Endive & Pear Salad

Such an amazing combination. After a long weekend of overindulging (eh, it was a holiday!) I decided I needed to get out and do some healthy walking to my green grocer. On my mind was Barefoot Contessa's special Barefoot in Paris and the endive and pear salad she made. I swapped out the wine vinegar for balsamic vinegar and it was still very good. Make sure to toast the walnuts for a few minutes, it makes them even crispier!

Eye Candy

Taking a little break from my cooked food photos to enjoy the beauty of raw food. Not to worry, I'm not becoming a raw foodist. Nothing against them, I just like my cheese melted sometimes, thank you very much.

The first photo is a sicilian eggplant, isn't it cute?? I was having a bad day but finding this little round, spongy veggie in a tiny green grocer made it a little better.

Below, what might be mistaken for green roses, is actually the very end of bok choy which I discovered when I cut them off to clean the vegetable. Nature's pretty freakin' amazing sometimes.

Egg Curry

Continuing on with my no meat dishes, I tried a dish I've wanted to cook for awhile: Bal Arneson's egg curry. I love eggs and I love curry but I wasn't sure if the two would work together. It turned out to be a very rich and filling dish, even without cream. I omitted the fennel seed since I didn't have any, and added my must-have ingredients, garlic and onion. My family loved it and didn't miss the meat at all.

Chickpea Mughlai

After watching Food, Inc. for like 5 minutes, I decided I didn't need to eat so much meat, particularly chicken and eggs. I LOVE eggs, so I'm in a bit of a moral dilemma because stopping eating them myself isn't going to change the egg industry. Anyway, I had made this dish the first time following Nigella Lawson's recipe for chicken mughlai down to the inclusion of heavy cream and it was delish. This time, I didn't have any cream, but the yogurt is creamy enough, and I went with two cans of chickpeas instead of the chicken. Still very tasty, and you can eat and ease your conscious for a night.

Welcome!

Welcome and thanks for reading! I've been busy looking for work (and my oven was broken for a few days) but it's fixed now and I'm ready for some cooking inspiration. Feel free to post any recipes you love, or would like to see me cook and photograph.

Mushroom Risotto & Powder Puffs

I guess the heat isn't bothering me that much, because despite having no air conditioner in the front of my apartment, I have not let that stop me from 1) standing over a stove (literally) for almost an hour stirring risotto yesterday and 2) baking on one of the hottest days so far (today). Maybe I'm just crazy.

The risotto is based on a basic risotto recipe, but I add garlic to almost everything, so there's 4 huge cloves in there, along with 12oz. of cremini mushrooms. This is my 4th time making risotto and the last two times I still found many undercooked grains of rice, even after cooking for over the 30-40 minutes. The next day, it's all good.

The first time I saw these powder puffs on Laura Calder's French Food at Home, I knew I had to make them. They taste like giant eggy macarons, and are a lot easier to bake - no worrying about if they rise properly or grow their "feet." Filled with vanilla whipped cream and raspberry jam, they are insane - though you may want to hold back having too many because I'm having a total sugar rush right now!

Beef Bourguingon & Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

It feels like forever since I've been able to cook, photograph and post! My third time making beef bourguingon, but first time photographing. I use Anthony Bourdain's recipe from his Les Halles cookbook. I couldn't find a good chunk of beef, so wound up using thin chuck steak which is nice and marbled which means lots of flavor. The broth that results is so rich in flavor, it's unbelievable how simple it is.

May is the start of birthday season for most of my family and friends, so one of the cakes I've made is a chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake from Smitten Kitchen's awesome blog. The batter is thick and rich and that just tells you how moist and dense the cake will be. I also love the combination of cinnamon and chocolate chips. I didn't even use all that is called for the in recipe and it was still very chocolately.