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Posts from the ‘Appetizer’ Category

Sep 11

9 Comments

The joy of the challenge

{Note, April 13, 2013: Not sure why this post from three years ago was just republished on RSS feeds, and I’m not sure how to remove it … there are some great recipes here (but some incredibly old/poor quality photos), so you may want to revisit this post, but it’s not a new one! Sorry about that …}

I’d say about 75 percent of the time that I’m cooking, I like to do something just beyond my comfort level. Whether it’s doing a recipe I’ve never done before or changing one I know in a way that makes it slightly different, I generally like to learn a little something new when I’m cooking. But every once in a while – usually on a fairly empty weekend day, or when we have people over for dinner – I like to do something really new and different, or something that scares me a little. That’s part of the reason I put together Food List 2010 – to push me to make the more challenging things I want to have as a part of my arsenal. I figure this strategy will help me learn not only to cook the more everyday items with skill and comfort, but will also lend me the ability to reach out every once in a while and try something a little more ambitious with some reasonably certain rate of success. Read more

Sep 8

Grilled tomato bruschetta

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I shouldn’t have waited so long to post this one – as far as the climate is concerned, tomato season is nearing a quick and painless end. We had rain (RAIN!) this morning when we woke up, and all day I could think of nothing other than curling up in fleece pants under a blanket with a cup of coffee and my new cookbooks (happy birthday to me!). Read more

Aug 24

Beet-feta bruschetta

Beet_feta_bruschetta

What impresses me most in terms of culinary skill is the ability to make something out of nothing. Or, rather, the ability to make an interesting, tasty dish out of whatever you have lying around. Instead of picking a recipe and tracking down the ingredients, the ability to look around at what you have and put something together. This is something the CSA has forced us to do more than we ever did before – one of the many reasons I appreciate it. Read more

Feb 21

3 Comments

Firey, Triple Crunchy Emergency Guacamole

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Subscribing to a CSA has lead to a lot of “whoa, we still have x in the fridge?” and “crap, that thing we didn’t use three weeks ago, and again two weeks ago, means we now have three weeks of that thing built up that we need to use.” Overall it’s been an excellent exercise in eating more veggies and a more interesting array veggies and in meal planning and cooking, but sometimes we get the same thing so many weeks in a row we kind of lose track of it. Especially when they give us some items, like avocados, that specifically need to sit around a few weeks before they’re ripe and edible. Read more

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