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Posts tagged ‘cooking’

May 22

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Best-ever basic lentils (plus feta, caramelized fennel, mushrooms, and tomatoes)

Lentils_caramelized-fennel_feta

One of our favorite activities in Vienna is to pass the afternoon in various cafés and coffee houses. Vienna is famous for them, I suppose as many European cities area, and most still exude the same old-school style that they have 50 years (or more – one of our favorites looks almost the same as it did circa 1900). Waiters in tuxedo-like uniforms, chandeliers hanging from the ceilings, and glass cases packed with frilly strudels and dense cakes and other confections. Coffee drinks and towering ice cream sundaes arrive on tiny metal trays, each accompanied by the traditional small side glass of water (I’ve heard many reasons for why, all logical but completely different, so I still don’t know the answer). You can generally also order fancy wine spritzers, coffee with Gran Marnier and whipped cream, a sip of brandy, or a variety of other beverages destined to make your day feel a little more elegant.

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May 11

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Setting up shop

What I really want to tell you about is how I managed to cook this entire meal without getting a speck of anything on my shirt, particularly notable since our kitchen in Vienna did not come supplied with an apron (or many other things).

Spring_polenta_2

And there’s certainly a lot more to say – about our time in Vienna thus far, about how amazing it feels to have our own kitchen space, and about all the little confusing things about going grocery shopping in another country. Or about how easy it is to burn things in the thin, aluminum pans that sorely stock our kitchen here, or how the stove really only goes down to medium-high, and that effectively using anything lower requires some MacGyver-like manuevering. But for now I have a few more important things to move on to. Read more

Apr 26

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Spring vegetable ricotta tart with whole wheat olive oil crust

tart_cut

Another spring one, from the same meal as yesterday’s post. We served this one alongside grilled salmon, roasted brussel sprouts, bread, and salad, and ate our first outdoor family dinner of the year. There was a heater, to be certain, and it was too dark outside by the time dessert was served, but it was still lovely to start the evening outside.

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filling

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Apr 8

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A check-in and a sort-of recipe

Just a quick check-in, and the first recipe in ages. It’s not really a recipe recipe, per se, but it’s still something.

We’re in the midst of our whirlwind three-week United States tour – San Diego, Los Angeles, Eugene, Davis, Minneapolis, Madison, New York, New Orleans, Portland, and finally back to Eugene for a week before we head out again. Right now we’re in the portion of the trip where we’re visiting (in rapid succession) and then choosing the city where we’ll be moving at the end of the summer, which might even involve us signing a lease for our new home. All in the next five days. Whoa.

This comes in the midst of a sort of vicious and sneaky exhaustion that crept up during our last week in Southeast Asia, only to be exacerbated by jet lag and all the rapid travel that’s happened since. It’s all taken a toll on our diets, especially as we’ve been getting together with friends and spending more time in airports than I would like to admit.

So during our brief 18-hour stay in Eugene, 18 hours that included going through our mail from the last five months, doing our taxes, going for our first run in five months (ouch), buying new phones and a new laptop for me (yay!), and reorienting ourselves with our belongings enough to pack for this part of the trip (oh, and sleeping, sort of), I took full advantage of my little window of opportunity to use a real kitchen and made myself exactly the sort of meal I’ve been craving for months.

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Jan 1

Brett’s salsa (¡Feliz Año Nuevo!)

Happy new year from Peru! We still have another few days before I’ll start working on my Peru food post, but in the meantime here’s a recipe post from way back in October, before we left. It’s one of our absolute stand-bys, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that looking at these photos right now is eliciting some pretty severe cravings – mainly for Mexican food, but also for home.

This is actually the first post I’ve had that I didn’t write myself. Perhaps some day I’ll be getting offers for guest posts from Mark Bittman and Molly Stevens and Chad Robertson and all my other favorites, but I’ll be happy to say that my first ever guest post was written by one of the best chefs I know – who also happens to be my husband. We’ve actually been meaning to post this for a long time, since it’s one of the things we almost always have around the house, especially in the summer. I know it’s not the most seasonally appropriate recipe (in the Northern Hemisphere, at least), but you can keep this one in your back pocket for when tomatoes and cilantro and carrots are at their best. We dedicate this post to Hayden, in her infinite hunger for salsa. 

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ingredients

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