Posted by Heather on February 11, 2011 · Leave a Comment
**Note: Before I even begin, I’m going to preface by owning up to how strongly I fought the urge to make a “malt-ernative” pun as a post title. It was hard. Really, really hard. But thankfully, nothing gelled and alas, I was able to resist.** I’m no Homer Simpson, by any stretch of the imagination, … Read more
Posted by Heather on February 2, 2011 · Leave a Comment
It’s true that I’m a born and bred salty New Englander of hearty Polish and pilgrim stock. I am generally unphased by extreme weather conditions, from snowbanks to scorchers, I can take it, bring it on! And so here we are, one long month into the three (plus…) month stretch of the winter doldrums, accumulating … Read more
Category Everyday Cooking, Fall + Winter · Tagged with Baked cookbook, Baked Explorations, barbeque, chicken and waffles, Fried Chicken, Grits, Lee Brothers, malt, malt powder, malted waffles, Shrimp, Southern, Thomas Keller, Whole Foods
Posted by Heather on December 10, 2009 · 3 Comments
You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the complexity of flavors that develop. There’s a subtle heat, but it’s very well-balanced with the bright sweet and sour notes of plumped up apricots and tangy vinegar. I ate some right away with a couple of nibbles of a fantastic cloth-bound cheddar leftover from Thanksgiving. I’m psyched to plop this on a ham-filled biscuit, and excited to create some gift baskets with a jar of chutney, a nice piece of cheese and some homemade crackers.
Category Canning + Preserving, Fall + Winter, Feasts + Shindigs, Pickles + Condiments, Savory · Tagged with apricot chutney, apricots, Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, canning, chutney, cocktail party menu, holiday party, Linus and Lucy, preserving
Posted by Heather on November 5, 2009 · 1 Comment
Carbonara. Well, carbonara-ish, minus the bacon…not that I don’t love a good hit of pork product whenever I can get it. When left to fend for myself on these brisk late-fall evenings, carbonara is the answer. Home alone for a couple of quiet hours, I want to kick back, relax and have a nice warm bowl of creamy, peppery noodles. And a glass of red wine. And an episode of Law and Order: SVU.
Category Everyday Cooking, Fall + Winter, Recipes, Savory · Tagged with black pepper, butter, carbonara, dinner for one, home alone, Law and Order: SVU, pappardelle, parmesan, Pasta, red wine, salt
Posted by Heather on October 1, 2009 · Leave a Comment
While one of the best things about making soup is the affordance of stretching a little into a lot, the quintessential peasant food, a soup may be as refined as it is rustic.
Category Everyday Cooking, Fall + Winter, Recipes, Soups + Stews · Tagged with beans, chicken broth, heirloom beans, Kale, leafy greens, mirepoix, orzo, Rancho Gordo, ribollita, sofrito, soup, Swiss Chard
Posted by Heather on January 12, 2007 · 1 Comment
I think I’ve more or less nailed chicken and pork (more on my other holy grail: the perfect roast chicken, later), I confited my first duck this winter, and even whipped some chicken livers into delicious submission as pate recently. But beef, or more specifically steak, well, I just couldn’t get it right, at least to my expectations. Since experiments need to be backed up by a hypothesis (sometimes more than one hypothesis, really), I set out to exhaustively research how to cook a steak.
Category Everyday Cooking, Meat, Fish + Poultry, Recipes · Tagged with baked potato, baste, bearnaise, beef, butter, carnivore, Chris Schlesinger, East Coast Grill, filet mignon, grill, How to Cook Meat, Joy of Cooking, meat, omnivore, pan-fry, roast, sauce, steak, tarragon, tenderloin
Posted by Heather on June 20, 2006 · Leave a Comment
Since renewing this site a little over a week ago, I have been making lists, reviewing my notebooks, and wracking my brain in general trying to figure out what my FIRST POST IN TWO YEARS should be about. Believe me, I have loads to catch up on; some things to look forward to: outrageous multi-course menus from my first hosted Christmas dinner and from this past Easter with old pals (and about to be new parents) Holly and Tom, some warm, slow-cooked stews invented in the beautiful dutch oven my Mom gave me for Christmas this past year, a few Polish traditional dishes, straight from Grandma’s recipes, and a disastrous debacle with a boneless leg of lamb.
Category Feasts + Shindigs, Meat, Fish + Poultry, Recipes, Spring + Summer · Tagged with avocado, backyard, barbeque, Boston, brine, coleslaw, corn, grill, grilled pork tenderloin, Jamaica Plain, napa cabbage, peach chutney, Peach schnapps, pork tenderloin, potato salad, strawberry rhubarb pie, sweet and sour cabbage, tomatoes, watermelon
Posted by Heather on August 19, 2004 · 1 Comment
Now here it is, nearing the end of August and not once have these lips tasted the tang of tartar sauce dressing a crisp, golden-battered piece of haddock. Not once have I sat on a patio, groggy from the sun, sipping a strawberry daiquiri. I only just made it to a beach a week ago, for one quick afternoon at the city beach on Nahant.
What price freedom, you ask? Well, in sacrificing all that is holy about the summertime by working 2 fulltime jobs, the price seems to even out, ironically enough, as the precise cost of my annual tuition.
Category Everyday Cooking, Meat, Fish + Poultry, Recipes, Spring + Summer · Tagged with anise, backporch barbeques, bistro, Bon Appetit, Central Kitchen, Central Squalor, Central Square, cheese plate, chevre, clams, Commercial Street, Coronas, fennel, fried fish, haddock, littlenecks, Mojo's, Nahant, Paris, patio, Pernod, Provincetown, Sancerre., strawberry daiquiri, tartar sauce, tuition, wine bar
Posted by Heather on June 29, 2004 · 1 Comment
Eating becomes a function, a necessary evil, even, as Craigslist, coffee and a multivitamin becomes your breakfast and you aspire to ingest a lunch that maybe, just maybe contains something green- gummy bears notwithstanding- that costs less than $10.
Category Everyday Cooking, Meat, Fish + Poultry, Savory, Vegetables · Tagged with cabbage, dijon, eastern european, flatlined social and romantic life, freelance gig, German, gummy bears, Heffeweissen, lunch under $10, maille, Mustard, napa, salmon, steelhead, sweet and sour cabbage
Posted by Heather on April 23, 2004 · 1 Comment
Naturally I was stunned when I learned that it was the apples that were being mocked in “Mock Apple Pie.” Who knew that Ritz crackers could so courageously stand in for a juicy Gala or a tart Jonagold?
They sure had me fooled.
Category Desserts + Treats, Everyday Cooking, Recipes, Sweet · Tagged with Americana, Betty Crocker, cherry pie filling, clafoutis, Dump Cake, French country dessert, Mock Apple Pie, Monson, Ritz crackers, yellow cake mix
