meganwest:

apio:

TAMMY BALDWIN, the Senator-Elect from Wisconsin, will become the first openly gay person ever elected to Senate. MAZIE HIRONO, the Senator-Elect from Hawaii, will become the first Asian-American woman in Senate. TAMMY DUCKWORTH, the Representative-Elect for Illinois, will become the first disabled female veteran elected to the House of Reps. (she lost both her legs in the Iraq War).

Tonight is one for the history books.

crying again.

TAMMY DUCKWORTH! I loved her during the convention. So pleased by all of this.

(via meganwest)

Source: apio

Summer on a Plate, 2012 edition*


Green zebra-striped tomato, you were irresistible and destined to be in my mouth when I saw you sitting on a table at the farmers’ market. 

Sliced and perched on top of a little bit of mayo (but a bit of butter would be just as good) and basil on a thick slice of toasted sourdough bread, you were joined by an almost-purple and exceptionally ripe fellow tomato and one of my best efforts at a hard-boiled egg to date, before I sprinkled you all with corse salt and black pepper.

The crunch, the sweet, the tang, the juiciness. This was a close-your-eyes-while-eating worthy lunch.

Perfect to eat in a sunny apartment while watching a bit of Julie & Julia.

*Here’s last August’s “Summer on a Plate”

Dispatches from Dinner Club My friends and I are still at our International Dinner Club and tonight I prepared a meal based on the cuisine of Burkina Faso. Burkina Faso, it turns out, falls into the category of good food, bad country. Alas. Let’s talk about the food though, because I’m not about to get into a discussion about poverty and human rights in this space. I made a modified version of the rice and greens dish called Babenda — the recipe found here contained some ingredients I wasn’t too keen on (dried sardines and fermented lotus beans), so I sauteed onions, garlic and the hot pink chard stems with some soy sauce and vinegar for a little added umami before adding the ground peanuts and rice and chard. It was really tasty. I could definitely see myself making this again. This was served with cubes of spiced lamb (I was massaging a lamb leg at 10pm last night and had the cinnamon/garlic perfumed hands to prove it until this morning) that I broiled and pan-cooked. Also delicious. The recipe is also from the awesome Global Taste Adventure. We washed it down with the pictured Hibiscus iced tea (aka Bissap a la Bonne Dame) that I brewed last night. So refreshing and lightly sweet that I’m brewing up another batch as I write. I think tomorrow I might use it as a base in a cocktail of some sort. (Taken with Instagram)
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Dispatches from Dinner Club

My friends and I are still at our International Dinner Club and tonight I prepared a meal based on the cuisine of Burkina Faso. Burkina Faso, it turns out, falls into the category of good food, bad country. Alas. Let’s talk about the food though, because I’m not about to get into a discussion about poverty and human rights in this space.

I made a modified version of the rice and greens dish called Babenda — the recipe found here contained some ingredients I wasn’t too keen on (dried sardines and fermented lotus beans), so I sauteed onions, garlic and the hot pink chard stems with some soy sauce and vinegar for a little added umami before adding the ground peanuts and rice and chard. It was really tasty. I could definitely see myself making this again.

This was served with cubes of spiced lamb (I was massaging a lamb leg at 10pm last night and had the cinnamon/garlic perfumed hands to prove it until this morning) that I broiled and pan-cooked. Also delicious. The recipe is also from the awesome Global Taste Adventure.

We washed it down with the pictured Hibiscus iced tea (aka Bissap a la Bonne Dame) that I brewed last night. So refreshing and lightly sweet that I’m brewing up another batch as I write. I think tomorrow I might use it as a base in a cocktail of some sort. (Taken with Instagram)

I made this Northern Spy Kale Salad for dinner tonight and it was basically perfect.  I went to Northern Spy once a few years ago and enjoyed it quite a bit. But the older I get (30 so soon…let’s not talk about that now), the less I find myself over in far reaches of the East Village, so I’m grateful I could bring the farm to table make this recipe at home thanks to food52.  The salad was not only delicious but also a pleasure to prepare. I owe this to Trader Joe’s and the pre-peeled, pre-cut chunks of butternut squash I bought there this weekend. No fighting with a slippery squash and a sharp knife tonight! Just had to open the package and pour it out on a cookie sheet. I added some smoked paprika (just a little because I didn’t want to overpower the sweetness) along with the salt and pepper and olive oil before roasting them until brown. Meanwhile, the “active time” of this recipe was spent dealing with the kale. That meant removing the ribs from my kale, rolling the remaining leaves into bunches of varying tightnesses and slicing them into great green ribbons. I dressed the ribbons in layers, juicing the lemon and swishing in some olive oil for every few handfuls of kale that I dropped into the biggest bowl I have. Somehow this process was relaxing and satisfying, not tedious.  I ate the salad with a small plate of olive focaccia and soppressata that I impulse-bought at Union Market when I went to buy some good cheese..these elements while not necessary in the least made the meal feel a little less ridiculously healthy. And I mean that to be a good thing. Oh, and btw, the recipe says it’s for two, but I used the entire bunch of kale that I had and I will be eating it for the rest of my life….or maybe for my next 4 meals.
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I made this Northern Spy Kale Salad for dinner tonight and it was basically perfect. 

I went to Northern Spy once a few years ago and enjoyed it quite a bit. But the older I get (30 so soon…let’s not talk about that now), the less I find myself over in far reaches of the East Village, so I’m grateful I could bring the farm to table make this recipe at home thanks to food52. 

The salad was not only delicious but also a pleasure to prepare.

I owe this to Trader Joe’s and the pre-peeled, pre-cut chunks of butternut squash I bought there this weekend. No fighting with a slippery squash and a sharp knife tonight! Just had to open the package and pour it out on a cookie sheet. I added some smoked paprika (just a little because I didn’t want to overpower the sweetness) along with the salt and pepper and olive oil before roasting them until brown.

Meanwhile, the “active time” of this recipe was spent dealing with the kale. That meant removing the ribs from my kale, rolling the remaining leaves into bunches of varying tightnesses and slicing them into great green ribbons. I dressed the ribbons in layers, juicing the lemon and swishing in some olive oil for every few handfuls of kale that I dropped into the biggest bowl I have. Somehow this process was relaxing and satisfying, not tedious. 

I ate the salad with a small plate of olive focaccia and soppressata that I impulse-bought at Union Market when I went to buy some good cheese..these elements while not necessary in the least made the meal feel a little less ridiculously healthy. And I mean that to be a good thing.

Oh, and btw, the recipe says it’s for two, but I used the entire bunch of kale that I had and I will be eating it for the rest of my life….or maybe for my next 4 meals.

Orange you glad it’s January? 

After countless delicious, fun and festive meals out in restaurants and from other people’s kitchens last month (especially the last two weeks of it), I’ve returned to my cubby of a kitchen tonight. 

Armed with an armload of carrots and my shiny new kitchen toy—an aqua immersion blender, I made a pot of roasted carrot soup.

The recipe is so simple and easy and I didn’t do anything to change it up. Ok, that’s a lie. I supplemented the chicken for veggie stock because I had it, and then I had to top it out with a little belgium ale because I was short on stock. Harmless, right?

Using the newest tool in my arsenal was fun, btw, though it did take a while to get used to the immersion blending process. I think I’d used one once or twice before, but it had been a while. Now if only my kitchen had more than one power outlet—I had to move the pot to a towel on the counter because the cord would not reach the stove. Alas. My ghetto kitchen and I are at peace. Most of the time.

As I ladled a portion of the bright concoction into a bowl, I remembered that I had some already-sliced scallions in the fridge plus some sour cream leftover from latke night, so I added a sprinkle and a dolup for texture and contrast.

The results were very satisfying with a small piece of leftover fried chicken and biscuit (from this place) on this cold night.