Calamity Shazaam in the Kitchen

In April when the temps rise above 40, everyone around these parts switches over to iced coffee with a childlike glee that summah is just around the cornah. However when the temps rise to the 80's we all just complain. It's too soon for the beach, in a day or two the temps will drop back to the 40's, everyone is hot in their Easter dresses, it's too soon for A/C. We complain because we know that summah does NOT arrive in April, no matter how much global warming is happening, the possibility of a snow storm exists right through the end of the month. But hey, it was Easter and it was hot so we grilled and drank cold drinks and ate cool desserts. Sriracha grilled shrimp is literally one of my most favorite things to grill. If you are a recipe person, use this recipe from Food 52: Spicy Shrimp Recipe . If you are a just-wing-it cook like me, you basically marinate peeled and deveined shrimp in a gloopy mess of olive oil, Sriracha, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, br...

The Evil Twin got us iced coffees this morning because it's what you do in Boston when the temps are above 40 degrees. Apparently she ordered hers "fucked up with 28 splenda". There is no other explanation. Unless it's "fuck you and your 28 splenda".

Jeesus, it is hard to keep a blog alive when you don't do it on the regular and also when the med you take to keep you regular also happen to be the wet blanket to your creativity. Also it used to be easier to find the time. The Evil Twin ( remember her ?) is now the Proud Mamma of Thing 1 and Thing 2 and mostly my spare time is spent shaping them into my minions who will do all my bidding. That all sounds like an excuse.  It is. So here is a photo of some fish and chips I had at the Harp & Bard  (that website tho... woof).

So I fell off the blog writing horse, and then the horse ran away and left me to wander in the writers desert. It's hard to write all the time when you do it because you feel like it because sometimes you just don't feel it, y'know? But then I was invited to join the Boston chapter of Les Dames d'Escoffier and after the annual meeting last night at Forge Baking Company , I remembered that I do actually like writing randomly about food and things related to eating, drinking, and basically being merry.  The Forge space is gorgeous. It's in a s trip mall between a dance studio and a Chinese restaurant , you really don't expect this space in there. Also, you wouldn't expect it to be as homey as it was, it was a great space for a bunch of Dames to get together and catch up. A few words from incoming President Louisa Kasdon, ever encouraging people to talk about food. Followed by a croissant making demo with Lourdes Smith (yep, TH...

It's April here in the home of the bean and the cod, only you'd never know it because the weather is just complete crap. Today hail and snow, tomorrow sun and locusts, unless it's hail and snow. The only reasonable and civilized way to cope with this rotten weather is lots of wine and things you have to cook in the oven, preferably on high. Roast chicken goes perfectly with wine. The recipe in this lovely cookbook is so easy (you can find it here ), and the only exra step I make is to pop the roasting pan (a cast iron skillet) into the oven to pre-heat. Oh and I borrow a step from the beloved Laurie Colwin and rub the birdy all over with paprika and a sprinkling of coarse salt. Reader, I ate it. Reader, it was delicious. Reader, this weather can just go to suck an egg.

Happy Easter. On account of ONE of us in the family being diagnosed with celiac coeliac (the British spelling makes it seem like a smarter diagnosis) the sacrificial Easter lamb cake is brought to you today by the letters "gluten-free cake mix". As Americans are wont to do, rather than give up gluten, we create gluten-free gluten. I am pretty sure that normal people would be like "oh well, how about berries and sorbet for dessert?" but not us. Also, it's the damn SACRIFICIAL LAMB CAKE, how would Easter be complete without this cake? Without the lamb cake, it's just Sunday dinner. Which would be fine by me since I am not a believer. I know it looks like it's already been slaughtered, but no, it's just taking a lie down. Turns out a lamb cake without gluten is basically like an actual lamb without bones - kinda floppy. I don't want to freak everyone out by serving a headless cake, so a lying down cake it is. Or maybe it will resur...

This was an impulse order at the Dumpling Cafe on Washington Street in Boston. (True story: when I was telling my Mom where it was, I used the Naked i as a point of reference.) I'd actually gone for the xiao long bao (broth filled dumplings) also known as "Juicy Buns", which they are famous for apparently. Hey, better late to the party than to not party at all, right? Because I did my homework, I knew to load one on to the spoon and then to nibble a little hole and suck out the piping hot broth. That is a tip that you will thank me for later, I promise you. There is no time that biting down enthusiastically into a bun filled with scalding hot filling and broth will reward you in any way. Also I knew from my homework that the key was to order everything at once while the waitstaff was near you. So in a panic I ordered the braised chicken meatballs. What a treat! They come with baby bok choy and a plate of rice. I totally think you should go eat them righ...

Did you know that you can buy wine made in Vermont from grapes GROWN in Vermont? Incroyable! Back in December I was at the fantastic Eat Boutique event and was given a taste of this wine. My first taste was less than appropriate - I puckered up like a toddler who'd just had her first taste of a lemon. In fairness I am not a big wine drinker usually, and I'd just eaten a delicious maple and bacon donut from Union Square Donuts (you know the one I am talking about) so my tastebuds were all hopped up on sugar. Not ideal for wine tasting. But then I tasted the Vinu Jancu and all of a sudden I totally got it. It's the wine of my people. No seriously, my Meme was from the town of L'Etoile in the Jura and her people were wine people, vin jaune people: bakers AND wine makers. One taste of the vinu jancu (Sicilian for orange wine) and the French DNA in me lit up like sparklers. Fortunately I was able to share this moment with the maker, a marvelous woman by the name ...

This is how our tongues taste cardamom: Cardamommmmmmm     Cardamommmm          Cardamom            WTF IS THIS SOAP? Yes, this lovely spice is lovely only sparingly. Too much of a good thing ends up tasting like you ate a small cake of Crabtree & Evelyn hand soap. Use it lightly and make Mor's Boller as often as possible. Mor's Boller - recipe from Food52

My lunch today consisted of a bagel, a slice of cheddar cheese, and some grapes. I don't even want to talk about my breakfast.... Did you know that oysters are high in vitamin C? (Thank you Internet) And also zinc? Which I think means that oysters and martinis are on deck for dinner... A kind of scurvy inoculation, if you will.  But seriously, I hate my diet right now.   

1986 called and wants their salt back. Also this salt contains yellow prussiate of potash, presumably used in this application as an anti-caking agent. However sodium ferrocyanide (another name for yellow prussiate of potash) is also used as a stabilizer for the coating on welding rods, if Wikipedia is to be believed. At any rate I am now convinced that there was one massive salt packet batch made in 1980, like a kabillion packets that will never be depleted.

I made Black Cake this year with fruit that MAY have been macerating for POSSIBLY three years. Sounds like a recipe for intestinal distress huh? However, this cake batch is exceptionally delicious so I guess the extra long soak in the rumachevitz was a good thing. You hear that Martha, A GOOD THING! Man, this cake is strong. Am I shouting? I need a nap.

Um yeah so I plan on eating ALL the bacon on my actual day of birth..... Which means eating healthy-ish until Sunday. But I can't make any promises.

Last winter - no snow. This winter - no snow. Until February when BA-BAM we got all the snow. All the snow at once. Did I go out in it? Hell no. I used to love winter weather, but I got used to no snow. Think of it this way - if you ease yourself into it, you CAN go swimming off the coast on Maine in June. But if you plunge in, you are going to jump right out because it's too much all at once. If you don't immediately die of a heart attack from the shock, that is. If we'd had a little snow all season, it'd be easier to cope with the mountain of snow that is at present parked  right outside my front door. Ugh. Wah wah wah. Call the wahhhmbulance. So rather think about that, I thought about lunch and about how it ought to have bacon in it. I had some nice bacon that I chopped up and cooked with some onion and garlic.  Then I added some black beans and slow cooked the whole thing for a few hours. Frankly, I could have just eaten it without the beans......

Man do I LOVE Friday. It holds so much promise, a lovely two day blank slate. Providing you don't think too much about the laundry, dishes, bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, basement, that need cleaning and all that other crap.  On the list of things I want to do this weekend, aside from the fantasy where I totally finish every unfinished project around the house, is to take the MiniET to the latest iteration of Flour Bakery + Cafe on Clarendon.  Not only is there a tot-lot across the street from it, but I love Joanne Chang. And frankly, who doesn't? No one. I worked for her about a million years ago and didn't appreciate it at the time because, well, for lots of reasons and none of which speak well of my own character at the time.  Let's just say it took me a very long time to grow out of the center of my own universe.  Nowadays when I churn out a meal in my wee kitchen, I think about my brief stint at Flour and how I was trained to work in a small space with a minimu...

My after school snacks used to involve tater tots or ramen noodles. But now I am a grown-up and I get to have Nutella & peanut butter sandwiches. Two things: one is that I am fairly confident that a Nutella & peanut butter sandwich is marginally better than a Nutella & Nutella sandwich. Plus it's on wheat bread which makes it already better. Right? And two, this sandwich would have been AWESOME toasted. Ugh. The day I finish this tub o' chocolatey deliciousness is going to suck for sure.

Went to lunch yesterday at Via Matta and stuffed myself stupid. Basically it was a joyfully excessive carbohydrate overdose that left me in a drowsy food coma for the rest of the afternoon. I went straight home after work and I am pretty sure I was in bed at 7pm. The pizza on the right is lamb sausage and sweet potato and it is really good. As is the spaghetti aglio e olio con pomodoro up there in the top of the photo. The crispy duck pizza on the left was good, but it turns out that I am not really in love with duck, and anyway anything with sweet potato will win me over every time - unfair advantage to tubers, story of my life. (I should mention that I work for this restaurant organization in accounting and so get a discount, hooray!) So today I am repenting with yogurt, fruit, and soup. And a haircut later to get some of this weight offa me. Thankfully January is over today and I can forget all about my New Year's resolution to adhere to a more austere diet. No wo...

You wanna know why it's called Old Man Winter? It's because by January you are shuffling like an old fart in tatty slippers with a runny nose and the ambition of a limpet. It's cold out, it snows, it sleets, it accidentally hits 60 degrees for one hot minute then minus 7 degrees the next, snot flows freely from every nose, and it is totally fine to go to bed when the sun goes down at 4:57pm. I am tired and sun-deprived and all I want to do is eat toast with strawberries and Nutella until summer rolls around... Nutellaaahhhh The child in me is like "ooh eat it, eeeeeeeeat it all!!!"  However my adult pancreas is like "B*TCH, PLEASE!" So I compromised. Kind of. I hacked a cauliflower into bits and sauteed it together with a can of chickpeas, some garlic, salt, pepper, and a bit of parsley. I didn't even bother to pre-cook the cauliflower. Nope. Just rinsed the chickpeas. And added a little water while cooking just to prevent any scorch...

Unless of course it is a macaroon made with coconut. That's not right. I love macaroons ( macaron  si vous êtes en France) but I love the almond ones that are just the cookie, not the fan-saaaay kind with the smooth tops, crinkly bases, and creamy fillings. No, I just love the plain old almond macaroon in all its chewy deliciousness. When my great-aunt passed, they ordered trays of almond macaroons from "The Club" for the reception afterwards. My grandpa and I filled our pockets up and made a slow getaway then ate them in the car and said nice things about Aunt Ruth. Man, that is how you want to be remembered, right? Anyway, I stopped by Baccos Wine & Cheese Shop on New Year's Eve for some thing savory and guess what they sell? Saint Emilion Macaroons . Handmade in Eastie. In a tub. O crap. Yeah, I bought a tub. Yep, you can totally feel free to judge me. Me and my pancreas will just be lying over here in a coma. A delicious, delicious coma. ...

Gawd I love to eat. The best thing about Christmas is that everyone is feeling jolly and hungry and thirsty and sociable. AND it's cold out so you can cover up the jiggly bits with a thick sweater and make like you are just, y'know, big-boned . My Auntie Bets sent us cookies. Holy crap. SO delicious. How do I know? Well, because I promptly ate them all up. That's how. Cute, huh! Extra tasty heads.... Chomp. Gone Seriously, I cannot be trusted around food at the holidays. I know that in the spirit of the season, I will be forgiven for my devouring ways. And anyway, January was invented by Weight Watchers, so it's cool.