30 April 2013

Tastes Like California

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Let me tell you about a magical land called California. Where lemons actually grow on trees. Magic! The Meyer is unlike other lemons. The rind is thinner, the fruit is sweeter, and lucky for us, their peak season is still happening now. Personally, on any given day I’d like nothing more than to be poolside in Palm Springs, but I suppose the next best thing is to cook like I’m there? When I vacationed in the Coachella valley, I plucked lemons off the tree in the backyard of the house we were staying in and they quickly disappeared. And so, in the spirit of the desert and her date palm trees, I give you Meyer Lemon Chicken.
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09 March 2013

Guest Post: On Corned Beef

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This is a guest post from writer, father, and home cook Herb Durgin.

Corned beef is to St. Patrick’s Day what turkey is to Thanksgiving, or at least what a pillowcase full of candy is to Halloween. Few things speak more to traditional holiday cuisine than that quintessential brisket, boiled—well, simmered—with cabbage and potatoes, carrots and parsnips, and served with a handsome dollop of stone-ground mustard and a pint or four of beer.

Now, to begin with a clear conscience, I feel the need to address a certain elephant in the room: corned beef is not actually an Irish dish; it’s American. The corned-beef-and-cabbage I describe is the Yankee boiled dinner. That it has become symbolic of St. Paddy’s is testament to America’s freedom and prosperity. No, seriously. The nearest the Irish have to the corned beef dinner is bacon-and-cabbage, and while I abide the philosophy that everything’s better with bacon, this dish came about because the beef that the Irish farmers raised, slaughtered, and salted was priced at a luxury affordable only to the British gentry. When the Irish began arriving in America in the 1600s, beef was affordable, so they converted their recipe from a slab of salted pig to a slab of salted cow. And now you know. Read More »

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16 February 2013

Triple Threat: Smoky Spicy Salmon


The BF doesn’t eat the seafoods. It’s not because he shares the adage of one of my Texas cousins (a man who refuses to “eat anything that might swim in its own poop). The BF just never got the taste of it. Seafood of any kind is a rather foreign sort of food for him. He’ll try it, but he just can’t seem to like it. And that’s fine. But, what it means is that I don’t eat fish, shellfish, or mollusks as much as I once did because I just don’t cook them as much as I once did. But I can never give up the fruits de la mer.

This recipe has a spicy and smoky almost barbeque like quality. The recipe is lightly modified from one originally created by Cooking Light magazine for scallops. And it’s tasty as hell. Enjoy!
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12 February 2013

Say I Love You With Pork on Pork

photo_6The way to the heart of many a valentine can be found in pork products. The “other” white meat can be healthy or sinful, pork chop or pork belly. The pig is a noble beast and we pay homage in this recipe, which features twice the pork and therefore twice the love. So please, say “I love you” this Valentine’s Day by making this bacon-wrapped pork roast. (For you, yourself, family, strangers, I don’t care. Spread the love.)

Yeah yeah, I know, we just covered pork roasts not that long ago. This is me not caring. This is you grinning from ear to ear after your first bite. Trust.
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01 February 2013

Musician’s Meatless Mediterranean Meal

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Picture the scene: In a post-holiday food coma world, three guys descend on my house. All musicians, all recording songs in my living room. Yes, songs. A new Beck album of sorts, Song Reader, recently dropped in December 2012. The package features 20 songs — never before recorded or released — as sheet music only. My houseful of music junkies, under the musical direction of the nefarious-sounding but really quite nice Frankie Big Face, decided to record ten songs from this collection…in just two days time!

Enter me, the one gal who can make their dinner dreams come true. We needed a meal that was filling, extremely satisfying, and could power future music making. But after a season full of rich, sometimes large, and often heavy meals, it can be nice to dial it back in the dinner department. Lightening up a meal doesn’t mean having to give up on flavor. If the popularity of Meatless Monday is any indication, neither does ditching the meat.

Check out some of the music this meal helped feed!
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28 January 2013

Sunday Supper: Sort-of Southern Style

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My mama is from central Georgia, where I have spent many summers over the course of my life. But I’ve spent a lot less time in the big city of Atlanta until the four trips to ATL (four!) I’ve taken in last 16 months. Last year, after hosting a conference in the Midtown area, I stumbled bleary-eyed, overworked and under-rested into Empire State South. I’d never heard of the place but after eating there I was smitten and have been back to eat almost every trip since. It seemed everyone else was also in gluttonous lust as I soon noticed mentions of the place everywhere in the food writing universe— Bon Appetit, Southern Living, Eater.com, Garden & Gun, everywhere! — within months of my dining discovery.

For our next Sunday Supper I decided on a southern-ish meal inspired by successful Empire State South meals but with a twist: I used as many locally sourced Colorado ingredients as I could muster. Beyond the obvious reasons of supporting the local economy, the woman behind Colorado’s Eat Local First campaign was one of my dinner guests. It was easy to combine Southern flavors with Colorado-raised pork, Tender Belly bacon, locally farmed chard, and a dessert plate featuring Chocolove and delicious Jumping Good Goat cheeses, to enjoy the Sunday Supper menu below:

  • Pork Roast with Chipotle Bacon Marmalade
  • Vinegar-poached Swiss Chard
  • Empire State South’s Boiled Peanut Hummus + gluten-free rosemary focaccia
  • Cheese Plate: Goat’s milk cheddar + chocolate; snowcap (soft goat cheese) + pecan crackers

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03 January 2013

Cold Comfort Curry

Y’all probably know by now that I like curry. In fact, I often default to curry when I feel like I need to be warmed or comforted by my food. Not that I don’t always want my food to be warming or comforting, but ya know, sometimes you just need that little something extra!

Wintertime=crazytime at my work, which means at this time of year I like meals that are as easy and satisfying as possible. Also, I think it can be hard to eat healthy (or maybe easier to eat like crap?) when it’s cold outside. This soup is a one-pot meal, with hearty and healthful sweet potato, butternut squash, and spinach. Easy, simple, healthy, tasty. You know the added benefit of all those antioxidants? Cold and flu fighting super powers!
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31 December 2012

I Dream of Chicken Cakes

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I have no idea when I may have first had chicken cakes. All I know is that, just like their crabby cousins, one bite was enough to sell me. For years my favorite brunch item was the Zippy Cake (image above) served by a local restaurant — a delicious meal made up of a crispy polenta and chicken cake, tangy tomato sauce, and a poached egg, topped with micro greens. It was the kind of meal I took a picture of every time I ate it, just to fondly remember it by. Sadly the Zippy Cake is no longer made and it lives on only in those photos and in my longing taste-buds.

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When I came across a recipe for chicken corn cakes in Janice Cole’s cookbook+memoir, Chicken and Egg, I jotted down the recipe for a craving day. While her cakes aren’t the Zippy of my dreams, the recipe makes a great base to make a variety of chicken cakes. The recipe below is modified from Ms. Cole’s but stands alone as it’s very own patty of chicken goodness. So on this day, the last one of 2012, I think back in fond remembrance of all the Zippy Cakes of years past and look forward to all the new cakes to come. Cheers!
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17 December 2012

Sunday Supper: Crunch Time


Putting together a meal is often about timing. Just ask anyone who has worked in a restaurant! Our next Sunday Supper suffered from ill-timing. The chicken was pulled from the freezer late and wasn’t thawed when the time came to assemble everything. The cookies came out first (which is fine because they had to cool) so we ate them first and had dinner in reverse order. Cookies, then tomato gratin and Brussels sprout salad, and finally, the chicken.

The meal was planned in terms of texture: The crunch of raw Brussels sprouts, of baked bread cubes, of panko, of cookies. So when our newlywed guests arrived and none of my non-existent tickets were firing correctly, it was truly crunch time. Still, this is how we cooks learn—we make mistakes! There was plenty of wine and plenty to eat in shifts until all parts of the meal were ready to eat. Good friends don’t care about the best laid plans. They only care that you are feeding them! This week’s menu:

  • Oatmeal Ginger Cookies
  • Tomato Gratin
  • Brussels Sprouts Salad
  • Panko-crusted Chicken

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03 December 2012

Addicted To Hash (It’s Not What It Sounds Like!)


Hi. My name is Leah. And I’m addicted to hash. Nooooooo, not the kind you get in Amsterdam. The kind you eat. Wait, that came out wrong. We’re not baking brownies here folks, we’re making hash—a coarse mixture of ingredients. We’ve talked about this before. Give me a bunch of veggies and I will likely make hash. It’s easy, it’s tasty, it’s it’s it’s, well, it’s hash for the love of all things good and pure!

Hash is a dish best served warm and is a great way to use up leftovers or stray veggies left in the crisper drawer. This Pulled Pork Hash was served as a brunch dish, complete with poached egg on top, but you could serve it for lunch or dinner as well, complete with a poached egg on top.
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