"Cookercise" - Thoughts?

Just something interesting I came across... wondering what people think about this:

The Perfect Dinner

Sometimes all it takes to hit the spot is a nice grilled cheese sandwich. Make it with cheddar cheese, some high-quality white bread, and plenty of butter. Add a side of sliced pears, and voila!

Trying To Get Into Fish

I don't cook much fish. I think of it as a hassle mostly because of timing. I only like to move my car on the weekends because street parking is difficult to come by on weeknights. That means I would have to plan to eat fish on Saturday or Sunday night when I return from grocery shopping. It's tough to make that kind of commitment because what if I'm in a spaghetti mood and not a fish mood? Well, I finally bit the bullet and bought some salmon last Monday when I had off from work. I read that poaching salmon enables you to use it in a salad or for some other purpose the next day, so that's what I did. I got a pan large enough to hold the piece of fish, filled it with water until the fish was covered, added some salt, and set it on the stove to boil. Once the water came to a boil, I removed the pan from the heat and left it to sit for 10 minutes. While this was happening I steamed some broccoli and cauliflower and boiled some whole wheat pasta. Once everything was ready, I flaked the salmon with a fork; mixed the pasta, cauliflower, and broccoli together with some olive oil and seasonings; and added the salmon to the mixture.

I brought my salmon pasta salad for lunch the next day and squeezed some lemon over it before eating it. It was a delicious, healthful lunch.

Happy St. Patrick's Day Weekend!

I don't have much time to write because I'm very immersed in the thesis right now (and still have to review the column I wrote for tomorrow's column writing class and the paper I have due for Wednesday's e-pub class), but I couldn't let this fabulous holiday go by without recognition. I haven't had much time for cooking either, but luckily corned beef just sits in a pot for a few hours. (For an explanation of why it's called corned beef, read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma.)

Peeling all those little potatoes was really the worst of it. But otherwise, it's just smash a clove or two of garlic, put in stock pot (or other large pot), add corned beef, add water to cover corned beef, and set at a low simmer for about three hours. Add carrots (I like baby carrots because they're already peeled and a perfect size... the extra work is cut out), then about ten minutes later add potatoes. About when you add the carrots or maybe a bit before, in a large pan, saute cabbage and onions with butter. Serve everything together, and enjoy!


Here are the black and tan brownies I made for dessert. It's sort of my trademark to serve food in small pieces, but you could cut the brownies into huge squares as well. The recipe is from The Irish Spirit, a cookbook that, being true to the Irish spirit (no pun intended), features chapters that focus on a particular alcoholic beverage. These brownies have Guinness in them.


And if you're wondering what to do with all your leftover corned beef, a sandwich on rye is the way to go. I would have made this anyways (cabbage and all), but after looking through Daniel Leader and Lauren Chattman's Panini Express cookbook, I knew I had to add Muenster cheese as well.


And another great way to use leftovers... corned beef hash! This is what I like best.


May the road rise up to meet you... and all those other Irish blessings!

(I've been listening to Damien Rice all day and wearing my green, as a crazy Irish girl should.)

Brussels Sprouts: Why Do They Get A Bad Rap?

I grew up loving Brussels sprouts -- and all those other vegetables children are supposed to hate: asparagus, spinach, broccoli. But I grew up with siblings who, when forced to eat Brussels sprouts because they were part of that night's dinner, would roll them in ketchup. To me that sounds like a disgusting way to eat a vegetable that tastes perfect with a little butter and salt and pepper. As I've matured, so too have my tastes. I still love Brussels sprouts, but I try to be more creative with them now (see my Thanksgiving entry).

The other night I made Brussels sprouts with bacon, tomatoes, and some seasonings. This made a complete and satisfying meal for me.

I first cooked up a slice of bacon in a frying pan. As it was cooking, I trimmed six sprouts (cut off the bottoms and removed any unpleasant-looking outer leaves)and sliced them in quarters length-wise. When the bacon was so crisp it was on the verge of turning burnt (just how I like it), I removed it from the pan and laid it on a paper towel. In the meantime, I added my Brussels sprouts to the pan, pushed a clove of garlic through my garlic press into the pan, and sprinkled some seasonings over the whole thing. You can use whatever seasonings you like best. I have a gourmet sea salt blend by Elements of Spice called Splash, which pairs well with Brussels sprouts (it has sea salt, coriander, lemon grass, bay, and nori, among other things). When the sprouts were almost done, I added some sliced and seeded Roma grape tomatoes (use as much or as little as you like). After the tomatoes warmed through, I dumped the mixture onto a plate and crumbled the crisp bacon over it.

Here's a picture:

Fennel

Fennel's an interesting food. It has unexpected flavors and textures. I'd had it out a few times -- mashed at Ocean Drive in Norwalk, Conn., grilled at Benatti in Cambridge, Mass., and in a citrusy salad at Maurizio's in Boston -- but I had never cooked it at home. So happening upon Saveur's recipe for finoccio al burro e parmigiano (fennel with butter and cheese) -- butter and cheese! who could go wrong? -- I decided to give it a try. I picked up a bulb at Whole Foods. Easy enough. And brought it home. (I downsized the recipe which calls for 8 bulbs -- too much for a single girl).

Since the Saveur recipe didn't give much information on how to trim it, I whipped out my Joy of Cooking, which gave detailed instructions.

After getting the bulb all cleaned up, I boiled it briefly to soften it, then sauteed it with butter, salt and pepper, and sprinkled it with parmesan (just as the Saveur recipe said). It was as delicious as I expected.

I'm now looking forward to trying some other fennel recipes like The Amateur Gourmet's zite with onions, sausage, and fennel.

On Writing And Eating

A girl writing a thesis about the food publishing industry can't be expected to sustain herself on microwave popcorn and hummus and peppers, which is what I tried to do during my marathon writing session yesterday.

I finally gave in, removed my laptop from my lap, and headed to the kitchen. While I might not have made something so glorious as would be found in the pages of Gourmet or something worthy of M.F.K Fisher's eloquent prose, I definitely one-upped the popcorn.

I made a simple tomato sauce (Marcella Hazan's recipe) with plum tomatoes, onion, and butter. I made some skinny lasagna noodles (oh I wish I knew what they're really called), mixed them up with the sauce, sprinkled them with seasonings and parmesan cheese, and served the whole thing alongside some ciabatta bread and olive oil.

UPDATE: Just found it in Saveur--Those skinny lasagna noodles are aptly named lasagnette!