cheese and nobody will know.  My dad always says he could eat shoe leather if it was cooked in butter! 

I guilt-ate my radishes, which we a bit shriveled and browning, seeing as they are 9 days old.  But throwing them away seemed wasteful--after all, they weren't bad, just old.  So the delicious radish-butter sammich made its last appearance for the week (although my farmer says more radishes were seeded this week, so hopefully not my last for the season). 

OOOOOH and cherries!  I love cherries, love them love love love them.  These are just Jewel cherries, not from a farm, not all that great.  But they're still cherries, and I bet I'll finish off the 2 lb bag I bought before Friday.

Awwww, Bon Pain!

Staff meeting this morning means that we had breakfast catered in--not a big breakfast, just fruit and pastries.  It's really nice of the bosses to feed the meeting participants--and probably helps to make our attitudes a bit better for a 9:30 meeting by supplying us with sugar and coffee.

This morning's spread cam from Au Bon Pain, who really has its act together with continental breakfasts.  Several bagels (plan, whole grain, sesame, cinnamon raisin, and an everything bagel, which is separately wrapped to keep the other items all nice and non-garlicky), pastries (danishes, cinnamon rolls) and muffins, with two big platters of fruit, juice and TWO varieties of coffee.  I really wanted to take a photo, but thought that might not go over too well with my fellow staffers.  Plus I wanted to get 1/2 a sesame bagel and veggie cream cheese (just a teensy bit) before some other greedy paws snatched it up. 

Though you can't see the evidence of it, trust me that it was delicious. 

Kale, Chard, Whatever

Tried out a new recipe tonight to use a big old bunch of CSA greens--kale, either Russian or Red Kale, if I remember correctly (A picked up the batch from the farmer this weekend, so I didn't get the most thorough overview, and I just don't know what it is).  Farmer Julia sent along with this week's share a Julia Child recipe for Swiss Chard au Gratin. 

Seeing as I can't leave well enough, or recipes, alone, I thought I'd try it with all that kale.  Chard and kale aren't that different, are they?  I probably used more than a pound, too, because I just wanted to use all of what was in my fridge.  I also used leftover white basmati rice, not brown, because that was on hand.


Not really, it seems--they are both fibrous cooking greens with an earthy, bitter taste.  But maybe kale is a bit more bitter?  The resulting casserole was fair--a bit too dry, and a little too bitter (and bland) for A's tastes.  I liked it more.  The basmati rice got pleasantly crunchy/chewy, depending on the "depth" in the gratin.  It could definitely use more moisture--maybe the called-for spinach would impart that, or maybe some broth/cream would help in that direction.  A also thought it needed more cheese, and maybe some meat, too.  Some salty richness from bacon or pancetta would we very welcome.  Although I might not save the recipe--or would modify it if I made it again--it was a good way to use lots of greens, and it was the kind of meal that tastes healthy, in a pretty good way.

Served some green leaf lettuce (more CSA greens) with feta and fig-balsamic dressing and three-cheese semolina bread alongside. 


Recipe after the jump (thanks Julias!)

An inspiration

So I'm not a food blogger--I'm still using a camera phone 50% of the time to upload shots; my kitchen is basically devoid of natural light to get good shots with my real camera; my style is more projectile brain vomit than eloquent food prose).  I'm a reader of food blogs, and one day perhaps I'll be more than just a casual eater posting about what she eats and wants to eat and has eaten and will soon eat, but for now I just take my inspiration from those who came before me....

Like Deb of Smitten Kitchen, who posted the most delicious-looking recipe for Bread and Butter Pickles this weekend.  Pickles--and really anything involving sour, pickled, vinegar flavors--are a major weakness (of which I have many, food-wise and otherwise...)  I dare you to make these today, and then send me a jar.  Or I'll have a project when I get home...

Bread and Butter Pickles on Smitten Kitchen

Tuscan Tomato Panzanella

Leftovers for lunch today, of course, seeing my royal status with respect to old food.  This example in fact combines another aspect I'm famous for trying--freezing! I will freeze--or at least try to freeze--almost anything.  I figure if it's going to go to waste by not being eaten right now, I may as well freeze it and eat it later.  If it gets ruined or gross in el deepo freezeo, well, it's no big loss since I was going to throw it out anyway.

Take for example this Tomato Panzanella.  Unlike the more traditional salad version, this is baked like a casserole or Thanksgiving dressing, making it somehow more satisfying and hearty than the cold version.  It combines day-old stale bread cubes with white beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers and onions, with a little basil and balsamic vinegar thrown in for flavor and topped off with mozzarella cheese. And it makes a TON--at least 6-8 servings.  It's really easy and really good (though not really photogenic, at least not in its defrosted and rewarmed form).  Try the recipe after the jump.

And in the background of that lovely camera phone image is the registration form for one of my MANY new kitchen toys and gadgets bestowed upon me my my kind, generous, and thoroughly awesome friends and family at my bridal shower this past weekend.  Lucky, I am. 

Breakfast of champions...

Yogurt and cheerios!  My mom used to feed us cheerios with yogurt instead of milk, to make them all stick together and more spill-proof.  When I was little, however, I called this particular combination "princess food." I would stir it all together in a big bowl and imagine wandering my castle in a big, poofy dress.  My tastes--food, habitation, clothing--have changed a bit since then.  

Not too much, though--I still eat it with regularity.  I love yogurt, but I almost always need to have something crunchy or other-textured mixed in or on top of it.  I have a hard time with food you just swallow without chewing.....

Note also that the yogurt in the photo is six days past its sell-by date, and, three hours later, I'm still hale and hearty as ever. 

This week's haul

In this week's CSA box:

1 bunch kale
1 bunch red kale (i think)
3 very large beets
1 head green leaf lettuce
1 bag arugula

mmmm....

Julia, my farmer, sent out a recipe to make Julia Child's Chard Gratin with rice and gruyere cheese.  I think I'm going to try it tonight with the kale and some leftover basmati rice.  And it will be a meatless dinner as well!  Check off that self-important check box for the week!

Clutch

The nice weather, sunshine and ass-kicking I got at the gym yesterday zapped all my motivation to cook--but ignited my  desire for a few drinks on a cool outdoor patio somewhere.

Clutch (no website--really?), a relatively new bar/grill in the neighborhood, fit the bill.  A former gas station or car wash or something engine-related, Clutch keeps the car-theme going through the menu (starters are "first gear," etc.).  Corny as hell, but the ambiance is cool (tons of art, paintings, photos, vintage signs, etc. all over the space; big patio overlooking a nice people-watching stretch of sidewalk) and the food is good--not great, not really "special," but good.

They take the time to make some things from scratch (which, seriously, all restaurants worth their salt--ba dum BING!--should be doing...anyone can order food-service, pre-made snacks and deep fry them.  i don't need a restaurant to charge a premium for their ability to lower a basket into hot oil).  Last time we went I got the skewered chicken appetizer (plenty of food for a main, if you don't need a starch) that came with two house-made sauces:  a shallot salsa blanca (ok, rather flavorless) and some jalepeno-lime-goodness, spicy, creamy, herby, intense sauce that the server insisted had no cream in it.  How that is concocted, I don't know, but I want to bathe in it.

Getting back to the point, it's the little things like this that make Clutch a little more than just a standard bar/grill to me.  Their fish tacos are sauteed tilapia with wine, garlic and herbs, not generic fried whitefish patties (although i might have liked a more imaginative topping than shredded iceberg--spicy cabbage slaw?); the chicken wrap had a nice balsamic glaze thing going on; their salsa has a hell of a kick to it.  The draft beer list isn't that exciting (and Oberon at $6 a pint strikes me as a little high...but the $2 PBR pints made up for it), but the table next to us was drinking Costa Rica's Imperial, so their bottle list might have more interesting choices. 

I don't want to over-talk this place though--nothing on the menu is especially interesting or exciting, and the menu is pretty small, and I'm so sick of the same old bar appetizers (wings, nachos, skins, cheese fries) that there is a lot of potential here that they aren't capitalizing on.  I believe they are capable of doing a lot more, a lot better.  And service can be slooow...but if you're lazing away an afternoon or evening enjoying the weather and the view, I don't really mind. 

Worth a stop, and worth choosing over Twisted Spoke across the street (whose food has been WILDLY inconsistent lately, and whose service borders on nonexistent), at least once to try for yourself.

Leftovers from another mother

I am a leftovers queen.  I feel almost morally bad throwing food away and have been known to eat yogurt months past the "sell by" date.  FYI, in my view, that "sell by" date is in no way, shape or form an expiration date--it's a cover-your-ass maneuver by supermarkets and brands to make sure they don't sell you anything that might be near spoiled.  So they "sell by" whenever, and people get all aghast and disgusted if you take a sip of the milk a week later and deem it acceptable to use.  Seriously, people, the date is not the gospel.  Six days past the date don't matter--get to KNOW your food, look at your food, and decide if it's spoiled.  I'm pretty sure spoiled milk and rotten eggs will let you KNOW they're spoiled.  And cutting the mold off cheese and using it anyway isn't gross, its resourceful and thrifty, and just really wasteful if you don't. 

Of course, I'm talking straight out of my ass here, so it's probably wise to do whatever makes you feel comfortable.  But the only time I've ever had food poisoning was from a restaurant, so I'm doing fine so far with these methods.

Yes, anyway, Internet, back to the subject at hand: LUNCH.  A big ol' meeting in our office on Tuesday resulted in several leftover catering trays of chicken breasts, asparagus and fingerling potatoes.  I loaded up a spare Tupperware (yeah, i keep Tupperware in the office. You never know when the opportunity to scavenge will arise).  I brought it a container of CSA lettuce this morning, then chopped up all the stuff and made myself a big ol' salad with some leftover balsamic vinaigrette, potatoes reheated on the side. Pretty, pretty, pretty good. 

And asparagus, I love you, especially when you announce your presence in the bathroom 3 hours after being consumed.  Yeah, I went there.  And I LIKE IT.

Radishes Redux

Am I the only one who likes real food for breakfast?  Breakfast food just doesn't seem to fit at breakfast time.  I love eggs, but they're usually  not the first thing a body craves in the morning.  Cereal rules, but it's much better as a midnight snack than the day's first fuel.  We all know the proverbial (my proverbs all relate to food) "cold pizza for breakfast" idea, but I don't think it's weird to eat pizza, and much more, for breakfast.  Like Ms. Food Pornographer, I'd rather reheat last night's dinner than cook an egg.  Unless it's the weekend, and I've slept in until 10, and then I'm ready for a giant omelet....already off track, and only 5 sentences in.  Sweet.

Moving on, I thought my breakfast today was rather tame.  Until two different coworkers noticed me fixing something, wrinkled their noses, and said, "Radishes...for breakfast?!"  Yes!  Almost through the batch of radishes, a feat made solely my own since A won't eat them, owing my success mostly to the "discovery" of radish-n-butter sandwiches.  Why are they so good?  It makes no sense.  Wait, I see.  Butter.  (Not a lot though!)

Rounded out with an apple and black office coffee.  Yes, it's Styrofoam.  Yes, it's horrible.  I have my own coffee mug, but I left it sitting out on my desk all night with milky (OK, non-dairy creamer-y) coffee in it, and it needs a good long soak in the sink before it's in drinkable shape again.  Forgive me, environment and Interwebs.  I do have a nice metal water bottle (take THAT office fridge full of plastic water bottles!) that you all would have seen had I used a wider angle....morally justifying my beverages.  I need to chill out with the self righteousness today. 

Falafel Party

Falafel...who knew it was so easy?  It sounds kinda gross when you think about it.  Dump a mealy, grainy, spicy-smelling powered mixture into a ball.  Add just 1/3 cup (plus two Tbsp) water, mix, and let sit for 10 minutes.  Then shape into balls and fry in 1/2" oil.

Or, if you're me, add 1/2 cup of water (since 1/3 cup plus two picky Tbsp just didn't sound like enough, or I'm so cheap I wanted to stretch it).  Wait 10 minutes, probably, but my impatient self doesn't always judge the passage of time with great accuracy.  It still seemed a little too loose to be shaped into balls, so I added two heaping spoons of flour, stirred, and went from there.  And since I carry my mother's "always, always at least halve the amount of fat" gene, pan-fry them in about 2 Tbsp oil. Plus, my "balls" turned out either like flat patties or misshapen football-like globs.

And you know what?  They were flippin delicious! Really, really good--as good as many/any you find in restaurants.  Served them wrapped (I tried both a pita and a flour tortilla) with hummus, arugula/lettuce (CSA!) and cucumber.  Made a lemony orzo salad with feta and cucumber to go alongside (recipe after jump).  I'm on a roll this week...

I must eat here, vol. 1

Do you have this problem:  You read about food, think about food, learn about all these great little restaurants serving delicious food.  Then, when a person asks you, "where should we eat?" you can't think of ANYTHING?  Not anything, none of the myriad places you drool over daily?  OK, so it's just me.

To combat this problem, I'm going to list them here, so that if it happens again (it will) I can handily pull up a list of them.  First:

Hot Doug's.

Any place that subtitles itself "the sausage superstore and encased meat emporium" is already a win in my book.

And then when your weekly specials include creations like "Brown Ale and Chipotle Buffalo Sausage with Half Acre Beer Mustard and Irish Porter Cheese" and "Smoked Crayfish and Pork Sausage with Spicy Cajun Remoulade and Hickory-Smoked Sweet Swiss Cheese" on your menu (along with duck fat-fried fries on the weekends), I mean, c'mon.  If you don't want to eat that, then we can't be friends.   

I am coming for you, Doug.  Soon. 

Holy Touchdown Jesus....

(If you don't know what I'm talking about--and who could blame you--click this link.)

My stomach just growled three times so loud that passers-by my office door would surely have heard the strange (for an office) sounds of a mama grizzly protecting her young.

Guess who's hungry?  Lunch is out at Volare today in honor of a coworker getting her master's degree.  Mmmm...

Chicky Chicky Bang Bang

Finally accomplished the kabob dinner!  Marinated chicken breast chunks in a soy-teriyaki sauce (from Trader Joe's, although I typically make my own marinades following Alton Brown's formula of salt, acid, oil and spice...i think), then skewered them with red pepper, onion and nectarine slices.  Served with basmati rice and arugula tossed with sesame oil, rice vinegar and toasted sesame seeds. 

For a simple dinner, we devoured it...I wasn't too thrilled with how mushy the nectarines got, but then again I can't be bothered to follow other cooks' advice to skewer each ingredients on its own skewer so that each part can cook at the appropriate temp for the right time.  I like how they look alternating, dammit!  Then again, the mushy nectarines let off a sweet, soy-y juice that the rice was all to happy to soak up.  The chicken, left in the marinade a bit too long (see the 'out to dinner' temptation of 6/14), actually was about right--since I didn't flavor the other ingredients with the marinade at all, the over-saturated chicken lent some of its seasoning to the other pieces. Plus, I only used one chicken breast for 4 skewers--veggies and fruit getting the starring role. 

Bonus image:  that lovely plate the skewers are resting on is from my 1st grade class, when we drew pictures of our families and had them made into plates.  Luckily, I'm not using my kindergarten plate, which features four stick figures--3 female and 1 male---guess how you can tell the dad apart from the mom and daughters?  Maybe I had just played doctor when I drew that plate, of maybe I've been slightly pervy my entire life.  Regardless, by first grade my primitive drawing skills had evolved sufficiently that I no longer drew genitalia on males.

Getting back on track

I pack my lunch for work 90% of the time, although by the time lunchtime rolls around my lovingly crafted lunch sometimes seems less than desireable.  I'm usually good about overcoming this desire to eat the crappy food in the food desert of my work location (TGI Fridays, Chiles, Chipotle....although I have a very, very soft spot for Potbelly's and Burrito Beach...)

Today I brought a salad using CSA greens (arugula, baby lettuce, and the rest of last week's spinach) with feta, radishes and cucumbers.  Using more CSA fare on my radish-and-butter crostinis.

Time to eat.

The Morning Routine

Almost invariably, I hit the snooze button with such vigor and dedication that, by the time I roll out of bed, the thought of making breakfast--even a bowl of cereal--is just a fleeting image as I frantically struggle to get out the door on time.  Consequently, my breakfast usually consists of:

Oatmeal.

Instant oatmeal.

Blech.












It's really not that bad, but I'm not going that far out onto the limb here by saying that oatmeal is a pretty boring food on its own.  I love it as an ingredient (granola, sweet breads, cookies) but as a cereal it doesn't really wow me like, say, chorizo over chilquiles or a big-ass plate of hash browns from your neighborhood greasy spoon.  Or a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich.  Or a ham, asparagus and gouda omelet....it could go on and on, my brain, once it starts thinking about food it wants to eat.

(And, yes, it's very much my brain driving my foodlove, not my belly, because the brain prefers to operate independently from my stomach.  "What, you're full?  NONSENSE.  Keep eating, mouth, this food is so delicious.")

But oatmeal gets the job done.  Whole grains do their best to keep me full until lunch....when is lunch again?  Soon, I hope.

Oggi Trattoria

So my big plans to cook dinner last night were derailed when A mentioned a desire to go out to dinner. Suddenly, cooking was the furthest thing from my head. Out to dinner? Count me in!

Oggi Trattoria (1378 W. Grand Ave.) is a family-style Italian restaurant where we held our small engagement dinner. It's not a fancy place, but what it lacks in overpriced finery it makes up for in charm, friendliness, and the biggest portions of homemade red-sauce delights you can find anywhere nearby. That and their $6 bottle (yes, bottle) of house wine special makes it an easy sell for this wine- and food-aholic.

The food at Oggi isn't "revelatory" or "exotic" or any bizarre adjective freely applied to food nowadays. It's just good--simple and hearty, and plentiful to boot. We split an order of stuffed shells, three gigantic pasta boats filled with ricotta and spinach and topped with red sauce, mozzerella, and a sprinkling of parsley. I like that they manage to taste "light"--not healthy, but as in the opposite of heavy. Most Italian red-sauce joints can swing towards the heavy, greasy, dull side by drenching everything in thick cream sauce and layers of cheese. They keep it simple(r) at Oggi, from what I can tell in the two times I've been there.

The "extra-thin" pizza we split beats a lot of the neighborhood pizza joints, hands down. The crust is crisp, rather than chewy--due to olive oil in the crust, maybe? I'm not enough of a baker to be able to tell these things. Maybe a bit too much sauce, but light on the cheese (which I like) and full of great sausage--maybe from the Italian deli down the road? Definitely tasted a step above food service sausage.

A wasn't a fan of the canned mushrooms, but using canned mushrooms over fresh or sauteed seems to be right for this place, and I don't know if I'd want it another way. They're not about being gourmets or breaking new ground here, just about feeding people the food that defines most people's idea of "Italian." Or something like that. I want to say Oggi is like a sterotypical Italian restaurant that does everything right--without stereotypical being a bad thing. It's what Olive Garden could never be--a genuine place where you feel like, if not your Italian grandmother, somebody pretty nice, easygoing and sincere is cooking for you at home.

Pizza....my obsession

I am on a quest to find the best pizza dough. Which coincides with my quest to learn how to actually bake, knead, etc bread. Hopefully my efforts to learn how to properly do the latter will lead me down a road to the former. Or something like that....

My current favorite doughs come in two categories: Deep Dish/Pan Pizza dough, a soft, tender, milk-based dough developed by Cook's Illustrated, and Peter Reinhart's Neapolitan Pizza dough. I usually make thin-crust pizza with the Reinhart dough on my pizza stone. The most recent experiment involved hot italian sausage from my neighborhood Italian deli (Bari Foods), spinach and mushrooms with fresh mozzerella. The other, less photogenic pizza involved the fairly standard toppings of BBQ sauce (Open Pit), chicken, red pepper and whole-milk mozzerella. Having never met a pizza I didn't like, or at least eat, I liked both--but wasn't blown away. Soon I'll make my all-time favorite pizza and share its glory with you, Internet.

First of several side notes: Any BBQ sauces out there that don't have high-fructose corn syrup as the first ingredient? I've only tried my hand at making it once before, with good results, but it wasn't what you'd typically think of as BBQ sauce (Barefoot Contessa's recipe--try it here). I'm looking more for a traditional type sauce. Real Simple has a recipe featured this month...perhaps that will be the next contender.

Two: Thoughts on making your own pizza? I sometimes don't get as excited by pizza I make over take-out or my favorite pizza restaurants. Is it because I know all the product inside-and-out, and maybe know it too well to fully enjoy it? It is because I have more restraint with cheese and toppings, so mine aren't as decadent as the inch-thick guilty pleasure of take-out are? Is it just because I am impossible to please?

Pondering...

Skewers, Shish-Ka-Bobs, whatevers

So when summertime rolls around, I know I'm not the only one that turns the grill on and doesn't look back all season, and well into the winter. I don't even late rain discourage me from my love of the grill.

One of the easiest ways to make a meal on the grill is by stabbing chunks of food repeatedly with wooden spears. AKA skewers. Not only are they the simplest way to cook a whole meal and incredibly versatile (almost nothing is exempt from a skewer--I've impaled slices of corn, fruit, par-cooked potatoes, squash, and any manner of protein), they also are a great way to stretch ingredients. A single chicken breast will make at least 4 skewers when combined with veggies, meaning single serving of meat can be stretched to 4 or so.

Don't get me wrong--I'm not opposed to eating meat, not at all. We are animals, and it's a natural way of the world for animals to eat other animals, as any particularly gruesome Discovery Channel show will demonstrate. This is just my opinion, just one opinion among many, and nobody has to agree with me.

That said, we treat food animals despicably, for the most part. More people much smarter than me have talked at length about how inhumane the industrialized meat industry is to the animals who pass through it, and I don't need to recite their findings here. I'll just say that I'm trying to make an effort to reduce the amount of meat I eat, especially supermarket meat, and instead buying from the Green Grocer or the farmer's market ethically raised meat.

Tonight I'm stretching one chicken breast to 3-4 servings by skewering it with red peppers, red onion wedges and slices of nectarine, brushed with a soy-terriyaki glaze. Serving it over a bed of arugula (CSA) tossed with rice vinegar and sesame oil. Maybe some brown rice too...if i can figure out a way to grill it!

Pictures (hopefully) coming soon...

...And more greens!

This week's CSA share:

1 bag of mixed baby greens
1 bag of mature, peppery arugula
1 bunch of french breakfast radishes (I think that was the variety...)
1 bunch of rainbow chard

Already had a radish and butter 1/2 sandwich for breakfast, and a lunch packed with a big salad of lettuce, arugula, and the last of last week's spinach.

(Photo taken a few days later, after I'd eaten half the radishes and several handfuls of arugula and lettuce.  The eyeglasses in the photo are a bonus.  Next step: stop using my camera phone and get my nice camera out!)

Greens!

In last week's CSA share (first of the season)...lots and lots of greens!

1 bag not-quite-baby spinach
1 bunch of flowering chives
1 bunch of rainbow chard
1 head red leaf lettuce

And the fun begins! For those who don't know, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. CSAs are programs where members of the public buy "shares" from farmers at the beginning of the growing season. In return for purchasing a share, you get a weekly or bi-weekly basket of whatever the farm grows or produces in return. It is a great way to support local growers and farmers while helping them plan ahead for their crops, knowing a certain amount is already bought. It also exposes you to all sorts of new veggies--the type you might not otherwise buy at the market.

My CSA farm, Peasant's Plot in Mateno, IL, is a smaller farm, so their shares are the size of maybe 1/2 of a regular share from a larger farm. This size is perfect for my 2-person (and one boxer) household.

The most joy I get from my CSA box is thinking up new recipes and ways to use all my vegetables in a week and trying not to let anything go to waste. Another benefit is getting to know farmers, a dying breed, and doing a part to help them stay in business. Julia, 1/2 of the Peasant's Plot husband-and-wife duo completed by Todd, always sends out recipes and hints for how to use the usual and unusual veggies they grow. As a first-time CSA-er last year, I found her so friendly, helpful, and eager to get to know her shareholders. She always sends out recipes that I can't wait to try. After all, who knows the food better than the person who grew it?