meat and tomatoes.

Guess who

2012-09-16T11:42:00.000-07:00

is making Gram's meatballs tonight? Me! Ha! You know all the other Cappo Gallos will love them. Thanks for the recipe, Tara! Love you and wish you were here to eat some too! ('Cause I'm making a double batch!)

hellooooooo...

2012-07-10T11:56:00.000-07:00

it's been a looooooooong time since we updated this here blog, huh? if anyone is still out there, thanks for hanging in. someday soon new posts will make their way from brain to page. until then, how 'bout following us on the twitter? or the tumblr? and of course, there's always instagram. and what about facebook?

2011-03-23T00:57:00.001-07:00

Follow my blog with bloglovin

From such humble beginnings...

2010-04-21T04:41:00.000-07:00

comes such deliciousness!

This recipe, for chunky lentil soup, from Heidi Swanson's beautiful Super Natural Cooking (a gift from my beloved Tara, of course) is one of my current faves. (Her website is chock full of yummyness, too!) It's a quick, healthy meal that leaves enough leftovers for a couple of lunches. Heidi's work is inspiring to me because it shows how simple healthy cooking can be. Not that the lily can't be gilded, mind you -- I served this last night with a pile of freshly-grated parmiggiano reggiano and garlic-basil toasts. Mmmmmmmmmmm!

cheese, glorious cheese

2010-04-07T22:48:00.000-07:00

i'm trying to give up cheese. it may seem odd that cheese is something i need to give up, but i LOVE cheese. maybe it's a holdover from my vegetarian days, or just the proven fact that cheese is one of the top things in life, along with coca-cola, sex, books, and david bowie.

so i'm trying to relegate cheese to the status of a treat, as i have dealt with my other previously mentioned obsession, coke. coke is it, yo! sorry, got distracted. with the possible exception of parmigiano-reggiano and pecorino romano (which in theory are not eaten in large quantities) i am going to eat cheese on holidays only. official holidays, my birthday and anniversary. no arbor day, or patriot's day, or guy fawkes day...although any holiday is an option should i really hanker for a hunk o' cheese!

the only way i can think of accomplishing this heretofore never imagined feat is to outlaw cheese in my house. if there is cheese in the fridge, i will eat it. if there is cheddar cheese in that fridge, i will eat it as a meal!

now, one of the things i hate most about the way our culture deals with food and dieting is that we have these 'guilty' or 'sinful' or 'bad vs. good' labels for everything food-related. so i'm never going to say 'cheese is bad.' it's just that, for me, it's too much of a damn good thing ;).

so...what to do to with those odds and ends of the various cheeses i will now not be eating? there is a lovely something known as fromage fort, or in much less lyrical english, strong cheese. many recipes for this concoction exist, but i usually, oh so surprisingly, just throw stuff in with abandon and it always comes out well!

when first making this, i followed this recipe, from the inimitable jacques pepin. now i eyeball everything, based on how much cheese i have.

fromage fort

cheese [can be a mixture of any kinds: brie, blue, swiss, goat, cow, sheep, etc.]

garlic [grated or minced], at least 1 clove, or to taste

white wine, 1/4 - 1/2 cup [amount will vary based on how much cheese used]

salt and pepper, to taste

chop cheese into small pieces, removing any rind, and add to food processor. if using harder cheeses, like parmigiano, it's easier to grate before blending.

add white wine gradually; it's easy to add more to reach desired consistency, but difficult if you put too much in to start. add garlic, pepper and salt, if necessary. the cheese may be salty enough without this addition, so use your own judgement.

blend until smooth and creamy. add more wine as necessary until the consistency is to your liking.

chill until slightly firm and eat with bread or crackers or what have you while listening to the labyrinth soundtrack (that last part is just a serving suggestion). can also be eaten straight out of the food processor, but it is better after a bit of fridge time. m. pepin also suggests putting it on bread and broiling it, which is deliciously tasty as well.

now...why am i giving up cheese again!??!?

oven-dried tomatoes

2010-04-04T12:11:00.000-07:00

i am strangely fixated on heirloom tomatoes. well, i'm strangely fixated on a lot of things, but even i think it's weird to be obsessed with tomatoes. but i am. in the magazine version of my life, i have lovely al fresco summer dinner parties, with all of my magically-in-one-place friends at my perfectly-quaint-and-preferably-in-italy-country farmhouse, featuring a plethora of mouthwatering grilled foods and accompanied, always, by plates of beautifully ripe sliced home-grown heirloom tomatoes of varied hues, maybe accented with basil, or fresh buffalo mozzarella, or just simply with fresh, green olive oil (pressed from my own olives, of course) and sprinkled with maldon salt.

in the non-magazine version of my life, aka 'reality,' i am more likely to buy a container of tomatoes, put them on the counter, walk by them a million times admiring their lovely appearance, and eventually determine said tomatoes are about 24 hours from becoming decidedly not lovely. solution = oven dried tomatoes.

these lovelies were inspired by the always magazine-life-living martha, and they are almost ridiculously easy to make, and to eat.

oven-dried tomatoes

tomatoes [preferably a mix of the aforementioned heirloom variety], whatever amount you want or have

salt [i used my favorite, you guessed it, maldon], to taste

pepper [preferably freshly ground], to taste

sugar [i used organic cane sugar], about 2 tablespoons or to taste

pre-heat oven to 250 degrees F.

cut tomatoes in half, for small varieties such as grape or cherry, and in slices, for large sizes. place on a baking sheet covered with parchment or silicone baking sheet (such as this one that i use) to prevent sticking.

sprinkle tomatoes evenly with sugar, salt, and pepper. the sugar doesn't make them especially sweet, but seems to help bring out the natural sugars in the tomatoes.

cook in the low oven until the tomato juices are dissipated and the tomatoes nicely shriveled. you can dry them as much as you want, depending on how you are going to use them. mine took about 2 to 3 hours.

ideally, you can use these like you would sun-dried tomatoes, in pastas, dips, sandwiches. you could store them in oil in the fridge, or in the freezer, or in an airtight container on the counter...

or, like me, you can eat them straight-up when they come out of the oven. they are rather like candied tomatoes...so delish, even the non-tomato-eating da gorge loved them.

[all photographs taken by greg ward hart.]

A few of my favorite things

2010-04-01T13:22:00.000-07:00

When my husband and I moved into this house, the thing I was most excited about was having a dining room. One of our first purchases to fill the gaps created by moving a studio apartment's worth of furniture into a modest home was, of course, a dining room set -- a vintage one with a beat-up table -- from a wacky guy in HoHoKus, NJ. The chairs had no seats, but I found someone to make them and upholster them in this cool fabric.

I didn't have Christmas here, and I'm not doing Easter, either, so I was excited to host a Sunday dinner when my parents were in town last week. My in-laws came, too, so with the kids and Michael and I, it was numerous enough to feel festive. So what did I do? I pulled out a few of my favorite things -- many of them wedding gifts. Having them is special, but using them is really what it is all about. If you never see it, it's like you don't have it. Luckily, my mom agrees, so she helped me pick and choose and set a springy table.

One of my favorite items of all time is my parmesan cheese server -- a gift from -- OF COURSE -- Tara. I love how you can see the luscious cheese through the glass bowl, and the spoon (which, unfortunately is obscured by said luscious cheese) is adorable!

My new favorite is a gift from my dear friend Lucy Borland, namesake of my little one. A bunny cookie jar! It's really for the girls, but I've already pressed it into service.

The china -- one of my mom's sets -- was her wedding gift to me -- it is no longer in production, and I cherish it. Her marriage has lasted nearly 43 years, so I like to think of it, in part, as a good luck charm. It is also my favorite dish to look down at -- it makes me feel especially like home.

So I guess this rambling isn't really about food, but how we present it. It's not really that I'm proud about my belongings or that I want to show them off -- I can enjoy a delicious meal on a paper plate or from a square of foil. I just love these things because of the people who gave them to me. We all have our family recipes -- and our family dishes, too.

Oat Script

2010-02-08T07:33:00.000-08:00

I mean post script. I tried the soak overnight method for the oats -- no heat -- and this is my favorite. Thanks Aunt Lynnie! It softens the groats enough to cook them in about fifteen minutes instead of thirty, and this keeps my hands out of the cookie jar while I'm waiting. I use the same amount of water -- four cups for one cup of steel cut oats. Soak overnight. Bring to a boil until creamy, then simmer about 15 minutes until water is absorbed, but the grains have retained their al dente deliciousness. Give it a try!

Obsession

2010-02-01T18:46:00.001-08:00

So, my new obsession is steel cut oats.

I know I'm a little late to the party on this one, but YUM! My dear friend and doula was recently talking about this as her breakfast, and I decided to give it a try. I'd always shied away because these delicious little grains take 30 minutes to cook, and well, I'm HUNGRY in the morning! But I sucked it up (sort of -- I'd end up eating cookies and all kinds of other junk) while I waited for them to cook. So Sunday night, I decided to try a method that I saw on the internet -- the overnight cook.

So, last night, I boiled the water, and stirred in the oats.

I let them get creamy.

I put the lid on the pot and turned off the heat.

I let them sit there overnight, and lo and behold, they were pretty much cooked this morning. There was a bit of excess water, which I cooked off. (Perhaps this method requires less water since there is less direct heat involved? Any Alton Brown-types out there know the answer?)

Then, I topped it off with a bit of butter and a bunch of dark brown sugar.

Yes, yes, I know the sugar practically defeats the purpose of the whole-grain goodness, but oh my. Delish.

Pretty good breakfast for a Monday.

Quote of the Day

2010-01-28T14:48:00.000-08:00

What seems like many moons ago, when I was working in publishing, I started to refer to Real Simple as "Real Stupid" like many of my print industry pals. Not nice, not nice, I know -- but kind of funny. I mean isn't every issue 10 great ideas for pasta and how to (re)organize your shoes? Truth be told, I often try recipes from Real Simple because they are, well... really simple. And sometimes yummy. And a lot of times I could use an idea for pasta, even though I have quite a lot of experience cooking it.

My favorite part of the February 2010 issue, however, is the quote on the spine: "A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness." -- Elsa Shiaparelli. Kinda makes me want to don a shocking pink apron in her honor.

gram's meatballs & new year's greetings

2010-01-23T23:12:00.000-08:00

happy new year! a little belated, but heartfelt. one can only hope that this year will be better than the last.

as usual with the dawning of a new year, 2010 brings with it hopes of getting in shape, eating better, becoming a supermodel...seems as though each year brings another cunning plan for the ~~diet~~ lifestyle change to bring a resolution to any and all weight problems in the extended cadenelli clan.

even grams gets into the act; in fact, she is probably the greatest instigator of them all! mary dignard, maternal matriarch, eternal watcher of weight(s), and all-around most awesome person ever, apparently has it all figured out, having lost about 40 pounds in the last few years. ('it's easy,' she says. of course, it took her until she was 85 for it to be 'easy,' but who am i to point that out!?)

the details of this effective eating plan are kind of murky, but seem to include consuming mostly fruit, small hunks of italian bread and salumi (ok, i really say 'cold cuts'), and chocolates, the latter eaten rather clandestinely.

since she has 'retired' from any actual cooking, her menu definitely does not include meatballs, unless made by others. this is too bad, because her meatballs have been scientifically proven to be the greatest on earth.

my mother's meatballs are a very close second. mine are pretty good, but never seem to quite measure up. i guess that's just the way it is! but in any case, regardless of the generation making them, the recipe remains about the same. measurements are iffy, since italian meatball-makers would never actually measure anything, but here's the rough idea:

gram's meatballs

breadcrumbs [we always use progresso italian, i must confess, but originally fresh italian bread], handful

parmesan cheese [preferably parmigiano-reggiano] or romano cheese, extraordinarily large handful

eggs, 1 or 2

parsley [preferably italian flat-leaf, definitely fresh], 1/4 bunch or so

salt [i'm in love with maldon] and pepper [freshly ground]

ground meat [all beef, all turkey, or mix of both, or traditional mix of beef/veal/pork], 1 pound

mix all ingredients except meat together in large bowl. add ground beef and combine lightly. this method tends to be easier than adding all the ingredients at once and then mixing, but really, whatever floats your boat.

in my opinion, the secret ingredient of these meatballs is the cheese, as is evidenced by the amount listed. to check seasoning, though, i always cook a little tester meatball patty to taste, as i'm not a big fan of tasting raw ground meat. i tend to go heavier on the cheese and lighter on the breadcrumbs, but each time is slightly different. the texture should be pretty moist. if necessary, you can add a little water, milk, cream, or another egg if the mixture is too stiff. it's a very subjective process :).

when you are happy with the taste and texture, roll into balls of any size you'd like from marble to golf ball. i like to fry them in olive oil and keep them plain. of course, they can also be baked, or dropped into soup or tomato sauce.

always make more than you think you need, because they tend to cause immediate auto-eating. strangely enough, i love them cold the next day. as does da gorge.

over christmas vacation, my lovely and talented mother made an egg yolk-free and gluten-free version, using rice bread cubes soaked in chicken stock and egg whites for binding.

there was still a large amount of cheese involved.

here's to a great 2010!

Holiday Cooking and Baking

2009-12-21T06:13:00.000-08:00

Today is the day to start some holiday baking! On the agenda: gingerbread men to decorate with the girls, a batch of regular truffles, and maybe a couple of other things. I don't quite have my traditions nailed down yet. What are yours?

I also need to prepare for Christmas Eve dinner, but I can't quite think about that yet. Uh oh!

Truffles

2009-12-16T20:00:00.000-08:00

Well, it took 4 batches, but I got somewhere with the vegan truffles. Great taste -- dark chocolate dusted with cocoa powder, bathed in orange blossom water, rolled in cocoa again and topped with luster dust and a couple of grains of fleur de sel. Weird texture, though -- I couldn't quite get them to set up enough -- even with arrowroot. Maybe not enough? I'll make the real deal next week for my mom, so it will be interesting to check out the differences in texture. Then maybe back to the drawing (cooking) board.

Truffles

2009-12-14T18:45:00.000-08:00

Well, I started a little project today. As I've mentioned before, I love to renovate recipes. I am making homemade truffles this year (simple ones, I should say), and I want to make some animal product-free ones for my friend Lori. Lori is a terrific baker -- I secretly think she doesn't sleep because she is also mom of two, and an avid runner and yogi. I have seen her easily draw herself into some pretty awesome poses. Anyway, I digress. Lori has a dairy allergy and a vegan lifestyle to accommodate it, so I don't want her to be left out of the holiday truffle fun. The first task was to make a vegan substitute for heavy cream, which I did tonight, using silken tofu, soy milk and arrowroot. It actually was pretty rich and silky after I brought it up to a simmer! I combined it with some vegan chocolate, coarse sea salt and vanilla -- I'm just not sure of the quantities I used. It is setting up overnight, so tomorrow we'll see if we can take it to the next step or if we're starting over...

Slippery Little Fellas

2009-11-22T20:38:00.000-08:00

For dinner tonight, I made a quick pasta with some broccoli rabe, sundried tomatoes, shallots and garlic. I topped it off with some toasted pine nuts and the king of cheeses (as Mario would say). Yummy! But alas, no pictures. It was all eaten! Even Josephine and Lucy preferred it to their frozen Elmo Whole Wheat Pizza that I heated up for them. But here's the thing -- the sundried tomatoes needed to be chopped fine, and those buggers are slippery, even under relatively sharp knives! Is there a secret to chopping them? Discuss.

chef academy, episode 1

2009-11-18T01:31:00.001-08:00

or, emmanuel delcour is awesome.

as previously mentioned, i am unable to resist a food/cooking-based reality show. add in this guy, and i'm positively ~~licking~~ glued to the tv.

bravo's chef academy is a kind of jumble of cooking show, talent contest, and docudrama featuring famed chef jean cristophe novelli. the chef and his about-to-give birth girlfriend arrive in the US from the UK to set up a branch of his esteemed school of cookery.

up first? visiting the location, picking the contestants, the requisite melodrama, and a glimpse of the students' er, chops. i won't go into too much detail, for those of you who haven't watched. it's quite enjoyable. the fact that it's on monday nights at 11:00P is a bit odd; why no tie-in with top chef? anyway, watch it and report back. there may be a quiz.

----------

ok, i lied. spoilers after this point (if only so i may get on my soapbox for a bit. this has nothing to do with food, so feel free to move along if pseudo-serious social commentary is not for you)...

as it has already been alluded to in the teasers from next week's show, video previews on the website, and various and sundry blogs, mr. delcour had a previous incarnation, under a pseudonym, as an actor in adult movies. read: he was a porn star. (and, might i add, the only porn star that has ever made me actually want to watch. but i digress.)

i was hoping they weren't going to include this fact in this new show. not because i have any problem with the profession personally, but because of the inevitable puritanical backlash that seems to come with any such admission. already i've seen bloggers posting about 'outing' him and comments that bravo should have done a better background check.

while i understand that pornography is obviously a loaded issue, and not exactly considered to be a mainstream subject of discussion, i personally find it frustratingly hypocritical that a society that spends literally billions of dollars on porn annually can simultaneously turn their collective noses at anyone involved in said industry.

anyway, my point, and i could go on at length but i will restrain myself, is this: i hope that this show doesn't turn into a disdainful attack on a former porn star while it obviously capitalizes on any resulting publicity. of course, i'm not sure why i would expect adherence to such a standard from a reality tv show, but it would be refreshing, would it not?

okay, class dismissed :).

It looks pretty good, but

2009-11-17T11:02:00.000-08:00

yuck.

One of my food hobbies is renovating recipes, that is, attempting to make them healthier without sacrificing (too much) of the flavor and texture. This one didn't quite work. It's a baked shells dish with tomatoes, Italian sausage and broccoli rabe. The original is a recipe from Everyday Food, which for the life of me I can't find on the website. Maybe they don't post recipes until the next print issue is out? I don't know. Anyway, I digress. Of course. For this recipe, I decided to use brown rice pasta instead of regular medium shells. I used Tinkyada, a brand of brown rice pasta I've used often, but this time with disastrous results. Despite seriously undercooking the pasta in the boil phase of the recipe, it was already seeming overdone. Once it was baked -- completely fallen apart. Gnarly.

I did however, have great success with the other renovation to the recipe: using non-meat sausage (oh, I know some of you are rolling from that phrase)! I used Field Roast Italian Sausage, and I thought it was yummy. It added the oregano and fennel flavor of sausage, along with some of the texture and chew of meat, but left out the fat, calories and then ummm... animal part.

So I guess I was 1-1 on this reno. I just can't get the squishy rice pasta texture out of my mouth. Eeww.

twice baked

2009-11-09T19:19:00.000-08:00

another meal based on what we had left in the fridge...this time good ol' twice baked potatoes.

i've discovered that if i have cheese around, it's possible to make something at least passably good to eat. (or, of course, we can just eat the cheese straight up. truth be told, cheese is one of my main food groups.)

the gorge made some delicious meatballs (more on those later!) and baked potatoes for dinner last night. so today i scooped out the leftover potatoes, threw them in a pan with butter, smoked cheddar cheese, some parmesan, sour cream, a bit of milk, chopped scallions and some salt and pepper. when it was kinda melty and mixed through, i filled the potato 'shells' and added more parmesan (cheese, glorious cheese) and baked them.

i was wishing i had bacon to put in them, but the smoked cheddar added a surprisingly bacon-y quality. not a revolutionary recipe, but quite yum-o, to borrow a phrase!

crepes two ways

2009-11-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

or, how to make something when there's nothing to eat.

there's something quite satisfying about cooking with what you happen to have in the fridge or pantry (or, more accurately, the cabinet). there is something even more satisfying about cooking without spending money when you have recently relocated across the country in the midst of this current economic ridiculousness. but i digress!

where was i? oh yes, crepes. crepes are one of those things i have made over the years when i didn't have anything sweet in the house and really wanted dessert. so the other day, while thinking of what on earth i could make to eat with the cupboards nearly bare, i thought crepes. (well, i thought pancakes, but i didn't have any baking soda or powder!)

it was too late for breakfast, and i wanted 'real' food as well as something dessert-y. i decided to try savory and sweet versions of crepes. i used the same crepe recipe for both options, deciding to not add sugar as is suggested in most sweet crepe recipes. while i usually use the betty crocker cookbook (my all time fave) for these kind of recipes, this time i was too lazy to even walk the four feet to get it out of the bookcase, so i used this one by alton brown.

why is it so much easier to look recipes up on the internet, even when you have cookbooks galore, as we both mentioned earlier? damn that modern technology.

i filled the savory crepes with the carrot-habanero jam that my bro made, a combo of grated sharp and smoked cheddar cheeses, and some chopped scallions.

i had some dulce de leche that i had made in the fridge, so i thought that would be lovely as the base of the sweet crepes. we also had two bananas laying about, so i decided on a 'bananas foster' type concoction. butter, brown sugar, dulce de leche, and bananas, melted together and poured over the folded crepes. the gorge went nuts over it. of course, he has rarely met a sweet food creation he didn't like, but still, it was quite tasty.

amanda was robbed

2009-11-08T23:23:00.000-08:00

i'm not sure how it happened. somehow, after poo-pooing reality shows for many a year, the gorge and i are now basically obsessed with watching competition shows involving food (and american idol, truth be told, but that's another, er, kettle of fish). top chef, ramsay's kitchen nightmares (UK version: HI-larious), the next iron chef. amanda freitag was my pick to win the last of these...she's cool, her food looks delish, i like her judging on chopped (oh, there's another one!), and she's, rather obviously, a woman. so i was quite annoyed to see tonight's episode! she was robbed, i tells ya. it's like torvill and dean all over again.

by the way, for those of you who also enjoy some food reality, there is a new show, chef academy, coming up on bravo...and it features one of my obess - um, one of my favorite actors :). be sure to tune in!

(wow...lots of links in that post. i'm not getting paid for product placement, believe me!)

Even More New Cookbooks

2009-11-03T18:44:00.001-08:00

Proof for my husband that we need a bigger house (to house all the cookbooks): The BA Foodist's list of new cookbooks, with commentary by the owners of Rabelais in Portland, ME, which is apparently a culinary bookstore. WHAT? Wait -- we don't have one of those here! All the bookstores here only sell crappy diet books and Gossip Girl novels! Well, at least I can visit Rabelais online. Which ones will you add to your Christmas list?

Stooped to a New Low

2009-11-01T18:16:00.000-08:00

One of the problems of having two young children, I find, is that the grownup eating suffers tremendously. Tonight I ate microwaveable mac and cheese for dinner. Since this is a food-oriented blog, I won't tell you what it looked like or tasted like. Seriously. Gross.

design*sponge cookbook reviews

2009-10-31T02:23:00.000-07:00

i'm just a tad obsessed with blog reading. the problem is that so many cool blogs highlight other cool blogs and then they highlight even more cool blogs, and so on, and so on! i find myself adding so many blogs to my reader that i cannot possibly keep up. but i can't stop!

design*sponge is one of the blogs that is always sending me on a blog-adding spree, as well as leading me to bookmark 8,000 items i would love to buy, have to own, and can't possibly live one other day without. unfortunately for my desire to own every cookbook on earth, they sometimes highlight new offerings in that category as well. such as these. people looking for gift ideas, take note!!

Chiliween

2009-10-29T18:45:00.001-07:00

I am my mother. This one I didn't really see coming, though, because mostly I am not my mother in the kitchen.

Two years ago, on our first Halloween with a child, I decided to make chili for dinner. It's yummy, easy to make, and can sit on the stove until you're ready to eat. Oh, and it goes so well with cornbread -- I love cornbread! Last year I did it again and proclaimed it a tradition. When I told my mom about it, she said, "Well, I always made chili for dinner on Halloween! Don't you remember?" I guess I must.

I never really liked Halloween (except for the candy, of course) but I must have really liked that chili. Things have changed a bit since my mom's version. I'm mostly a vegetarian, so I make a meat-free version. And I don't use the packets of McCormick spice mix my mom used. (I bet she has one in her pantry, though!) Other than that, I guess it's the natural progression of a family tradition, one maybe a daughter (or two) of mine will continue later in life. After all, it is a yummy, healthful, protein-packed, vegan meal to help offset that sugar rush!