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Posts tagged ‘cooking’

Oct 9

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Spicy black bean burgers (All Whisked Up swap)

We’re six weeks into this crazy adventure with little Aldo and have yet to do much in the way of real cooking (or, to be honest, it’s me who has yet to be cooking much – Brett’s doing a great job of keeping me fed!). So I’m glad I decided to participate in Whisk‘s first recipe swap, which encouraged me to pick out and make something new from one of our other member sites. It’s particularly good I picked the recipe I did, since a bit of a rough patch for baby means I’m on a partial elimination diet while we figure out what’s causing his problems, and this one worked for my current dietary restrictions (no dairy, avoiding soy).

Spicy-black-bean-burger
I was matched to Whisk member Tattooed Foodie, a site out of Eau Claire by “moderately tattooed food enthusiast” Kyle Lato. She has a great selection of straightforward comfort food – like spicy turkey beer chili, one pan chicken and couscous, skillet breakfast pizza (such a great idea), and caramel apple cheesecake bars (which is initially what I picked but it’s good I switched to these excellent black bean burgers, since I unexpectedly had to cut out dairy). I chose to make Kylie’s spicy black bean burgers, which made two great weeknight dinners for us. I’ve been looking for a good vegetarian burger patty for a long time, as well as something else to do with the big pots of beans we regularly make (this is actually a huge benefit – we often make large quantities of beans, but pairing them with rice or simply eating them with bread and salad can get a little boring). It’s a particularly good recipe to tweak with whatever spices, herbs, and other flavoring elements you might have around the house, especially if you cook the beans from dried (more on that in the recipe below). Read more

Aug 13

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Fresh corn caprese with nectarines

Hello there, all the way from over here in Maternity Leave Land! I left my job at REAP just over a week ago now, leaving myself a few weeks (maybe – turns out babies come on their own schedule) to rest, to avoid much of our August heat and humidity, and to make final baby preparations. I’ve been joking about how I might not get dressed on a daily basis, but that isn’t actually much of a joke – you try finding suitable clean clothes to wear day after day when you’re 8.5+ months pregnant. It’s exhausting enough to require a nap.

In any case – the really exciting part of this whole maternity leave business is that when it’s all done, Bowen Appétit will be my main gig. I’m not going back to REAP after babe arrives, and I’m very excited that in the fall I’ll be able to focus more on offering more and a bigger variety of classes in new locations. I’ll be scheduling quite a few private parties and classes over the holiday season (for those folks who like planning ahead, feel free to get in touch now!), and as with last year I’ll be offering gift certificates for private classes and class registrations. If you have any thoughts or ideas, definitely get in touch. And make sure you’re signed up for our monthly email newsletter (also on leave until the fall) to be the first to hear about classes and other fun announcements.

That said, I have a pretty great summery recipe for you today, one that was part of my celebration dinner last week on the night of my last day of work. I make a lot of fresh corn salads in the summer, though usually I throw in whatever haphazard mix of vegetables, herbs, and other things I can find roaming around the fridge. In this case I had a pretty specific vision, the result of which is the beauty below:

Corn-caprese-nectarines2

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Aug 5

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Cucumber-mint agua fresca PLUS: Whisk is here!

Remember way back in February when I announced my official collaboration with Things I Made Today and Wisconsin From Scratch? We’re back with more developments. Developments that might even include you! We’ve been gradually working on this behind the scenes for over half a year now, and today we’re excited to make some major new announcements! Together the three of us have formed Whisk, a collaborative project for Wisconsin-based food bloggers and other media folks. We have a lot of long-term plans to grow this community, helping us support each other and build new skills and offering opportunities to partner with local producers and businesses.

For now? The most exciting part of this announcement is that we are accepting member blogs as of TODAY! If you’re interested, head over to our website, see what we’re offering, submit your info, and we’ll be in touch soon. Whether you send us your info or not, we’re also hosting our first meet-up on Thursday, September 3 from 5-7 p.m. (location tbd). Join us to chat with other local food bloggers and hear what Whisk is all about! (The sad news it that it’s fairly unlikely that I’ll actually be there, since that’s nearly two weeks after my due date … but Vicky and Sarah will host you excellently.) We’ll post more details on our website and on our respective social media sites as more details come together.

Whisk-picnic

In celebration of this launch, we recently hosted a little picnic for ourselves featuring a collaborative summer menu perfect for all your remaining summer picnic plans (even our amazing intern Alice got in on the action – that’s her delicious kale salad with crispy chickpeas you see in some of the photos).

Want to picnic with Whisk? Here’s what you’re in for:

TIMT-falafelFava bean falafel w. mint-yogurt sauce

Lebanese-style falafel, packed with chickpeas and fava beans, and paired with a cooling mint-yogurt sauce. 

Full recipe at Things I Made Today

 

Cucumber-mint-agua-fresca2Cucumber mint agua fresca

A pitcher-worthy cooler packed with garden-fresh cucumber and mint.

See recipe below

 

 

WFS-peachalmondcakesMini peach almond cakes

Handheld sweets packed with fresh peaches make sharing easy!

Full recipe at Wisconsin From Scratch

 

 

I chose to contribute a beverage for the event as somewhat of a challenge to myself, struggling to get excited about fun summery beverages that are non-alcoholic. As cucumbers flood into gardens and farmers’ markets this time of year, this is a perfect one to bring to your next picnic or party or to have stashed in a big jug in the fridge. (And if you wanted to add a splash of gin or vodka, heavens knows I wouldn’t stop you … I have it on good authority that it’s delicious.) Read more

Jul 20

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Tex Mex-style ground beef (aka homemade taco seasoning)

Being a person who not only loves food as much as I do but someone who does it more or less professionally, I’ve fielded quite a few questions over the last six months or so on how being pregnant has affected my diet, my tastebuds, my craving, my cooking activities, etc. etc. etc. There have been ups and downs as far as all elements have been concerned, but I will say as I head into my final month (final month! Okay, month-ish!) of carrying this tiny little human around that lately things in both the Cooking and General Accomplishments categories have been a bit touch and go. About six weeks back we started joking about how I could reasonably accomplish  just one thing each day – go to work OR run an errand OR cook a meal OR do something social OR do a couple of chores around the house – but soon enough that joke became reality, and I wouldn’t hesitate to say that Brett has taken on the vast majority of household tasks, including the shopping and cooking. Lucky me, he’s a pretty fantastic cook, so we’re still eating well. But in general my preferred diet has taken on characteristics similar to that of me as a nine-year-old, albeit with significant improvements in ingredients and process, so even when I am cooking it hasn’t been much of anything to share here.

But I’ve spent the entire weekend swooning over a rediscovery of a particular childhood favorite, so even with a bit of hesitation I’m going to share it all with you today. Blame the baby, if you must, for what I’m about to share may be seen as a giant betrayal among many – the ground beef hardshell taco.

Beef-tacos Read more

May 11

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‘Nduja focaccia rolls

I’d never hesitate to say we love living in Madison (aside from Brett’s desire to be closer to mountains). It’s no secret I’m meant to be in the Midwest, but I really do love this place in particular, for reasons chief among which is that the food scene here is incredible. I don’t mean the hipness of the restaurants or the caliber of the chefs (although in those arenas Madison certainly wins some points), but because of how many people here are so passionate about Wisconsin and everything it means – its slightly eccentric culinary traditions, its commitment to agriculture and small-scale production, and an endless joy to be taken in the enjoyment of good eats and drinks. (No one could deny the strong and pervasive German sense of gemütlichkeit in this place – no wonder we feel so at home here.) There’s a reason farmers’ markets are such a big occasion here in Madison, and why it’s natural for folks to turn it into a morning of activity, filled with eating and enjoying the space, not just picking up ingredients for that week’s meals.

And all of this is why I’m happy to feature local companies and their products on this site and in my recipes. I always try to source local products with a story when I teach my classes, and we certainly do it when we’re shopping for ourselves. So when a local company whose work I know and love asks if I’d like to put something together with their products, I don’t hesitate to say yes.

Nduja-focaccia-roll

And when someone from Underground Food Collective asks, there’s doubly no reason to say no.

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