A Book A Day While The Food Blogger's Away

I've had it with this cold, nasty weather! So bon voyage! I'm off to Aruba for the week. I'm looking forward to sharing my warm, sunny adventures with you when I get back. Don't worry: I plan to have plenty of food pictures (I've been researching where to go out to dinner for more than a month now!).

But in the meantime, I decided I would let you in on a passion I have that comes second to food: books. I love reading. I definitely used to read a whole lot more before my interest in food developed to this extent, but I still read as often as I can -- even if it's just a page or two before bed.

And because I love food and reading so much, my favorite books are, you guessed it, food-related. (Somehow all of my books about grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure got demoted to the second shelf.)

I often write about cookbooks I use and enjoy, but I want to take this opportunity to introduce you to some food fiction and nonfiction books I've enjoyed. These are just basic thoughts and little snippets because I don't have much time to write in the midst of packing and organizing, but you should still be able to glean some insight into each of the books.

Be sure to stop back during the next few days to read about some of my favorite food books. You might even find some new favorites to add to your collection.

Chili -- Inside And Out

It must be chili season. Everyone's talking about it; everyone's making it (I know because as soon as I decided to make it, chili postings started popping up on blogs everywhere). I got an email from Cookstr the other day with the top 10 chili recipes, and the more I looked through those recipes, the more I started craving chili. And in spite of living right down the street from one of Bon Appetit's top chili spots (No. 7), I decided to make my own.

I remembered a recipe from Art of the Slow Cooker that I had been wanting to try for a while because it's a no-bean chili. Everyone has his own opinion of what makes chili chili. I've heard that the original Texas chili recipes were devoid of beans, and I'm a big fan of that. I like beans sometimes, but I prefer a hearty, meaty chili poured over some wide egg noodles or white rice; topped with cheese; and flanked by warm, buttered corn bread (it's perfectly acceptable to use a box of Jiffy cornbread mix, in my opinion).


So it was with this in mind that I set out to make Andrew Schloss' Sirloin Chili (No Beans).

Following the recipe, first I seasoned the meat (sirloin cubes rather than ground beef are used) with some salt and pepper and then browned it in oil and moved it to the slow cooker.


Then I took my diced onion (I used a very large onion) and green pepper and sauteed those in the same oil. Now, here's the part where we can debate whether I actually made chili. I was supposed to add chiles and garlic to the pan at this point, and I left the chiles out. Here's my reasoning: I'm a wimp when it comes to spicy hot foods! I was making the chili on Tuesday night, but we weren't going to eat it until Wednesday night -- and you know what would happen to those chiles overnight. So because I knew the heat would only intensify, I played it safe and didn't add any chiles (later ground chile is used).


Then I added some flour seasoned with cumin and oregano.


Next in: some beef broth and crushed tomatoes. The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of crushed tomatoes, but I just threw in the whole 28-ounce can. I figured since the chili would have until the next night to thicken and I'd have to reheat it, during which time it would likely thicken more, this would probably be okay (it was).


Once it finished heating, I poured this whole mixture over the meat and left the slow cooker to do its thing. I put it on high since I wanted to go to bed at some point that night, and high would only take 4 to 5 hours. After the 5 hours, I moved the chili to some Tupperware to cool and put it in the fridge.


The next night, I poured the chili into a pot, set it on the stove, added the ground chile to it, and let it heat until it was thick and piping hot.


As the chili was heating, I baked cornbread, made rice in the rice cooker, and boiled up some egg noodles.

My boyfriend ate his chili over rice, which is more traditional.


I had mine over egg noodles, which I prefer.



It wasn't spicy hot, but it did have a little kick and all the essential chili flavors. It definitely was comforting and warming on a chilly night.

Note: I took the leftover chili for lunch that week, and the flavor intensified each day but never got too overpowering. It microwaved well too; the meat stayed tender.

How do you like your chili? Are beans essential or a no-go? Do you like it super hot or mild? Do you make it in the slow cooker? Do you use ground beef, sirloin, a mixture of meats? Some people add squash or potatoes, do you? And what do you serve it with? Can't wait to hear your chili ideas!

Food Bloggers' Significant Others

Have you ever thought about what it must be like to be the significant other of a food blogger (or any blogger for that matter)? I often wonder if my boyfriend minds what I put him through. I don't worry too much because I know he would tell me if he did, but I do sometimes feel as though I ask a lot.

He never complains about dinner being cold after spending 20 minutes trying to capture the perfect photos for me (and yes, he's the one taking the photos most of the time). Sometimes, I even get to the point where I say, "Okay, forget it, let's just eat." But he'll convince me that we should take a few more shots and instruct me to hold this here or move that there.

He doesn't gripe when I sprinkle herbs all over his plate, just to make it look pretty for the picture, even when he'll have to brush them aside to be able to enjoy his food. He even keeps quiet -- for the most part -- when I make foods he doesn't like, just because I insist on following the recipe. Not to mention how silly he must feel when we go out to eat, and his crazy girlfriend must photograph his plate and her own before a fork can be lifted.

There's also all the planning I do before cooking and writing. I'm constantly asking him to take me to the grocery store (or two different stores) because I have this or that recipe in mind, and we just need to make a "quick trip" to get some fish or fresh veggies. But luckily, I often choose recipes I know that he'll like, so there's a little bit of motivation there.

We have very different after-work attitudes. He's apt to veg out on the couch with Sports Center on, while I'm dying to cook anything that's been running through my head all day that I wasn't able to make at the time I thought of it because this little thing called work prevents me from having that sort of lifestyle. I'm ready to hop in the car and graze the Whole Foods' aisles, but to him sometimes it's a bit of a hassle. (Someday I'll have off-street parking....)

And beyond the preparation for a blog post, he's usually always a part of the actual post, sometimes even the focal point. Where do I get off writing about him? I never thought about whether he'd actually want all of our meals broadcast to everyone who stops by to check out my blog.

And after I've written a post, I still need him. When I have a lot of page views, I agonize over why people don't leave comments, even though I'm following every suggestion ProBlogger can give (ask questions, involve your readers, etc.). He's there to remind me to be patient, to talk about things I can do differently, and to help me brainstorm new ideas.

He has to put up with my regular emails directing him to look at this blog or that blog and see how her pictures come out or how his page is arranged. He has to deal with my constant pestering and worrying, "Can we do that? How can we do that?"

Sometimes I'm sure he must feel like he's doing just as much work as I am to make my blog successful, and yet, it's still MY blog. I'm happy that it doesn't seem to bother him and that he's so incredibly supportive of what I'm trying to do. He's definitely my No. 1 fan.

Food For Thought
What do you think? Do you have a blog? Is your significant other affected by it? Is your significant other supportive of your blog? Are you the significant other of a blogger? How do you feel about this?

Somewhat Healthy: Taco Night

I'm on this eating-better-but-still-enjoying-comfort-food kick. Tacos are mostly meat and can be as good or as bad as you make them. They're also very easy to throw together on a weeknight after a long day at work and a trip to the gym that can leave you feeling a little rundown and lazy, which was what I was feeling.


Now, if you've been following my blog, you may have caught on that my boyfriend is somewhat of a picky eater (and that we pretty much eat dinner together every night). It's tough to find meals that will make us both happy sometimes, even if he is good about picking out the things he doesn't like or I'm nice enough to leave them out.

Tacos aren't necessarily the plainest of foods, but they can be. When we get Mexican take-out (from Olecito or Anna's), he'll order a quesadilla with just cheese and chicken. I love Olecito's steak burrito, complete with rice, beans, guacamole, pico de gallo, and even the sour cream, which I would normally forgo.

Because tacos at home are a do-it-yourself affair, we could each make ours how we wanted. You can start with whatever taco meat, seasonings, and shells (soft or hard) you want. I chose to pick up a package of ground beef and a box by Old El Paso that came with the shells, taco seasoning, and some sauce. You could call this cheating, but I can't make from-scratch meals every night, and I think cutting some corners sometimes is okay.

I also bought a head of iceberg lettuce (no it's not the best kind for you, but it gives that crunch I want in a taco), some colored peppers, a red onion, cucumbers, and a bag of shredded Mexican cheese. The plan was for my boyfriend to have his plain tacos with a salad on the side and for me to jazz mine up by making a taco salad.

As I mentioned above, making tacos is easy. The most time-consuming part was just chopping up all the veggies. I preheated the oven for crisping up our shells and browned the beef while I prepped the veggies. Then I popped the shells in the oven, added the seasoning to the meat, scooped the veggies into various bowls, and had everything ready at relatively the same time.

Had I had more time and energy or a boyfriend who would eat it, I also would have made guacamole, which is my favorite taco topping. And why don't they make tiny cans of refried beans? Maybe next time. Dinner was still great!

So here's his version, your basic meat and cheese taco:


And here's mine, a fresh, crunchy taco salad, drizzled with taco sauce:



What do you put on your tacos?

Root-Vegetable Gratin

Healthy comfort food -- is there such a thing? When I think healthy, I think fresh veggies and salad. When I think comfort food, I think warm, gooey macaroni and cheese. Is there a way to combine the two? With this root-vegetable gratin there is.


As soon as I saw it on the cover of Food & Wine, I knew I'd be making this dish. It combines good-for-you butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and rutabaga with a touch of cream and a sprinkling of bread crumbs that give just the right amount of crunch.

I made my usual pre-cooking shopping trip to Whole Foods and got the necessary root vegetables. I wasn't entirely exact about the amounts, so I had a bit more than the recipe called for, and on top of one large dish of the gratin, I also made two smaller dishes with just butternut squash and sweet potatoes.

Root Vegetable Gratin (from Food & Wine, March 2009)

Ingredients
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled
1 butternut squash neck (2 1/4 pounds) from a large butternut squash, peeled
1 medium rutabaga (2 pounds), peeled and halved lengthwise
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375°. Using a mandoline, slice the potatoes and squash lengthwise 1/8 inch thick. Slice the rutabaga crosswise 1/8 inch thick. I had trouble fitting the vegetables -- even after cutting them into smaller pieces -- in the mandoline and resorted to slicing them with a knife instead.

Spray an 8-by-12-inch glass baking dish with cooking spray. I used olive oil instead of cooking spray. Arrange half of the potatoes in the dish, overlapping them slightly; season with salt and pepper. Top with half of the rutabaga and the squash, seasoning each layer. Repeat the layering.

Pour the broth over and around the vegetables.


Cover tightly with foil and bake for 1 hour, until the vegetables are almost tender when pierced. Remove the foil and pour the cream over the gratin. Bake for about 30 minutes longer, until the liquid has thickened.


Preheat the broiler. Mix the panko with the oil and season with salt and pepper; sprinkle over the gratin. Broil 3 inches from the heat for 2 minutes, until golden, rotating for even browning. Let the gratin stand for 10 minutes, then serve.



I really loved this dish. The vegetables were soft and creamy, but the panko on top kept the dish from seeming mushy. I ate this the day I made it and then took pieces to work for lunch all week and rewarmed them in the microwave. It held up well and made for several tasty, satisfying meals. Plus, it's loaded with beta carotene and fiber, so it's not just tasty but also healthy.