Apologies for going dark here recently, but I promise it has been for a good reason. I’m currently writing from Valledolmo, a small village in central Sicily, about an hour and a half away from Palermo, where I arrived a little over three weeks ago to attend Cook the Farm, a 9-week culinary and horticulture program at the Anna Tasca Lanza cooking school. These past few weeks I’ve been busy settling in, cooking, gardening, eating, and learning all about this wonderfully-crazy island and its culture. Though I took a bit of an (unintentional) break from blogging, I have lots of good things coming your way. In the weeks before I left, I was in my kitchen near-round-the-clock testing, tasting, and photographing recipes to share while I’m gone, and will also be updating my Instagram with my adventures.
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Recipes
Miso-Kimchi Soba Noodle Soup Mason Jars
While I’m not an all-out meal planner or prepper, I get down with the occasional mason jar lunch. Slow-cooked beans, quinoa, cheddar, and cilantro got me through many long days at the office; more recently I’ve been on a butternut squash, corn, beans, and kale mason jar salad kick (that creamy cashew-based vegan dressing is killer). But until recently, I hadn’t explored the world of mason jar soups. A goop article on the subject piqued my interest a while back, but I never got around to testing one of the recipes out, and I forgot about the concept. That is, until I was flipping through Nicole Pisani and Kate Adams’ The Ultimate Soup Cleanse: 60 Recipes to Reduce, Restore, Renew & Resolve which has a small section devoted to mason jar soup.
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Roasted Acorn Squash With Yogurt-Tahini Sauce
Earlier this fall, Andrew and I ended our Euro adventures with a few days in Germany’s capital. To say that Berlin surprised us would be a great understatement. We had heard about its burgeoning food scene, the tradition of kaffee und kuchen (afternoon coffee and cake), and the abundance of top-notch Turkish food, and yet, it still managed to blow our expectations out of the water. Perhaps we got lucky, or perhaps my restaurant research paid off, but I’d wager there’s more to it than that.
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Cherry-Almond Chocolate Bark
For as long as I’ve been writing about food, I’ve had a dessert idea jotted down; one that combines a trio of my favorite things, and yet, I just got to it this past week. This might say something about my tendencies towards procrastination, or my love of making unrealistically long lists — if only you could see my collection of epic-length Google docs — but the real reason this cherry-almond chocolate bark only now came to fruition is simpler and less personality-trait-related: namely, I hate tempering chocolate.
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Pear-Ginger Oatmeal With Chia Seeds
I’ve written about oatmeal many times, and this likely won’t be the last. Satisfying, and fiber-rich, oats are what I reach for first when seeking a sweet-leaning healthy breakfast. This pear-ginger iteration is my latest fixation. A variation on April Bloomfield’s genius porridge, which mimics the creamy, chewy texture of long-simmered steel-cut oats by splitting the difference between steel-cut and rolled oats as well as milk and water, this bowl also adds some chia seeds to the mix for an extra-rich texture. Seasoned with a pretty mix of ginger and cardamom, it’s then topped with pear matchsticks and some sesame seeds for an almost-floral-leaning combination of flavors. All in all it’s a simple upgrade to the humble bowl of porridge. And, importantly (at least to me) it makes use of one of fall’s oft-overlooked fruits (pears).
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Greek Chicken, Chickpea, and Orzo Bowl
As a food writer, I’m not the target audience for meal delivery kits. When I’m cooking dinner, it’s typically to test or tweak a recipe I might post about, I actually enjoy grocery shopping, and I’m a bit of a control freak (did I mention that I like do to my own grocery shopping . . .). Still, after having a number of friends rave about one service or another, I was intrigued and decided to cook my way through a few of the different kits to see how they stacked up.
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Perfect Poached Eggs, Two Ways
My first attempt at poaching eggs didn’t go very well: The whites were ragged (feathery, if we’re being kind) and only partially-attached to the yolks; worse yet, since the yolks were barely insulated by the whites, they cooked up patchily, nearly-hard-boiled in spots. A decade or so later, I’ve tested out pretty much every method out there, and discovered some indispensable tricks along the way. Here I’m breaking down two separate techniques, how to poach eggs in a saucepan and via sous vide cookery, both of which have their merits.
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Squash, Pinto Bean, Corn, and Kale Mason Jar Salad
Thanksgiving leftovers are pretty epic on day one, but by day two, I tend to get a little bored by the mild flavors and starchiness of it all. That’s where this rainbow of a salad comes into play. A celebration of fall produce — ok, corn is not really in season, but thawed previously-frozen kernels work great here — it is a fiber-packed antidote to holiday overindulgence, and a great make-ahead option.
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Honey Whole Wheat Cornbread
Over the years, I’ve auditioned a variety of recipes for stuffing, pie, mashed potatoes, turkey, and cranberry sauce. The one constant at my Thanksgiving table: this hearty cornbread, which makes an appearance both as a side and as the backbone of cornbread stuffing. Sour-cream-enriched, and lightly-sweetened with honey, it is a decidedly Northern take on the cornmeal quick bread, akin to a dressed-up, homemade take on Jiffy cornbread.
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Sweet Potato Pie Bars
When I learned that one of my all-time favorite cookbook authors would be writing a book all about cookies (one of my absolute favorite things to bake), I could hardly contain my excitement. Fast forward many, many months, and it’s here: Dorie’s Cookies. Since it hit shelves a few weeks back, I’ve been plowing through butter and sugar at an alarming rate, testing recipes from it, and — no shocker here — it is excellent, filled with a wide range of well-written recipes, many of which I’ve bookmarked.
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