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Dec 20

Winter cocktail: Caramelized eggnog with dark rum

I’m back! I know it was just a few days ago that I was saying goodbye until after the holidays, feeling like I couldn’t see the light at the Tunnel of Kitchen Despair, but the clouds have parted and HERE I AM. Look at all that fuss I made! (Oh god, please let the Tunnel be behind me.)

And I didn’t want to wait for this any longer, because (for some reason that always escapes me) the nog window is open for only so much longer, and I don’t want it to pass you by.

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Dec 17

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Not for lack of effort or good intentions

Has it really been three weeks since I’ve posted? This full-on descent into winter has been quickly passing me by, full of holiday preparations and enjoying the new weather, six days spent bed-ridden with the worst cold I can remember, and, most notably for this venue, a sustained spell of culinary disappointments. Often when I don’t post for a while I add an assurance that there has been plenty to share and write about, just no time to do it – but not this time. This evening all I have to report is three weeks of strange, underwhelming, and/or otherwise unsharable adventures in the kitchen.

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Nov 27

Baked oatmeal + persimmons, toasted coconut, and vanilla

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Here I am, the day before Thanksgiving, not talking about Thanksgiving food. This would be a perfect breakfast for an otherwise long weekend full of heavy dishes and indulging, and it would be particularly great to serve if you have guests in the house, but that’s just a coincidence. The main point is that this is a wonderful breakfast for when you have a bit of time in the morning – partially because it needs some time in the oven, but mostly because its very nature seems to most fit a slow, cozy, restorative sort of start to the day.

It’s rare, these days, that we have those sorts of mornings at home – between working, house guests, and out-of-town weekend plans, only once or twice since we’ve been in Madison have we had a morning with nowhere to be. So, when two weekends ago we had a cold, gray day with nothing on the schedule until the afternoon, I knew immediately that I’d turn to this recipe. Oatmeal, baked slowly with spices, maple syrup, milk, and an egg, plus fruit and/or nuts and/or any other toppings you might think to add. I knew going in exactly what I wanted to add – cubes of persimmon, toasted coconut, pumpkin and flax seeds, and vanilla. I’d been adding those things to my regular, everyday oatmeal in the mornings, and I couldn’t get over how well they all went together.

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Nov 19

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What you need to know about wild rice (and an easy pilaf to get you started)

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I’ve been feeling a little remiss in my duties as a Minnesotan lately, considering how little I’ve talked about wild rice over the years I’ve had this site. We don’t eat it as often as we should, and that’s probably where the guilt actually lies, but I’m determined to remedy the situation and so here I am.

I know I’ve mentioned wild rice here and again, but let’s back up and get a good handle on the whole business. Wild rice (which is not actually a rice, but we’ll get to that) looks like very long long-grain rice covered by a thin brownish-blackish skin. When properly cooked, that skin breaks open and most of the grains begin to curl in on themselves, which many recipes refer to as “blossoming.” The grains still have their bran intact, which gives it a toothsome, chewy texture similar to brown rice and other whole grains. It has a toasty, nutty, earthy flavor, and can often smell and taste slightly like black tea. The flavor and texture it adds over other rices and grains is worth the extra effort required in cooking it, and it’s interesting to add to soups, breads, salads, and other dishes in a way that other grains seem to act more as mere filler or heft.

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That said, I’m from Minnesota. I get it. I’ve eaten wild rice my whole life, and in a million different ways. I’ve always known the difference between real wild rice and the other stuff, just like someone from the Northwest knows about wild salmon and someone from New Mexico knows about real green chile. Wild rice isn’t nearly as pervasive of a thing as those other two, so don’t feel bad if you have no idea where I’m going with this – just know that there’s a difference. Read more

Nov 14

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Honey gimlets, and other objects of my obsessions

Fairly often, things wiggle their way into my life and hang around for a while. Sometimes it’s a craving that won’t quit, or an activity that becomes a routine, or an idea or flavor or experience I become a little fixated on.  I go through phases with foods I want to eat all the time, I get addicted to TV shows, I listen to albums non-stop,  I wear certain outfits whenever they’re clean, and there’s usually some cocktail or other that I’m ordering. These things stick around for a while until something – a change in the weather, a random craving, or a need for change – steers me elsewhere.

And right now, it’s this humble little honey gimlet.

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