I did it! – Pasta Carbonara

Oh nads you guys…I made Carbonara for like the fourth time in two weeks because I figured out how to do it practically just right every time, but I hadn’t be able to get a good photo, and of course exactly when I tried to make it again explicitly to take photos, I stopped paying attention and messed it up. So then I had to make it two nights in a row and five times in two weeks so I can talk to you about it. Lesson learned, I guess, is that you can make it practically just right every time you actually pay attention when you make it, and don’t let yourself get distracted by the shenanigans on stage at the Grammys.

like mac and cheese, but grown-up…

Man, is this good. This is also pretty much the quickest pasta dish around. I am guessing if you cook somewhat regularly, you will already have most of these things in the fridge, and if you don’t, they can all be procured very easily. Bacon, egg, decent parmesan, garlic, salt and pepper. I think spaghetti might be the traditional pasta for this, but I actually like something shorter, like my new favorite, gemelli, which I used this time with great results. The shorter pasta makes it a bit more comforting somehow.

The tricky part about Carbonara is the egg. Done the right way, the egg creates a creamy, rich sauce with amazing flavor. Done the wrong way, the egg scrambles, and it’s not right. I’ve eaten it…it’s not revolting or anything, but it’s not a sauce. Unfortunately, scrambling is very easy to do when you are adding a cold egg to a hot pan SO, I have come up with a trick that seems to work delightfully well. I mix the egg with the cheese and black pepper, and then make a quick sauce with some of the pasta water to temper the egg before I add it to the hot pan. If you do this, and then stir like crazy when you add it to the pasta, you should have amazing, creamy, adult macaroni and cheese that is so quick and delicious you won’t believe it. And you’ll end up eating it two or three times a week like I did. And then you will probably realize that two or three times a week is probably too many times, like I did.

This really couldn’t be easier…

Carbonara.

And now…All of the things…

I made saag paneer tonight because I decided I need more roughage in my diet and…I still need more roughage in my diet. It wasn’t very good. But dipping the Naan in the liquid was insanely delicious, so I just did that instead. Oh, Paneer? If you are going to call yourself cheese, pleased to be tasting like cheese. If I wanted weird, bland texture, I would have just made tofu. BOOM. Roasted. (jk jk, love u tofu!) So, I’m pretty sure I did saag paneer wrong. I will try again and get back to you.

I just finished reading Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James. It was very cute, but I like her other stuff better.

I gave up tv and takeout for Lent. In theory, this means I will be hanging around here quite a bit more. In practice, this might mean I don’t survive Lent.

I am a very, very lucky girl…I have some of the greatest girlfriends in the world and you should all be jealous of me, because they are the freakin best.

Just a few more days until IGNITE the NITE 2013! If you are here you should come next Thursday the 28th, it is going to be great!!

Lastly, a shout out to Shannon. For fighting like a girl and winning. I am so glad to know you, and so very happy to call you my forever friend. To so many more years of Cheetos, sing-a-longs, Wegman’s trips and How to Lose a Guy…You are amazing. xo

Pasta Carbonara (serves 2)

1/2 lb pasta of your choice (spaghetti is traditional, I think, but I prefer a shorter noodle.)

4 oz bacon, sliced in 1/2 inch pieces (guanciale is traditional, but bacon will absolutely work. Use thick cut if you have it.)

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 – 2/3 cups FRESHLY GRATED parmesan cheese (I measure this by holding a microplane grater over a measuring cup. A regular cheese grater would work. If you are using pre-grated parmesan, use the stuff from the deli section that looks shredded, not the stuff in the can or that looks almost powdered. Trust.)

1 Egg

Plenty of black pepper and salt to taste.

Chopped italian parsley for garnish

Boil some salted water for the pasta. (While the water is coming to a boil, do all of your chopping, grating and ingredient prep, once you start the sauce, things move quickly.)

Mix together the grated cheese, the egg, and a generous pinch of black pepper, and whisk to combine.

Add the pasta to the salted water and cook until al dente. (This will take about 8 minutes. It depends on the kind of pasta you use, but 8 minutes is a safe bet…)

After you add the pasta to the water, start cooking the bacon in a frying pan over medium heat until the fat is rendered and the bacon is cooked. You still want it to look fatty, not cooked through and crispy. When the bacon is cooked, reduce the heat to low and add the garlic. Cook for one minute, stirring constantly, so the garlic doesn’t burn. If the pasta is not yet al dente, turn off the heat and remove the frying pan from the burner until it is.

When the pasta is al dente, use a slotted spoon to transfer the cooked pasta to the frying pan (no need to drain first, the water helps create the sauce AND you need to reserve some more pasta water for the sauce) and stir into the bacon and garlic to combine. Cook for 30 seconds to a minute and then turn off the heat. Quickly drizzle a couple of tablespoons of the pasta water into the egg and cheese mixture stirring constantly to create a sauce. Immediately add the cheese, egg and pasta water mixture to the pasta and bacon, again stirring constantly to create a creamy sauce and so as not to scramble the eggs. Pro-tip: if you drizzle the egg and cheese over the pasta, as opposed to directly onto the hot pan, you are less likely to scramble the eggs! (This sounds complicated, but I promise, it’s not. You’ll do it a couple of times and you’ll feel like a pro!)

Sprinkle with salt, pepper and parsley and serve! Once you’ve made this a couple of times, I suspect you will be serving it to guests, and they will be very impressed. The recipe can easily be doubled, just make sure you are using a big enough frying pan.

Meatless Monday: Eggplant Involtini

So good you’ll forget it’s meatless

I spent most of last year saying “I can’t believe it’s [fill in the blank] already” and now I am saying it again. It’s February 2013 already. Remember when you were little and the school year dragged on for eternity, and the summer was so blissfully long that you were actually a little bit excited to go back to school, and waiting for Santa/birthdays/summer camp/whatever was so agonizing you almost couldn’t take it? That was grand…

I made this months ago. MONTHS. And I have been wanting to tell you about it since the moment I tried it, because it is just so good. I don’t even know what it is about it that makes it so delicious, but trust…it’s delicious. Eggplant is pretty much the greatest. Whenever I eat eggplant I think, for a brief shining moment, that I could manage being a vegetarian. Just for a moment, mind you, but still, that is the power of eggplant.

This is from the Tartine Bread cookbook. I made a couple of changes, most notably that I totally forgot to add the breadcrumbs when I made it, but it was still so good that I didn’t realize I forgot to add the breadcrumbs until I went back and looked at the recipe again. I also used a different tomato sauce, because this one is so easy and delicious, I may never make another sauce again…but other than that, exactly the same! Mostly.

The Tartine Bread cookbook, by the way, is absolutely gorgeous. And obviously, not just about bread. The pictures are beautiful, I love the binding, and the recipes are great…if you are still not sure, see if they have it in your library and check it out, I bet you end up picking up your own copy.

Anyhoodle, this involtini is really, really delicious. It takes a little bit of time to salt and fry the eggplant before you are able to put it all together, so it may not be the best option if you need to complete the whole process after work and you still want to eat at a reasonable hour, but I suspect it would be no worse for the wear if you put it all together the night before. Perhaps one of these days I will give that a try and report back.

This would be a great dish anytime, really, but is very lovely for a meatless Monday (or meatless any day of the week.) Since I left out the breadcrumbs and was none the wiser, it could also be a really delicious gluten free option. I am also guessing it could be doubled, tripled or sextupled without blinking an eye.

Have I convinced you yet? Seriously. This is delicious…go forth and cook with eggplant.

The answer to your vegetarian prayers…

Things I’ve thought since last time:

The internet is the most amazing rabbit hole that I fall into pretty much every day. I think back to my days in college and how productive I was back then and it is always such a mystery that I can’t seem to get anything done these days…I have come to the realization that the internet might be the problem…

What I am reading: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward. It is really good. And I read Gone Girl, which was an excellent page-turner. I both loved and hated the ending.

I mentioned it last time, but if you can, please give to a cause that is near and dear.

I didn’t really have a horse in the race, but I still wish the Superbowl turned out differently. The halftime show was the best I’ve ever seen though. Does Beyonce have a fan club? I’ve started one before, and I can do it again.

My 2013 goals are not off to a very good start. And it’s already February…

For those of you in the Boston area, IGNITE the NITE is going to be an excellent time…another good cause that I am very excited to be a part of.

It’s 31 days of Oscar on Turner Classic Movies. It’s pretty much the best thing about the month of February.

Downton Abbey is JUST SO GOOD. And I bawled my eyes out last week…this will come as a surprise to approximately no one who is familiar with me and the episode I am referring to. On the flip side, The Mindy Project and The New Girl make me laugh out loud by myself on the couch multiple times an episode. And I am going to miss the heck out of Liz Lemon. Good thing I still have Leslie Knope.

I have a girls weekend on the Cape coming up in two weeks and I can’t wait. I’d love to say how much I am looking forward to relaxing with my ladies, but I suspect relaxing will be secondary to ridiculousness…

Singles Awareness Day is the 14th! Be sure to acknowledge all the Singles in your life. Much like Administrative Assistant’s Day, the people generally responsible for reminding you of of Singles Awareness Day are the Singles themselves, and that’s just awkward; so don’t forget people, remember your Singles!

Until next time…

prepped

Eggplant Involtini (serves 3-4)

adapted from Tartine Bread Cookbook

Tomato Sauce of your choice (don’t use store bought – throw a can of whole peeled tomatoes crushed in your hands, a peeled onion and a stick of butter in a pan with salt. Turn on the heat to medium, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes – thanks Marcella!)

2 or 3 medium globe eggplants

1 cup fresh bread crumbs (optional) – don’t use the seasoned italian breadcrumbs, use panko if you don’t have any stale bread to make your own.

2 cups whole milk ricotta (or make your own!)

Zest and juice from one lemon

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

1/4 tsp salt, plus additional for salting the eggplant

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

chiffonade of basil for garnish (optional)

olive oil for frying

Slice the eggplants lengthwise into 1/4 inch slices (you should have about 12.) Salt the slices generously on both sides and layer them in a colander or on paper towels. Let the eggplant stand for one hour to pull out the liquid.

Blot the slices dry with a towel and fry them over medium heat in a heavy skillet in approximately an inch of olive oil for three to four minutes until lightly brown on both sides. Let cool in the colander or on paper towels.

Meanwhile, mix together the breadcrumbs, ricotta cheese, lemon zest and juice, thyme leaves and 1/4 tsp salt.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Put the tomato sauce in the bottom of a medium sized baking dish. Place a spoonful of filling on each eggplant slice, and roll the slice around the filling. Put each roll seam-side down on top of the sauce and drizzle the cream on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the rolls are golden and the sauce starts to darken around the edges. Sprinkle with parmesan and basil and enjoy!

roll ‘em up

Weeknight Chicken: Chicken Thighs with Garlicky Crumbs

weeknight chicken (don’t mind the anchovies…)

Warning: This post contains anchovies. I hesitate to warn you because if you are anything like my mom, or if you are my mom, you have probably already stopped reading. And that would be a mistake! Because there is nothing to be scared of. But I was afraid if I didn’t warn you, you would get to the end and discover the tiny fish in the recipe and feel duped, and never trust me again. And after you took all that time to read this…

I hope you stay though, because these are not offensive anchovies. In fact, if you came over and I made this for you and you didn’t already know about the anchovies, I don’t think you’d be the wiser. It would be such a dirty trick (my dad totally does this to my mom – luckily for him she’d rather eat hidden anchovies than cook, so…) but that’s the thing about anchovies. Unless they are sitting there on top of a pizza staring at you, often times you’d never know they were there…

The strangest thing about this recipe is actually not the anchovies at all. It is the fact that you are asked to grill a piece of chicken that has been breaded with breadcrumbs. That is very strange. Until I did it, I couldn’t quite imagine how it was going to work. I suspect the next time I try this (and there will be a next time, because it is delicious) I will try just pan frying it because I did lose some crumbs and presumably they would stick a bit better that way. Or maybe not! There has to be a reason that grilling was suggested in the first place. I will keep you posted

Regardless of the cooking method (you could absolutely bake these too, methinks) these are great. The garlic (lots of it) packs a great punch, the anchovies add a ton of good salty-umaminess and the parsley adds an awesome freshness. It’s an excellent combo. And I would totally make these green beans (or snap peas as the original recipe suggested) by themselves. They were delicious on their own!

You don’t have to be afraid of these ‘chovies, I promise.

don’t fear the anchovies!

Chicken Thighs with Garlicky Crumbs and Green Beans (serves 2)

adapted from Food & Wine

3 oil-packed anchovy fillets, drained and chopped

1 cup fresh bread crumbs

6 garlic cloves, smashed

1/4 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1/4 cup plus 1 1/2 tbls extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 lbs skinless, boneless chicken thighs

Salt

1/2 lb green beans, ends trimmed

2 medium shallots, thinly sliced

In a food processor, combine 2 of the anchovy fillets with the bread crumbs, garlic, parsley and 1/4 cup of the olive oil; process until evenly blended.

Season the chicken thighs with salt. In a large bowl, toss the chicken with the bread crumb mixture. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Light a grill or preheat a grill pan. In a pot of boiling, salted water, blanch the green beans until bright green, about 1 minute. Drain and pat dry.

Grill the chicken thighs over moderate heat until they are lightly charred, crisp and cooked through, about 10 minutes per side. Transfer the thighs to a platter.

In a large skillet, heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the shallots and the remaining anchovy fillet and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the shallots are softened, about 5 minutes. Add the green beans and cook, tossing a few times, until heated through, about 2 minutes. Season the green beans with salt and transfer to a serving bowl. Serve the chicken with the green beans.

A Soufflé for Julia

for one…

I am, as always, behind the eight ball on this one. Julia Child would have been 100 last month. She was remarkable and funny and talented and tall. And she seemed like a joy to be around. She came to the cooking game “late” in life, after spending time over seas as a SPY. That is awesome. I always wanted to be a spy. Or a fighter pilot, or an astronaut. I didn’t quite get there. I do real estate now though, so…close. But maybe I can still follow in Julia’s footsteps someday. Have a second career in food. That seems more manageable (says the girl that can’t even maintain a blog with any regularity. Or figure out how to add an accent to an “e” on a Mac.)

At any rate, I made a soufflé for Julia’s birthday. I also made one a couple days later, just for the hell of it, when Meredith and Baby M came to visit me on M’s first big city adventure, because they are delicious. The good thing about that is I made an individual one, AND a full size one, so I can share the recipes for both of them with you. So if you are chillin by yourself and craving soufflé, as one does, don’t despair! It can be done.

For the full-sized soufflé I turned, of course, to Mastering the Art of French Cooking because where else would you turn? That book is perfect. For the single serving, I turned to Judith Jones, and her book The Pleasure of Cooking for One. Judith, as you might know, was Julia’s editor for MTAOFC, so it was an appropriate birthday tribute.

The way people speak about soufflés, you would think they were these super sensitive explosive devices that detonate the moment you don’t fold egg whites correctly or look at them the wrong way while they are cooking. They are not. They are actually mostly hot air. Since air pressure increases when it is hot and decreases when it is cold (science!!!) soufflés love to puff up really beautifully when they are in the oven, and then deflate pretty much immediately when it is removed from the oven, so you want to make sure you get the most puff for your buck when it is cooking, and have the table set and your guests sitting down and ready to eat by the time it’s finished.

for a crowd

This is also the reason you will have to excuse the photographs, the more I took and the more time I took to set each one up, the more the soufflé deflated, so they are not looking super puffy. I also think in the case of the big one, I could have cooked it for 4-5 more minutes so it set up a little firmer, which would have helped it keep its puff, but since there was a 6-week old baby to hang out with, I got distracted and forgot how many minutes I had put on the timer and didn’t want to overcook it. (I would have made a really terrible spy. Foiled at every turn by babies and kitchen timers.)

But really, soufflés are actually pretty easy, especially after you’ve done it once or twice. And there is a good chance you have everything you need in the house at any given time. Eggs, milk, butter, flour, cheese. That’s it. A standing or hand held mixer is certainly helpful, but I whipped the egg whites by hand for one of these and it worked out just fine! Soufflés for everyone! Go forth and impress yourself and your guests!

So many thoughts…

It’s the fall guys! I love the fall! The cooking is so good, and the weather is so great. What should I make? And football! And new tv is back. Have you guys watched Homeland? It is so very good. You should watch it.

This is terrible news…Ry! How could you? No, jk jk. Good luck you crazy kids.

This made me inappropriately sad, considering I have never met them.

Bought my ticket to the west coast for Thanksgiving and I cannot wait. It’s been too long.

What I’m reading: Zone One by Colson Whitehead. It’s a post-apocalyptic zombie book. Post-apocalyptic books might actually be last on my list of genres I’m interested in but the writing is pretty much perfect. I am very glad I gave it a try.

What I am listening to: Miles Away from Sam McCarthy – Short and sweet, and fantastic; and The Wheeler Brothers – my sister studied in Spain with one of the guys in the group, and they are great.

Craftiness of the week: I’m working on pillow covers for my living room pillows. Pictures to follow.

If you get a minute, this is pretty amazing and heartbreaking.

Other things I’ve been eating:

zucchini linguine

You will see that one again, the recipe is a work in progress…I’ll keep you posted.

mexican corn

This you will be seeing again. Probably like tomorrow, because it is JUST SO GOOD. You need to make it. I will share post haste.

fideos with aioli

I just found my new comfort food people. Fideos are kind of like a pasta version of paella.

Be good to each other.

I am just going to go ahead and get to the recipes, because if I don’t this post might sit around another month and that would be the worst…

Cheese Soufflé according to Julia

For Four:

1 tbl butter, softened (for preparing the mold)

1-2 tbl grated parmesan cheese (for preparing the mold)

3 tbl butter

3 tbl flour

1 cup milk, brought to a boil

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

A pinch of cayenne pepper

5 eggs, separated (you will need four yolks and all five whites)

3/4 cup grated swiss cheese (or gruyere if you’re fancy)

For One:

1 tsp butter, softened for preparing the mold

1 tbl grated parmesan for preparing the mold

2 tsp butter

1 tbl flour

1/3 cup milk brought to a boil

pinch of salt

small pinch of cayenne

2 eggs, separated (you will need one yolk and both whites)

1/3 cup grated swiss cheese (another option is to use “an aged mountain cheese.” I…have no idea what that is, but if you find it, feel free to give it a whirl!)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. For the large soufflé, prepare a six or eight cup soufflé dish with the melted butter and sprinkle with the parmesan, for an individual soufflé, prepare a 1.5 cup ramekin with the butter and parmesan. (The butter keeps the soufflé from sticking, the cheese gives the batter something to climb as it rises.)

Set aside. Melt the rest of the butter in a saucepan, and stir in the flour. Stir for a minute or two until it foams. Remove from heat and whisk in the boiling milk. Return the pan to the heat and stir over medium heat until the sauce thickens. Season with the salt, pepper and cayenne. Remove from the heat and whisk in the egg yolks.

Beat the egg whites with a mixer or a wire whisk until stiff peaks form. Add about a quarter of the beaten egg whites to the egg yolk mixture with the grated cheese, and mix. Fold in the rest of the egg whites gently, and transfer the mixture to the prepared mold.

Put the soufflé in on the middle rack of the oven and immediately reduce the heat to 375 degrees. Bake the small soufflé for 18-20 minutes and large soufflé for 25-30 minutes until the soufflé has puffed up an inch or two over the top of the dish. The top will be golden brown. Cook for another 3-5 minutes until the soufflé is firm, remove from the oven and serve immediately.

Meatless Monday: Eggplant and Tofu Stir-fry with Farro

Look how healthy I am!

Tofu never impressed me. It doesn’t look like it has much flavor. The texture looks weird. It’s “health food.” I eat meat, so I have never needed it for protein. It was easy to avoid, so I did. When the reaction from people who do eat it always seems to be “it’s alright, it tastes like whatever it’s cooked with” I never saw any reason to stop avoiding it. Tofu and me? Strangers. I was fine with that.

I have a favorite food truck that is parked a couple blocks from my office. It serves sandwiches (they admit they are not totally “authentic” banh mi, but they are really delicious) rice bowls and noodle salads. They are all so good. And it is cheap. Like $6 cheap (plus an additional $2 for the deviled tea egg that I have to get EVERY TIME and am trying my damndest to replicate. Stay tuned.) So I was eating there a lot. They offer a couple of different meat/topping options, one of which is tofu and shiitake mushroom, and there was one week that I ate there a couple of times and was starting to feel guilty about pork (my typical fave) for lunch three times in one week, so I decided to go healthy and try the tofu and shitake. And then I doubled down on the health and got brown rice. I know. I don’t know what happened. I figured the worst that could happen was that I wasted six bones and had to get something else. But I suspect you know where this is going…I liked it. And I didn’t just like it a little. I actually liked it. I liked the texture, I liked how it soaked up the flavor of what it was cooked in, I even liked the taste of the actual tofu! I have gotten it again! More than once! So there you go.

Buying lunch every day is expensive though, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. My complaint about their tofu/mushroom combo is not enough mushrooms, so I decided when I made it myself I was adding more mushrooms. Also eggplant because it is delicious and I love it.

So what to serve it over? I had white rice, glass noodles, and farro in the cabinet. Farro is having it’s day, man…I am not sure why it has suddenly been discovered, because it is certainly not a new invention. And I am sure there are plenty of people who have been eating it for years that think the recent “discovery” is hilarious, but whatever…put a sock in it farro-ites, nobody likes a know-it-all…but it is the new big thing, and it is very healthy and I succumbed to the allure and bought some from one of the bins at Whole Foods, but then it just sat and sat in the cupboard looking forlorn. Until now. It was time for it to shine.

And so there you have the winding round-about anatomy of this dish. I went looking for a good blueprint for my stir-fry, and came across pretty much exactly what I was going for in a recipe from Mark Bittman. I modified it a bit and I love the results. Not surprising at all, since Mark Bittman is the best. NY Times food section people…make it a part of your life.

This recipe takes a little bit of easy prep. I used dried shiitakes and had to soak them first. (I actually often prefer the dried to the fresh because I like the chewiness and they crisp right up when cooked, this is one of those times for sure.) I pressed the tofu for about an hour, and I cut and salted the eggplant about 20-30 minutes to remove the bitterness before I was ready to cook. But the cooking part was easy and pretty quick. Shiitakes into the wok first with salt and pepper. They get brown and a little crisp, and then come out of the wok, to be replaced with ginger, garlic and eggplant. This is the longest part of the cooking, as the eggplant needs to get nice and tender. Once that happens, the tofu gets added, and then the shiitakes go back in at the end. That’s it! The only liquid is some of the shiitake soaking liquid that gets added partway through the eggplant cooking time, and soy sauce and rice wine with the tofu. This is not super saucy, and honestly, if I eat it over farro again, I may try to adjust that a little, because  it’s a little drier than rice or noodles would be. But it was still delicious. Lack of sauce didn’t stop me from eating every bite. So there you go! Tofu and me…BFFs.

Also, since I’ve mentioned my new apartment which I absolutely love a couple of times…a preview.

My kitchen…

my “office”

my living room (please disregard the mismatched rug and pillows, that will be fixed.)

my view…

I love it. I have big plans for the decor, still to come, but I love it.

It’s nice to be back home in blog-land…

Really delish

Eggplant Tofu and Shiitake Stir-fry over Farro (serves 2)

adapted from Mark Bittman

1 cup farro

2-3 tbl grapeseed or other neutral oil for cooking.

10-12 dried shiitakes, soaked in just barely boiling water, until softened – soaking water reserved, mushrooms sliced thin

1/2 lb extra firm tofu, pressed and drained, and cut in a 1/2 inch dice (I pressed the tofu in a colander with an appetizer plate and two cans of beans…seems to have gotten the job done.)

1 large Japanese eggplant, cut in 1/2 inch dice and salted for 20 minutes

1 tbl minced fresh ginger

1 tbl minced garlic

2 tbl soy sauce (plus extra for drizzle at the end if you’d like)

1 tbl Chinese rice wine

salt and pepper to taste

1-2 Scallions, green parts sliced for garnish

Cook farro according to the package instructions until cooked through.

Meanwhile, heat one tablespoon of the oil over medium high heat in a wok or saute pan. Add mushrooms and cook until they start to get brown and crisp, about 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add the rest of the oil to the pan and when it gets hot, add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring for a minute until the mixture starts to sizzle and smell delicious. Add the eggplant and cook, stirring frequently, until the eggplant starts to caramelize. Add 1/4 cup of the shiitake soaking liquid and continue to cook, stirring often, until the eggplant is tender and cooked through, 5-10 more minutes. (You may need to add a bit more of the liquid if the pan gets too dry.) When the eggplant is cooked through, add the tofu, soy sauce and rice wine and cook for 4-5 more minutes until the tofu is warmed through. Add the shiitakes back in, and you are finished! Serve over farro and garnish with scallions (and sriracha for spice if you’re feeling it) and enjoy your healthy deliciousness! (This can obviously be served over rice or noodles or just about anything you’d like…)

Ginger Scallion Sauce

Oh hello. It’s been awhile…

What’s new? Not much here. Except apparently time travel, because suddenly I looked at the calendar and it’s April, which doesn’t seem possible. Oh also? Apparently Chrissy Teigen – gorgeous lady blogger, SI swimsuit model, fiancee of John Legend – somehow discovered the recipe for Spicy Sesame Noodles with Chicken on here and made them and loved them and then posted about them and linked back to here, so B&G blew up today. So many thanks to her. One of her tweets earlier was that she was packing for a trip to Australia with Erin Andrews and Brooklyn Decker and the background photo on her account is a gorgeous picture of her in her unders – our lives are exactly the same, but opposite – but we can clearly both enjoy the hell out of some noodles! (update: mystery solved – my awesome cousin Danny and his gorgeous girlfriend Kellie brought these to a party that Chrissy attended – my family is fancy…)

Um, so the last couple of weeks (months?)  have involved a trip to Denver to see the littlest, a trip to NYC for a birthday, quality time with my tiny boyfriends Baby L and Baby Dubs, working, the gym, and the other usual stuff. I have been thinking about the blog a lot, but have not actually been cooking all that much because it’s been so busy, so even had I not been suffering from some serious writers’ block (or a serious case of the lazies, not sure which…) I wouldn’t have had much to write about. But things are turning around! And B&G got a bit of a facelift, in case you haven’t noticed…it is making some of the formatting a little wonky but I’ll work on that…

I want to tell you about Ginger Scallion Sauce because it is the greatest thing ever, but in order to do that, I need to start with an apology for my one true chef/celebrity love, Dave Chang…

Oh my heavens.

David, I need to confess something. I’ve been unfaithful. I wanted to make this sauce the minute I first saw it, lo those several Christmases ago when I got your book. And I did, almost immediately. And it was fine, but not great, and I was sad, but wasn’t going to let it turn me away from you. It had to have been my fault right? I couldn’t blame you, I must have executed incorrectly, and you were likely as disappointed in me as I was in you. But it was ok, we would get through it. But then…my eye wandered, and THIS caught my attention. Deep down in my heart I knew it would be Francis. I’ve always had a wee bit of a crush on him too. And so I made his version. David, I’m sorry. It’s better. It’s heaven. But I hope you can forgive me the transgression. You’re still first in my heart. But I can’t promise it will be just that one time. This stuff is too good.

The ingredients

This is a condiment. One of the most flavorful condiments ever. I have mixed it with plain noodles and fried rice, and I’ve eaten it with steak and I’ve eaten it with fish. It would be awesome in soup, and I will add it to the ramen I plan to make later in the month. It is so good that I plan never to be without it again. It is equal parts minced scallions and minced ginger, both of which I did in about 30 seconds in the food processor. Then it gets an almost ungodly amount of salt, and hot oil is poured over it so it sizzles and removes some of the bitterness that ginger and scallions can have raw. It mellows them a little. That is where this version is better than the Momofuku version. I actually finished mine with a splash of light soy sauce as a nod to the version that inspired me, and it is perfection.

With steak and noodles.

Really I can’t say enough good things about this. Just make it and you’ll see.

With noodles and tuna.

Before we go on…

First things first. Please check out my awesome cousin Sam…wish I was half as talented and adventurous!

How come I’m not dating Seth Davis? How have I missed this guy? Anyone know anything about him? Like, for instance, his phone number? Now that March Madness is over he must have some free time, right?

I accidentally saw Tiffany in concert last weekend in New York. It was awesome. I love New York.

What I am reading right now: I am actually too embarrassed to tell you the trash book I’m reading, so let’s just leave it at The New Yorker…

What I am listening to right now: Portraits by The Wheeler Brothers – the band of a guy that studied with my sister in Spain…they are very good.

Craftiness of the week: pillow covers for Al and Dyl and their new apartment…pictures later.

I am in for a few nights of revelry over the next couple of days. It’s my birthday, and I decided drinking is a better option than crawling in a hole and crying. See you on the flip side.

Ginger Scallion Sauce (makes about 1.5 cups)

adapted from Francis Lam and Momofuku

1 ounce ginger, peeled and cut into one inch pieces

1 bunch scallions, roots and ends trimmed, both white and green parts cut into one inch pieces

1/2 cup peanut or grapeseed oil

Splash of light soy sauce

More kosher salt than you think you need

Pulse ginger in a food processor until finely minced. You do not want to puree it, so pay close attention as you are doing it. Put ginger into a large heat proof bowl. Not kidding about the large part or the heat proof part. Do both of those things for real. Pulse the scallions in the food processor (no need to wash it in between) until they are finely minced and add them to the ginger. Throw a good pinch of salt in the bowl and set aside while you heat the oil.

Heat the oil over medium heat just until you see the first wisp of smoke. Be careful. It will be quite hot at this point. Pour the oil over the ginger scallion mixture and step back because it will splatter and smell awesome. Stir the mixture together and add a splash of soy sauce and more salt and let it cool. Add it to everything in the world because it is so delicious.

 

Meatless Monday for any day of the week: Spanish Chickpea and Spinach Stew

comfort food - veggie style

We have previously discussed my thoughts on being a vegetarian (lovely for many, not for me) and my thoughts on meat (try to make good decisions about where it comes from, etc. I don’t have guilt about eating something that had a good life) but there is this thing that happens in the food blogging world called Meatless Monday, and today, I am contributing.

I am not sure how Meatless Monday came about, but I think the theory behind it is to go a day without meat because it is good for our human selves and the earth. I can get behind that. The funny thing is I actually eat vegetarian plenty of the time. I probably only eat red meat a couple of times a month, maybe once a week, if you count cured meats and the like. I eat a lot of chicken for sure. But I eat meat free meals fairly regularly, especially if I am allowed to count eggs as meat free. My pasta is almost always meat free and I eat that all the time. I just rarely make the connection that what I am eating is vegetarian. I like the idea of Meatless Monday as a broad idea for the betterment of humanity. My only issue with it is maybe the Monday part. As my good friend M said “umm, Meatless Monday drives me crazy because Monday is the day after I grocery shop and when I am most likely to have meat.” Touché M.

This is a long way of saying that this recipe would be an excellent addition to a Meatless Monday repertoire, even if you choose to make it a Meatless Thursday instead.

chickpea and spinach stew

I discovered I like chickpeas fairly recently (I think I have mentioned the deep dark secret I carried around with me for the entirety of my youth and into my adult years as a cooking and food obsessed human – there are plenty of things I did not like at all, but I just never really discussed it, so I don’t think anyone knew…curries, and “Indian Food” more broadly, chickpeas, sauces with yogurt in them, feta cheese (still HATE this one) game meats, sun-dried tomatoes (still not sold) roe of various things, roasted red peppers, smoked salmon (STILL, blech) avocados(?!?!?)) but I am coming around. My palate is expanding. I think my distaste for chickpeas comes from their customary spot in a salad bar. When chickpeas are on a salad bar they look rubbery and shiny and weird and generally unappetizing, so I assumed I did not like them. I still do not like chickpeas from a salad bar, but chickpeas in food are something I can get behind. I started with Chana Masala, and fried chickpeas, and one of my regular “I just got home and I am already so hungry I could eat my hand” thrown together dinners is chickpeas fried for a moment, spiced with ras el-hanout or curry powder, with red onions thrown in the pan to wilt, and then tossed with olive oil, lemon juice and shaved parmesan cheese – so random and really quite good. So when I saw, in my meander through old Food & Wine mags, a recipe for Spanish tapas inspired chickpea stew I decided to give it a go. I am quite pleased that I did. I have already made it a couple of times, it reheats really well for lunches, and it is very comforting while still feeling healthy. And it’s quick!

And now, I bid you adieu. Many apologies if this sounds like it was written by a crazy person, I worked 13 hours today and I am a little punchy…

Before we get to the actual recipe…so many things!

Downton Downton Downton Downton. Oh Downton Abbey how I love thee…

Yo soy fiesta.

One month til Denver to visit the littlest…I can’t wait.

Portlandia? Supposed to be the funniest thing ever? Am I doing it wrong?

I hope you are reading the City Kitchen columns by David Tanis in the New York Times. I want to make everything immediately.

Remember the ginger chicken soup I had on the stove? Umm, I think it might cure colds. I have a sample of one so far, but it definitely worked. If I get another cold I will try it again and let you know.

Chickpea and Spinach Stew (serves 4)

Adapted from Food & Wine

2 large garlic cloves, crushed

Kosher salt

Pinch of saffron threads

2 teaspoons sweet paprika

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

Pinch of ground cloves

Pinch of freshly ground pepper

Two 15-ounce cans chickpeas with their liquid

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes

1/4 cup golden raisins

10 oz baby spinach

Use the flat side of a large knife and mash the garlic to a paste with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and the saffron. Transfer the garlic paste to a small bowl. Add the paprika, cumin, cloves and black pepper and mash until combined. Stir in 1/4 cup of the chickpea liquid.

Wipe out the skillet. Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil to the skillet and heat until shimmering. Add the onion and tomato and cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until they are softened, about 3 minutes. Add the spiced garlic sauce to the onion and tomato in the skillet and cook for 1 minute.

Add the chickpeas and the remaining liquid to the skillet. Add the raisins and bring to a boil over moderately high heat. Add the spinach, reduce the heat to moderate, and simmer for 15 minutes. Transfer the chickpea stew to 4 deep bowls, drizzle the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil on top, and serve.

Chicken Tinga Tacos…one of my new favorites

You guys are going to love me for this...

I’m sick again. I may have discovered the kink in my plan to be a person that sleeps less and accomplishes more. All I want to do is lay around, drink smoothies and eat chicken soup. This is on the stove as I type. I’m hoping that by virtue of the almost insane amount of ginger in there, I might actually be able to smell and taste it when it’s finished. It would be about the only thing.

Perhaps my most favorite recent discovery, Chicken Tinga Tacos will likely be in the rotation for some time. I spotted these in the pages of Food & Wine, and may have skipped right over them, but for a recent celebration of Taco Tuesday with the gals at La Verdad, where the Chicken Tingas were our favorite tacos of the evening.

From my very scientific web searches on the topic, it appears Tinga is a stew of braised chicken, pork or beef, with tomatoes, onions, garlic and chipotles in adobo. Which is good, because that’s what it is in this recipe, so it appears we’re on the right track. A couple of the recipes I saw also called for Mexican chorizo (definitely different than Spanish chorizo, if you are reading a recipe that specifies you definitely want to get the right one, Spanish chorizo has the very distinctly flavored Pimenton in the mix, Mexican chorizo uses chile peppers.) I am sure that would also be quite delicious.

This recipe calls for chipotles in adobo. I have mentioned them before for the Chilequiles, and when I finally get a B&G Pantry page together for your viewing pleasure they will definitely be on it. They are spicy and smoky and add a ton of flavor and background smoke and some excellent heat to things. They are also potent. A little goes a long way. I am guessing you can find them in most grocery stores. Whole Foods carries them, and any market with a decent international section probably does too. (I wonder if my dad can get them? I think yes, even in good old small town CT he can find them, so it is looking good for the rest of you.)  They last pretty much forever in the fridge so don’t be afraid to buy a can or two if you see them. They look so innocuous, but they are spicy. Chipotles are, after all, smoke dried jalapeños, and the seeds are still in there.

This would be a great dinner during the week, it only takes about an hour, and better yet, I think the Tinga would only get better with time, though I can’t say I’ve had many leftovers to test this theory. There is also something that feels very Sunday about it, probably the braising part, even though it is a short braise. It also would be great game day food, and easy for a group. I served it the first time with a combo of hard shells* and soft shells – the hard shells won the day – and it would also be great as a tostada topping, or for nachos, or probably on a roll of some sort like pulled pork. And also just with a fork. Or any spare tortilla chips you might have hanging around. (*Do me a favor next time you are making tacos of any kind, heat some oil in a frying pan ¼ – ½ inch, I’d say, fry corn tortillas until they start to get just a bit stiff, then fold them over so they are taco shell-like and fry for another minute until they are just barely brown and crispy, but not stiff and shatter-y like those gross ones you buy in a box. Truly, it makes a world of difference and takes very little work.)

someday we'll talk about that corn...

There are really only a couple of steps. First you brown the chicken thighs in a little oil, then take the chicken out and add some sliced onion. Let it soften and brown a little, then add the garlic, cook for a minute longer, and then add the tomatoes, chipotles in adobo and chicken stock. This combo simmers for about 20 minutes. Turn the heat off for a couple minutes and let it cool slightly, then puree it in a blender, add it back to the pan and add the chicken back in.

pureed

Simmer for another 20-30 minutes and voila! Shred the chicken and you are ready to serve.

shredded

I serve mine with corn tortillas, either fried into hard shells or just warmed in foil in the oven. Cotija cheese is a must, and I like avocado and something pickled too, radishes or red onion. And finish it with a squeeze of lime.

toppings

Hold UP. I think, I THINK I just saw a commercial for TGI Fridays that involved allusions to romance and cute bartenders. Is Fridays a martini bar now? With an app and entree combo for $10? When did that happen?

Is there ANOTHER GOP debate tonight? Are there more debates this primary season than ever before? Doesn’t it seem that way?

I am trying to turn over a new leaf in 2012. I am trying not to let people annoy me for no reason. It’s their life, and if they want to jump around like a fool like the Sweaty McHeadband in my kickboxing class, or kill themselves with cancer sticks like half the people I get stuck behind walking to work, that’s their problem, not mine. It means I will be putting the next blog I wanted to start, peopleiwanttopunchintheface.wordpress.com on the back burner for the time being. Here’s to new beginnings!

I’ve gotten locked in my bathroom twice in the last week. I thought I was going to waste away on the floor of the smallest bathroom in the world. It was terrifying so I took the doorknob off. Now there is no doorknob, but also no chance of getting locked in there. Probably time to talk to the landlord.

I am currently obsessed with Ryan Adams’ “Easy Tiger.”

I am reading The Line of Beauty, and am having difficulty getting into it, but that is probably because I don’t get in bed to read until about 11pm and one of my eyes is already pretty much shut from exhaustion.

This is awesome. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9NF2edxy-M

So is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF9-sEbqDvU and this (even better): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta9K22D0o5Q&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

And now, please enjoy your Tinga…

Chicken Tinga Tacos (serves 6-8, probably with leftovers)

adapted from Food & Wine

1/4 cup plus 2 tbls extra-virgin olive oil

2 1/2 lbs trimmed, skinless, boneless chicken thighs

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 large onion, thinly sliced

3 large garlic cloves, minced

One 28-ounce can diced tomatoes

2 canned chipotles in adobo, coarsely chopped

1 cup chicken broth

24 corn tortillas

Cotija cheese, avocado, pickled onions, slaw or toppings of your choice

Heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet. Season the chicken all over with salt and pepper, add it to the skillet and cook over moderately high heat, turning once, until browned, about 12 minutes. Remove the chicken to a plate and pour off the fat.

Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil to the skillet and then add the onion. Cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is lightly browned and softened, 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and their juices, the chipotles and the broth and bring to a boil. Simmer over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened and slightly reduced, 20 minutes.

Transfer the sauce to a food processor and let cool for 15 minutes. Puree until smooth and season with salt and pepper. Add the sauce back to the pan and add the chicken. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Simmer the sauce and chicken over medium low heat until the meat is tender and the sauce is very thick and darkened around the edges. Wrap the tortillas in foil and warm them in the oven for about 10 minutes or fry into hard shells.

Shred the meat, spoon about 3 tablespoons of chicken onto each tortilla and sprinkle with the crumbled cheese and toppings of your choice.

Chicken Tinga Tacos

Working my way back to you babe – Scallion Pancakes for the (Chinese) new year…

Happy New Year!

It’s 2012! How did that happen?

This post is a total cop out. Two months I’ve been gone. TWO MONTHS! And all I have for you is this dumb recipe. Just kidding, it’s delicious. It’s not dumb at all. There’s just not much to it. There are approximately four ingredients and one of them is water. But somehow, in spite of its simplicity, it is a delight.

Scallion pancakes are one of my most favorite Chinese take out treats. They are crispy and delicious and taste like scallions and you get to dip them in soy sauce. Please tell me one thing that is bad about that?

And, bonus, they are very easy to make.

start with the flour

Flour in a bowl. Add a little salt.

Flour and water

Add boiling water to the mix and stir it (not with your hands, because it’s hot.)

When the dough starts looking shaggy, take it out of the bowl and clump it together on the counter. You won’t need much flour on the counter, as this is a pretty dry dough, but have a little there to be safe.

shaggy

Clump the dough into a ball and start kneading. It will take anywhere from five to ten minutes of kneading to get the dough where you want it.

after one minute

after four minutes

after nine minutes

You should knead until the dough is smooth and stretchy. Then cover the dough with a damp towel and let it sit for 30 minutes while you do something else. Slice the green parts of some scallions, perhaps. Or make a dipping sauce (soy sauce, chopped scallions, a couple drops of sesame oil, and a splash of rice wine or rice vinegar.) Or watch a sitcom. Or something else you like to do. I don’t know, I don’t know your life.

After the dough has rested for 30 minutes it will be even smoother and stretchier, if you can believe it. Cut the dough into eight pieces (I find cutting it in slivers like a pie is the easiest.) Then the fun part begins. Roll each piece of dough into a circle. They are not going to be very big, please see the photo below for a gauge. That is my creepy hand next to the dough.

about the size of my hand...which is a helpful measure for the rest of you...

It’s a wonder I haven’t made it as a hand model.

Then brush the round with sesame oil and sprinkle with chopped scallions.

brushed and sprinkled

But you’re not done yet. Now you roll it into a cylinder, like you were rolling a…umm…rug, or something.

a scallion pancake taquito

Then role THAT cylinder into a pinwheel thing. Like so…

scallion pancake snail...now with more creepy hand

And NOW, and now, stick with me one more minute, roll the snail into another scallion filled pancake…

aaaaand, we're done!

And now all that’s left is frying them up. You don’t need much oil for these, and you don’t need much time either. They fry up in minutes. These are not huge, the ones I’ve gotten from Chinese restaurants are bigger. If that is what you’d prefer, I suspect you could just divide the dough into four or six pieces and roll them out bigger. Heat the oil over medium heat until hot, drop one of the pancakes in the pan, and watch it carefully, it will be ready to flip in a minute or two.

fried

I have found the pancakes will sometimes puff up in the  middle a little and the edges will get crispy while the center does not. I found pressing gently on the center of the pancake when it first goes into the oil helps that.

Once you flip it, the second side cooks even faster than the first. When it is browned to your likeness, take the pancake out of the oil and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with a little salt, cut in quarters and serve with dipping sauce. Delectable Chinese take out with out the take out!

scallion pancakes at home

I think I would like to get this out before another New Year passes – and incidentally, it just so happens that the celebrations for the Chinese New Year are beginning (I believe the actual date is January 23rd) so make these and raise a glass to the Year of the Dragon – so I will wrap this up. But (and I know I say this a lot) I have so many things to discuss with you. This month’s project is noodles. Udon, ramen, and egg yolk filled ravioli, which I have been working on forever and can’t manage to perfect. But I am getting closer. And I want to share it with you. And I want to do some new things for “Meatless Mondays” and I want to talk about soup. And so many things. And I miss this little spot. So I will be back. Stick around.

Scallion Pancakes (makes 8 four inch pancakes)

Adapted from Delicious Days.

1 1/2 cups flour, plus additional for rolling out the pancakes

Pinch of Salt

1/2 cup water

1 bunch of scallions, green parts only, sliced into thin rounds

2 tbls sesame oil

canola or other neutral oil for frying

Whisk together flour and salt in a medium bowl. Boil the water and add to the flour slowly. Stir the dough until it is shaggy and cool enough to touch. Remove the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and pliable, anywhere from five to ten minutes. Cover with a damp towel and let rest for at least 30 minutes.

After the dough has rested, cut into 8 equal pieces. One at a time, roll the dough pieces into thin rounds, approximately four inches across. Brush sesame oil onto the dough with a pastry brush, and sprinkle on a couple pinches of the scallions. Roll the dough round up like a cigar, and then roll the cigar into a pinwheel shape as shown above. Press the edge lightly to seal the round, and then roll again into a think 4 inch pancake. Set aside, and repeat with the remaining dough. As you complete the pancakes, pile them up with aluminum foil or parchment paper in between them.

Heat just enough oil to cover the bottom of the frying pan over medium heat until hot. Fry the pancakes one or two at a time in the oil until the bottom is brown and crispy, 1-2 minutes, and then flip, doing the same to the second side. Remove the pancakes to a plate lined with paper towels. Sprinkle lightly with salt, cut each pancake into quarters, and serve with a dipping sauce.

Enjoy!

Weeknight Chicken Volume 5ish…Chicken Thighs with Rosemary and Brown Sugar

weeknight chicken in the truest sense...

A couple of weeks ago, I had taken chicken out of the freezer for a mid week weeknight chicken dinner and recipe to share with you guys, but then I never actually came up with a plan for it, so I got home on the night I was going to make chicken with defrosted thighs and no plan. I wandered around and stared aimlessly at my cookbooks, and picked up one of the Fine Cooking compilations that they do (I highly recommend picking them up when you see them in the bookstore, I think they do them a couple of times a year) devoted to chicken. They didn’t have anything in there that called my name this particular evening (though there is a fab recipe for braised chicken with tomatoes and fennel that I love and will share with you when the weather is more appropriate for it) but it did make me think of another Fine Cooking chicken recipe that my Auntie A. now considers a family fave – Grilled Rosemary Chicken Thighs with Sweet & Sour Orange Dipping Sauce. The name cracks me up, because I feel like it doesn’t sound at all like what it is. In my case, it was whole thighs (bone-in, with skin) coated with oil, brown sugar, rosemary and spices, and grilled, inside on the grill pan, to a delicious finish. I didn’t bother with the sauce.

The original recipe uses boneless skinless thighs, served with the sauce for dipping, which would also be tasty, I’d imagine, so perhaps one day I’ll try it. But my modification suited me just fine. It was really good, and crazy fast, and while I would recommend doing this outside on a grill if you can, because I think that would make it easier to control the heat and the char, etc., or maybe try roasting the thighs with the oil and rub, with a little diligence, these worked just fine inside. (To be sure, the boneless skinless thighs would certainly be easier and quicker inside, but taking the thighs off the bone would not have been quicker, for sure, and removing chicken skin and just throwing it away makes me sad, because, you know, chicken skin…delish. Maybe next time I can try to get the thighs off the bone but keep the skin. Experiment!)

chicken with rosemary and brown sugar (and look at the compound butter!)

These are a little spicy from the red pepper flakes, and a little sweet from the sugar. The rosemary flavor is awesome – I am sometimes a little wary of rosemary because it is strong and woody and can be overly prominent at times, but not here. It’s great here. And it was great for lunch the next day too. I made some small smashed potatoes to go with it, and tossed them with garlic scape compound butter (compound butters are miraculous – I will post about those) and had a kind of unexpectedly great last minute dinner. And it would have been even easier had I more space to spread out on a grill…the size of the grill pan makes it very hard to grill anything off of direct heat, obviously, so I did have to pay attention. I imagine the grill would add a smoky flavor too, which would be great, if that’s the kind of thing that revs your engine. Maybe I will try roasting it next time to see what that does…and maybe marinating it with all the good stuff for a couple hours or a day would intensify the flavors a little bit (more experiments!) Anyway, this was really tasty and really easy, even easier and tastier than I expected, so I recommend it wholeheartedly!

So now, I have some questions for you…

A) Are you in the northeast corridor and did you feel the earthquake today? Crazy! (heh)

B) Does anyone know what happened to summer? Because it is fall. And while fall is my most favorite season of all, we totally got the short shrift on summer this year. It didn’t start until Memorial Day and it is going to end in mid-August? Nonsense.

C) What should I do to make B&G better? I would like to do some work on this here little spot over the next couple of months, and have a new and improved B&G for 2012…what should I change/fix?

What I am listening to: The National, Boxer, and Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine. John Prine is awesome (also, hilarious) and this is an awesome compilation of awesome people singing his awesome songs.

What I am reading: “Brideshead Revisited” Evelyn Waugh – just starting it. Can’t wait to finish it and then Netflix the mini-series and the movie. Favorite game ever. Also, I am glad I am not a boy whose name is Evelyn.  I imagine that isn’t easy.

All my pics from this dish were pretty much exactly the same...whatevs.

Grilled Chicken Thighs with Rosemary and Brown Sugar (serves 3-4, depending on appetite)

Adapted from Fine Cooking

1 tbl minced fresh rosemary

2 tsp dark brown sugar

2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

2 tbl canola oil, plus more for the grill

6 chicken thighs (or chicken pieces of choice)

Heat a grill pan over medium heat for several minutes until hot. In the meantime, mix together the rosemary, salt, sugar, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes and set aside. Toss the chicken pieces with 2 tbl of canola oil, and rub with the rosemary mixture to coat well. When you are ready to put the chicken on the grill, rub the grill with a bit of the oil to prevent sticking. Cook chicken thighs turning and moving frequently to prevent burning, until cooked through – juices run clear when pricked with a fork or knife or internal temperature is 175 on an instant thermometer in the thickest part of the meat, not touching the bone – (20 minutes or so?) When chicken is cooked through, remove from the heat and let rest for five minutes. Serve with sides of your choice. So easy! Leftovers don’t suffer. (NOTE: my tendency is to salt things once I take them off the heat and before serving. Resist the urge to do so with these, the rub is pretty salty. Wait until you’ve tasted it.)

Bacon Update!

Day 5