Panacea (Greens & Beans Chicken Soup)

There's something particularly unproductive about having a wracking, productive cough. This was not the piece I planned to write, this month, but as my cough and fever worsened over the weekend and into midweek, drastic measures were required. With a tiny apartment kitchen, I don't keep a lot of food in the house, so feeling too sick to run to the grocery can quickly take the food situation to critical levels. Luckily, Aaron came to my rescue with a vat of homemade chicken soup. This vegetable-forward recipe is one we've made for years and is perfect for days when you're sick or just suffering some late April chill (it is the cruelest month, after all).

Save us from this cruel month

By the Slice (White pizza with pancetta and arugula)

While I, in a robotic devotion to efficiency, could be quite content to eat the same meal most days, Aaron demands variety. Except with pizza. Aaron, and perhaps most of the free world, will always be happy to have pizza. We once made mostly pizza for dinner for a few months as a "diet," because it was easy to standardize, control portions, and could be spun into infinite variations. One key element was to always pair with a salad, though who doesn't remembering arguing that pizza was a balanced meal in grade school? This particular pizza, white pizza with pancetta and arugula, has both. 

One-stop shop

Sweet and Savory (Roast pork, pears, and root vegetables)

When my sister sent me half a dozen perfectly ripened pears and my sister-in-law gifted me with a jar of her fresh and local Lucky Bee Farm honey, I knew I had to make something special. I started out wanting to make a honey-sweetened pear upside-down cake, but Aaron invoked our agreement from a few months ago-"honey, stop baking"-and requested something savory, instead. Sweet and savory can be an excellent combination: there's honey in my beef teriyaki and in the barbecue sauce we slather on chicken, but the ultimate sweet meat is always, in my opinion, pork. Something about the pig's omnivorous diet and the practice of finishing meats with specific feeds to affect their flavor gives pork an inherent, unmistakable sweetness. Given a spicy rub of chili, garlic, and fennel, rounded out with some extra-hearty heft from a side of root vegetables, and topped off with a drizzle of honey Dijon gravy, this is a quick weeknight supper dressed to impress.

Impressive?

Curried Away (Massaman Curry)

To Aaron's distress, I absolutely love Thai food. Not that he doesn't, but I tend to take things to extremes. I'll recommend we order Thai takeout multiple times per week, sometimes on consecutive days (Aaron usually says no to that). I simply can't get enough. Thai food utilizes a number of flavors somewhat unique to Southeast Asia: fiery, licorice-y Thai basil, sour tamarind, darkly sweet palm sugar, citrusy notes from lemongrass and kaffir limes, and a somewhat surprising lilt of seafood from savory shrimp paste and salty fish sauce, which end up in almost everything. These ingredients combine to give Thai cooking, like many Asian cuisines, a spicy, sweet-and-sour character that was once prevalent in European cooking throughout the Middle Ages, but fell out of fashion in favor of the simply savory. One of the most familiar dishes to a Western audience will be curry - a dish decidedly lacking a Western analogue. Curries are soup- or stew-like dishes with rich flavors imparted from curry pastes or powders, themselves made from copious amounts of spices. Common throughout South and Southeast Asia, an Indian curry can often be identified by use of more dried spice powders and a thicker, richer texture, whereas Thai curry is often a bit soupier and relies more on fresh, moist seasonings (curry paste).

Nom

Simply Salmon (Baked Salmon, Dill Yogurt Cream)

Simple, classic, foolproof. There are some combinations so basic and endemic across cuisines that writing about them seems almost like cheating. In the pursuit of fresh simplicity, however, I think an old standby is in order. Salmon and dill were made for each other. Salmon is an undeniably oily fish; it's buttery and delicate, the perfect base for dill's bright, clean herbaceous flavor to play against.

Herbaceously amazing

Pigging Out (Herb-Crusted Pork Loin)

Pork is a slightly neglected and unappreciated meat in the U.S. Coming in third behind chicken and beef, it can be easy to overlook. Bacon aside, Aaron and I were never huge pork eaters, but when his sister Sarah and her husband Seth started raising and butchering their own hogs, we suddenly had a lot more pork on the menu. The other white meat has a lot to recommend it. It's easy to cook and features a mild, sweet flavor that's more distinctive than chicken and readily lends itself to all sorts of permutations, though they often feature fruit, sugar, and spices to play off the natural sweetness of the meat. To welcome the Spring green leaves, I chose to employ a melange of fresh herbs and a sprinkle of lavender blossoms for extra floral goodness. The end result is a tender, flavorful pork loin perfumed like fresh Spring.

Of course, now it's summer, but you get the idea

To Drive the Cold Winter Away (French Onion Soup)

Jon, my father-in-law, has a French onion soup recipe that is famous throughout our family, and I was lucky enough to get my hands on it. Jon's recipes reflect the instinctive, free-form simplicity of a great home cook-a list of ingredients and a general idea rather than a rigid set of measurements. This is a large part of the mystique of historical recipes, which in addition to amazingly creative spelling, almost never do the math. "Take ye a vasty amount onions, and likewyse a potte full of stronge broth, and seethe it well over greate fyre" is all well and good, but to really guarantee an outcome, you need a formula. I always measure things out when first trying a new recipe or jotting down something for the blog. 

Meticulously measured

Taking it Slow (Pork Carnitas)

One of the things people tend not to realize about working in a bakery is that it is hot. Those cheerful, toasty ovens feel like blast furnaces on days when it's already over 90 in the shade. The never-ending quest for cool leads us to all manner of salads, ices, and chilled soups, but there's still something inherently more cheering and satisfying about warm food. The trick, then, is to produce a hot meal without raising the temperature of your kitchen, and for that the slow cooker is a hero once again. Throw in the ingredients and they can gently braise all day as your house remains marvelously cool.

Marvelous

Easy Being Green (Gumbo z'Herbes)

Cajun cuisine may be stereotyped as all pork fat and crawdads, but gumbo z'herbes stands as a saucy testament to the cardinal importance of vegetables. While no dish would be complete without "the Holy Trinity," a blend of celery, onion, and green bell peppers, gumbo z'herbes raises the stakes by rounding up a potful of fresh greens and letting them rock out front and center. This recipe is extremely timely as April rains coax new shoots of tender green from the warming earth and budding leaves form misty plumes of color painted along the limbs of trees. Gumbo z'herbes is a fun, family-friendly dish that packs magnificently satisfying body and flavor with nary a shellfish nor ham hock in sight.

Flavor-full

Thanks for the "no, thank you" (Saffron Chicken Tenders)

As a child, I was a relatively finicky eater, much to the chagrin of my mother (who regularly handed out "no, thank you portions" in an attempt to broaden my palate). As it turns out, it was more a matter of time and maturity, and with age I've come to taste and experience wonderful new flavors and dishes that I'm absolutely certain 8-year-old me would never have dreamed of trying.

Would you say "no" to this?

Mixed Feelings (Lollipop Lamb Chops)

This post is also available as an article in the 11/28/2012 Williamsport Sun Gazette.

My sister Kelly and her husband, Jonathan, have excellent taste in cookbooks, so it was exciting to get a new one for my birthday: Barefoot Contessa Foolproof. Reading through it, I was intrigued by what I thought was an unusually high proportion of lamb dishes. I suppose it makes sense, though, as lamb is pretty foolproof.

Foolproof!

Duck Tales (Duck Breast, Cherry Demi Glace)

This post is also available as an article in the 9/26/2012 Williamsport Sun Gazette.

Sorry, I've been shirking the blog terribly, letting it go to seed as we race about at work and try to soak up the waning sunshine in the intervening hours. The turning of the season always leaves me feeling a little out of sorts. It's almost imperceptible as it happens, but suddenly the length and warmth of the days begin to slip away and prepare the garden, fields, and mountainside for winter hibernation. Of course, there's so much to enjoy about the early fall, too: turning leaves, the smell of woodsmoke in the air, and apple picking never fail to perk me up. In this case, one of those little pleasures is pairing some of the last ripe summer fruits with autumnal game.

I'm game if you are

Tarted Up (Feta Fig Tart)

I recently found a great tart pan neglected on a store shelf and was immediately tempted to find some way to put it to good use. I dimly recall a savory almond tart I was served at a Medieval banquet (like you do) and wished to continue the unexpectedly umami theme. Since summer is the season for deliciously juicy fresh figs, they seemed a great starting place. The resulting tart is quick, versatile, rustically elegant, and most importantly: easy, easy, easy.

Easier done than said

Mad About Saffron (Saffron Risotto)

When we visited my family in Chesapeake for Christmas, of course I was excited to see them... but I was also excited for the chance to visit a Trader Joe's for the first time in six months. My lifeline throughout college, it's decidedly lacking in the Montoursville/Williamsport area. Cackling gleefully to ourselves, we raced around the store grabbing everything we could that didn't require refrigeration, including a surprisingly inexpensive bottle of saffron.

That golden glow

Noodle Incident (Spicy Sesame Soba)

I have absolutely no pedigree when it comes to the cuisine of any culture. In true American fashion, my creations are bastardized, adapted, and sometimes probably miss the point completely. That said, I love the food of many cultures, especially that of Japan. Since I feel the local is establishment is a tad on the greasy side, though, I'm often left to my own devices in this arena. So much the better.

An attempt at authenticity

Simple is Elegant (Prosciutto Roasted Chicken with Winter Vegetables)

Greetings Ladies and Gents!

While J learned much of his culinary skills from Martha, my early years of cooking were mostly me experimenting with recipes taught to me by my mother. That said, over the past half dozen years or so, I've gotten much of my inspiration and style from a royalty in the cooking world: Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa. While she is more than capable of making the most intricate of culinary delights, her guidance to creating amazing and memorable dishes is this: simple is elegant.

Simply elegant

Stripping Down (Naked Chicken, Orange-Thyme Butter)

Whew! Things have yet to really calm down, yet, and I am having trouble keeping up. Unfortunately, chores and work and posting cut down on my time spent lounging about in yoga pants. You wouldn't want to deny me that, would you? Luckily, I have no shortage of recipes that can be made with minimal effort, allowing one to turn one's attention elsewhere.

At least until dinnertime...

Sunday Supper (Roasted Pork Loin with Fennel, Apples, and Onions)

Growing up my family was fairly lax and permissive. My sisters and I understood that to incur our parents disappointment was a very bad thing, and we typically knew it was best to toe the line. So, to say that family dinners were a strict tradition would be to overdo it, but until soccer practices, drama rehearsals, choir recitals, et all dominated the evening, we almost always had dinner together at home.

Tradition

Raising Spirits (Roasted Delicata Squash Pasta)

As my mother always quotes: "No leaves. No flowers. No fruit. November." The autumn just keeps on trucking along, leaving us with early sunsets and snowstorms to contend with. Personally, I'd rather just hibernate for the season and wake up in mid-May. I think that traditions such as Halloween and Christmas find their roots in humanity's attempt to stave off the depression of winter. It's a tradition I'm happy to embrace, and today I have some hot squash, pancetta, and spinach pasta for you.

Dinner: 1, Depression: 0

A Gift to be Simple (Gorgonzola Pasta, Balsamic Honey, Walnuts, Arugula)

As I'm sure you know, life can be a bit of a whirlwind. Work, chores, friends, family... each has merits on its own, but coming at you in unison, they can combine to form a perfect storm of chaos. That's why it's important to simplify every now and then.

Patience, grasshopper