The Perfect Pantry®

Smoky corn chowder recipe

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 00:16:00 -0400

The first time I made this smoky corn chowder, to test the recipe, our friends Bob and Charlotte came for dinner. Bob, a wonderful potter, brought a new soup tureen he'd designed. I proclaimed the tureen a hit, and he ate three servings of soup, which I think qualifies as a hit, too. Here in New England, everyone loves chowder. Clam chowder, fish chowder, scallop chowder -- clear or white or, sometimes, red -- each has its devoted fans. If you don't eat fish or shellfish, you need not be left out of our lovefest; this fish-free corn chowder might become your new favorite. It has all of the heft of seafood chowders, plus added natural creaminess that oozes from the corn. Our season for fresh corn begins in a couple of weeks, and lasts only until early September; during the rest of the year, we rely on good-quality frozen organic corn, or Trader Joe's frozen fire-roasted corn, which doesn't need to be defrosted before you add it to the soup pot.

Recipe for spinach salad with bell pepper, olives, feta, and pine nuts

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:18:00 -0400

Remember when spinach salad meant warm bacon dressing and chopped hard-cooked eggs, and we all loved it and felt oh-so-sophisticated when we ordered it at a café? Did you know (I didn't) that spinach salad, an adaptation of a German dish of dandelion greens with a bacon-vinegar dressing, probably originated in Pennsylvania Dutch country, and not in the kitchen of a French chef? These days, when it comes to spinach salad, there are no rules, as this version with bell pepper, olives, feta cheese and pine nuts proves. There are a few secrets to making great salads that draw on ingredients in your pantry, and they all come down to this: be fearless! Combine unlikely ingredients, using whatever's in season. Take a sauce you'd made for pasta, or a chutney, and thin it with some water to make a salad dressing. Don't be afraid of color. If you don't have baby spinach for this salad, pluck a few lettuce leaves from your garden. And if you don't have good feta, try ricotta salata or another salty cheese.

Seven things I want to know about you (and The Perfect Pantry celebrates seven years)

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 00:34:00 -0400

All blogging is personal.

When I wrote my first blog post in June 2006, I had no idea how much that sentence would set the course for my writing over the next seven years. A blog doesn't have to be confessional, but it is always about the blogger. After all, that's why you're here, isn't it? To get my take on recipes, pantry ingredients, and healthy cooking.

If you've been reading The Perfect Pantry for a few months, or a few years, or from the very beginning, here are a few things you've learned about me.

The Pantry Quiz #39

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 00:30:00 -0400

Do you know?

An onion is an onion is an onion, right? Wrong. To everything there is a season, and that includes onions. I've been making batches of caramelized onions lately, sometimes in the slow cooker, to stir into frittatas and strew on pizzas. Which onions are best for caramelizing: onions planted in the fall and harvested in the spring, or onions planted in spring and harvested in the fall? (Extra credit if you know why.)