Big Soup!

Minestrone!

Minestrone means “big soup” in Italian, and really has no set recipe.  I’ve always loved the idea of this mixed-bag of soups, yet I’ve never tasted one that blew me away.  So, with Alice Waters’s encouragement (I adore The Art of Simple Food) and a fridge full of random delicious veggies I set out to make my own version of this Italian classic.  Here’s the recipe:

Eat some Capriole Juliana and some Spanish aged goat milk cheese while you prepare your food:

1 ½ Cups of dried cannelini beans
1 bay leaf
1 tsp salt

Rinse and pick over the beans, put in a medium pot with the beans and full with water so the beans have about two inches of water above them.  Place on medium heat and add salt and bay leaf.  Bring to a boil and then turn heat to low and let simmer until beans are just cooked, not mushy. (For me it was about 90 minutes.)

Meanwhile…

Dice the following:

1 onion
2 carrots
2 stalks of celery
2 sweet bell pepers

Place enough olive oil in a pan to coat the bottom and turn the heat to medium.  Add the chopped vegetables and cook for 5 minutes.  Add salt, pepper, and some crushed red pepper flakes.

Meanwhile, chop:

4 garlic cloves
2 leeks

Add to the pan and cook an additional 5 minutes.

To that, add:

1 – 20 oz. can of diced tomatoes and the liquid.
1 bay leaf
4 or 5 sprigs of thyme, or just the thyme leaves
½ tsp dried basil or oregano or both!

Once the beans are cooked, add them to the pot and enough of the bean liquid to give you a balance of vegetables and broth.

Cook for 10 minutes

Meanwhile, prepare 2 cups of your favorite small pasta.  (I LOVE orcchiete!  Little ears!)

When you pasta is about 2 minutes from being done, drain and add to the soup, cook for another minute or so and serve!

Great with some grated parmesan or pecorino on top!  Yum!

An Anti-Foodie Movement?

As we furrow our brow over the idea of being hairline deep in an economic downturn recession barrel of monkeys, let us look to a bastion of insight, that happens to be named after the venerable ex-President during one of the most financially vivacious times in America, The Hoover Institution.  (Cue clip of The West Wing, during Season 7 where Ainsley Hayes tries to get a job at the White House after working, and hating, said think-tank.)

Is Food the New Sex?

Mary Eberstadt thinks so.  This article is incredible!  We hear a lot of foodies proclaiming their ethics, values, and all-around tastiness, and us foodies are often confronted with peers who don’t quite understand things the way we do.  I don’t feel like going to Burger King or spending my money on factory-farmed, not-so-tasty [insert any kind of meat here] and, when some people learn this they just give you this dirty look.  Well, friends, Ms. Eberstadt is giving all of us a dirty look, and now she’s giving us that look because we are whores (and some of us are even, gasp, gay!) and foodies.  That’s right.  She has now paired food ethics with bra burning, by claiming that the sexual revolution has caused the foodie movement.  Not only that, she claims that since we can no longer place moral values on sexual relationships, we have focused our moral judgments on the things people eat.  She also mentions that monogamous relationships (I’m sure she really means “straight, no-premarital-sex relationships”.) are the only way to be happy.  Exactly.

So, before I delve into my point-by-point response to this very demeaning article, I want ya’ll to read it (it’s not really that long) and comment.  This is pretty important.

[I’ve also realized that our generation deals with life changes by blogging about them.  Now we have to cook for ourselves, we’ve realized it’s fun, and we want to share.  Awesome.]

And if you like shrimp and grits and all that pimp….stuff.

Greetings!

This is my first food blogging experience and I thought I’d start things off with a little southern dish. It’s no secret, I love the south. The culture, food, music, the weather…Maybe I’ll get into Texas and move there next year, but until then, I
have to get creative with grits all by myself.

My boyfriend, John and I went to Mississippi over Christmas break and observed a cooking demo on shrimp and grits. The shrimp were from much a much closer source than the Kroger shrimp I used tonight, but the grits were the same. Apparently if you’re looking for an agro-tourist style B&B, then Falls Mill
in Belvidere, TN is for you! They have a museum, lodging, and tours of their mill for stone ground grits and cornmeal. I highly recommend the grits, and my method for making them is based on the recipe on the back.
And so, here’s an approximate recipe….

Grits!
2 cups of water

1 cup of stone ground grits

1/2 pint heavy cream

2-3 tsp butter

1/3 cup cheddar, swiss, jack, goat, or any other tasty cheese (optional)

12-15 shrimp

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Before cooking the grits, soak them for a few minutes in about 2 cups of water to loosen up the hard, untasty, gritty part.
Bring the water, 1/5 tsp. cream, 1 tsp butter to a gentle boil in a medium sauce pan, add the grits and stir continuously for a couple minutes. Then reduce to very low heat and cover for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add additional tsp of cream as desired as you stir.

Meanwhile, melt 2 tsp butter over medium in a pan, add the garlic. Add the shrimp and stir until they are pink all the way through and slightly brown on the sides.
After the grits are soft, feel free to add more cream, cheese, another tsp of butter, or whatever sounds good to you (basically this is not terribly healthy, but if want an indulgent way to get rid of left over shrimp, it’s a great way. The additional cream is up to you, and you could always use milk. Roasted veggies are great as a substitute for shrimp, too). Serve the grits with shrimp over them, and voila!

PS – I have some pretty sweet pics, but I’m a little confused about how to upload them, so if you have some advice, I’d really appreciate it!

PPS – Any extra cream is great when added to left overs to heat up.

Me v. Cookies

Update:  Photos of a new batch of coconut love.

I am not a baker.  I think it’s the molasses, but I have had two utter failures recently, and refuse to give in.  My standby molasses cookies for xmas turned out to be worse than dog food, and my oatmeal bread was decidely too bitter.  I can make banana bread with continued success, but that’s about it.

But then came the discovery of David Lebovitz’s website.  I’d read Alice Waters and Ches Panisse, and knew of the connection.  His site is so real, interesting, frank, and has some great photos.  Not to mention food.

I found two recipes that I HAD to try from his website.  The first being Pineapple Coconut Cookies, the second, Nonfat Gingersnaps.

First, both recipes are redonkulously simple.  I did have to go out and buy some unsweetened coconut, which I got for cheap, and some applesauce for the Gingersnaps.  Everything else, I had on hand.

I made the Pineapple Coconut Amazing Cookies first, after going out for a beer and some buffalo chili.  At 11:00 pm.  2300.  It was so easy (five ingredients), and friggin’ amazing.  No added butter, fat, or flour.  (Albeit these are not sugar- or fat-free.)  So these are good for our gluten-free friends.  Crispy toasted coconut bits with tangy pineapple.  This is going in my holiday cookie arsenal.  Too bad these were consumed before photos could be taken.

The Gingersnaps were great!  Don’t get me wrong, butter does make it better, but I need to watch my figure!  And these have enough carbs and sugar to make it worth your while.  Very spicy, and the candied ginger chunks are perfect.  Good with tea and ginger always aids digestion for me.  Probably good with Bourbon, too.

Two successes!  I can’t take credit for the recipes, but I can take credit for the execution.

Hey Friends!

After a lot of thinking and ruminating and realizing that on my days off of work I sit around the house and cook, read, and talk to myself about food & drink, that I should really start a blog that is more than just me ruminating about something esoteric.  A lot of people who know me know that I can talk about food all day long.  I have a reasonably very strong opinion about what I like and what I think is good eating.  (Good meaning tasty and ethical/political.)

Top Scallop

So here I am!  It’s time to get this started!  And I need your help!

Blue!

I’m not looking for this blog to be just me, Me, ME.  I want my friends and acquaintances to help me along the way.   What’s fun about food/beverages is we really can’t live without consuming anything, so we have to eat and drink to survive.  And we might as well make what we eat and drink matter.  Moreover, we might as well use this thrice (or more) daily activity to bring us together.  So hop on board.

And Sweet Potatoes

Here’s how it’s going to work (to start with):  First, participate.  Comment, e-mail, facebook, whatever!  Second, if you’d like to post, please let me know!  I’d love guests and co-editors!  Finally, tell people about it!  Food is happy and fun!   During this day and age we can use it to make a difference.

Obama is down there somewhere!

Cheers!