by Joy on February 7, 2010
It snowed over two feet this weekend. I still can’t believe it. That’s the second time this winter we’ve been buried in the white stuff and it’s been years since we’ve seen any significant snow in Philadelphia. On Friday I went to the South Street Whole Foods around 1 p.m., assuming that people would be, you know, working, and it would be a relatively sane trip. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Lines stretched back to the frozen food case, in other words, lines ran the whole length of the store. I tried to imagine what would be my ideal snowed in dinner, and two words came to mind: roast chicken. [keep reading …]
by Joy on January 29, 2010
Bread salad is typically a summer supper. It’s usually an orgy of amply juicy ripe tomatoes combined with little more than cubes of bread, ribbons of basil, salt, pepper, and most fragrant, fruitiest, fanciest olive oil you can afford. How I miss this dish in the cold weather months. This warm January version has a different personality, but I like it just as much. Pickled red onions brighten the sweet roasted vegetables and bread absorbs plenty of big flavor. The recipe after the jump. [keep reading …]
by Joy on January 27, 2010
Seriously, who does not love a muffin? I definitely do, though the ones made commercially and even by good bakeries tend to be unbearably sweet and the size of baby bear’s head. Today, I have this lingering back pain that gets worse as I sit and doesn’t bother me when I stand. So, this morning, after sitting at my desk started to hurt, I had to take a standing break. And since I was standing, shouldn’t I really be cooking? (I had to make myself lunch anyway, after all.) A muffin craving came over me, and I ransacked the pantry with the idea that the end result would be savory, nutritious, and tasty. This is the result. These hearty little guys would be an excellent accompaniment to soup for a light winter dinner. [keep reading …]
by Joy on January 25, 2010
Last week’s vegan dinner is a longtime favorite around here. Golden tofu paired with steamed broccoli and carrots and served over rice all topped with a spicy, speedy peanut sauce. You can make the same dish substituting chicken for tofu with results that are just as good. Recipe after the jump. [keep reading …]
by Joy on January 22, 2010
Just because I develop recipes doesn’t mean I don’t cook from other people’s recipes. I cook from recipes a lot. This is a photo of my typical recipe-following MO. I print it and clip it to the blinds of my kitchen so I can read it and spare it the worst of my usual spills and splatters. I follow a bunch of food blogs and recipe sites in my RSS reader (do you use one? you should subscribe to my feed–click the button in the top right of the screen) and earmark stuff I want to make in the future. Here’s a short list of stuff I added to that file this week. [keep reading …]
by Joy on January 20, 2010
Dinner was off the rails last night. First of all, I hadn’t planned out what we were going to have over the weekend–that’s always an error of judgment. So, I had to figure something out and then fill in the blanks by shopping. It’s been awhile since we had risotto, so that’s what I picked. I wanted to use Gorgonzola to enrich the dish and either roasted or sauteed mushrooms to top it. But time kept running out, and Acme has no Gorgonzola or risotto rice, so I then needed to tack on a trip to Green Aisle, where I also picked up those lovely salad greens. By the time I got back, Dan was headed home from work, I was already starving, the dishwasher had to be emptied, and the kitchen was a mess. I thought to myself, this is how a lot of people feel about making dinner every night. Like it’s a hassle they’d rather not deal with. [keep reading …]
by Joy on January 18, 2010
I love soup. In fact I ate this twice over the weekend. But I think, no matter how good, most soup needs a little something on the side. And, in my opinion, that something should be bread. I made this simple focaccia to accompany my recent batch of tomato soup, and it really was the perfect partner. It is also easy to split lengthwise for a sandwich and toasted fingers of this bread make excellent dippers at parties. [keep reading …]
by Joy on January 17, 2010
Resolution one-vegan-supper a week continues. This week’s meal centered around the above bowl of lusciously “creamy” tomato bisque. Once again, I owe the dreamy texture to cashew cream, the same stuff I used to make my recent chick pea curry taste like heaven. Local food purists will probably object to a big bowl of out-of-season produce. I do try to eat local but I don’t get crazy about it, especially when Roma tomatoes are on sale at the supermarket for $1 a pound. [keep reading …]
by Joy on January 14, 2010
I have told this story so many times that if you know me, you’ve definitely heard it before. But it was one of my very first a-ha moments about cooking, a Joy-as-a-cook creation story, so I’m telling it again. Anyway. Years ago, my sister dated a chef. A really good chef. It was during my “I must be a size 4 or life isn’t worth living” period, so I was very regimented about what I ate. Jill and her chef-boyfriend, on the other hand, ate out almost every night at some of the best restaurants in town. I was totally fascinated by this food-centric life even though it scared me. During this time, I ate Amy’s Organic canned lentil soup almost everyday. [keep reading …]
by Joy on January 12, 2010
This is what newly purchased meat should look like. Wrapped in sturdy paper by a man with a bloody smock, sealed with a length of tape, not a second skin of plastic. Meat acquisitions that come out of your shopping bag like this probably came from a butcher. You know, a place where whole and large pieces of recently slaughtered animals are delivered and then someone with a great deal of expertise and an expensive, dangerous band saw breaks them into the roasts, steaks, and chops we like to eat. [keep reading …]
