I think most eating adventures are better with a friend. Or two, or 7. You know, the more the merrier, unless that means that everyone finishes off the delectables before you get your share. So, sharing in moderation. But sharing none the less.


We love dinner parties. We love giving them, and we love going to them. The husband and I make a point to have them at our home as often as we can. There is something really interesting when you bring people together to eat. It can be the simplest menu possible, if you add a couple extra places, it becomes more fun, more interesting, overall a much better time than you would have on your own. Don't get me wrong a romantic dinner for two is great, but it means something entirely different.

We recently had a few friends over for a dinner using heavily the excuse that it was because a friend was coming from out of town, though we would have had these friends over regardless of travel plans. Making a classic french meal consisting of mushroom soup, frisee salad, Bœuf bourguignon (which I'm realizing we make way too often), and a lemon tart. It was decadent, and lush, and would have meant nothing if not for the people that were at the table.

I think this is why people eating alone is such a sad thing. Having coffee by one's self, or watching a movie, there are activities that are reflective, meditative. They can be done alone and still deliver the same result. But you see someone sitting in a restaurant alone and you automatically get some kind of pit at the bottom of your stomach. That person has no one there to share this ritual experience with.

Gor, that's depressing. Makes me want to want to eat more. Maybe this is why all of America is considered obese, except for stick figured Paris Hiltons. The European communities relish the chance to eat in groups, large family meals are a weekly if not daily, if not every meal occurrence. Conversation is plentiful and the food is too. And yet, we're the country that has the weight problems. All fast and processed food aside, I think this is a cultural community issue.

So go out there and eat with people! Go on, you heard me! Eat a lot, and make it meaningful!

I'll be true to you, ragu

I told someone today I was going to make ragu tonight. He seemed surprised and asked if I really eat that stuff. Yes, he was confusing a ragu with Ragu, the pasta-sauce impostor, which is fine if you're in college and poor and have no taste buds. The former is a completely different thing all together.

The Wiki world defines a ragu as a meat sauce, the word it self coming from French word, ragoût, which is from ragoûte, meaning to retrieve taste. I don't know if that's in reference to cooking things for a long time (the fact you get so hungry waiting for it you just want to "retrieve" it from the stove and chow down), or, that usually in the way you make a ragu, you layer so many flavors you have to make an effort to retrieve their individual flavors.

My ragu usually is a mix of the tradish veg combo, (onion, celery, and carrot) with a couple of garlic cloves, tonight it also includes mushrooms, finely diced; normally I use a mix of ground lamb and ground pork. The wee-sheep was not to be found at the local mart, so I settled for the crude beef instead. Basically you cook the you-know-what out of everything browning little lovely brown bits in the pan. I, then, add a crap load of white wine and chicken stock. Why not beef stock? I really don't know....hmmm. I have not one iota, but that's what I use. And it rocks.

If I'm feeling sassy, I add bacon first and cook the veg in the golden goodness.

The husband loves this meal. It's perfect on a neg degree night (like the -30 winds we have tonight). Like the afore mentioned Irish Stew, it is comfort food through and through.

The first time I had a real ragu was from the source. I was in Italy for multiple weeks and several friends and I had been wanting to try this hole in the wall place that was supposed to be fantastic. Forgive that I can't remember the name, but it was in Lucca near Cafe Leo, but maybe a little north; south of the hostle almost directly. VERY small and their lunch was less expensive than dinner. So we went.

The ravioli with a ragu was one of the specialties. And turns out it's kind of a common thing in the area.

Okay...this stuff was (MAN!) heaven in a bowl. There were only 5 or 6 ravioli, but of course in Italian style, it was the perfect amount.

So, maybe two days later, I'm a lot poorer and having to scrape by, we find a cafeteria style place...what is one of their usual dishes? THE ravioli alla ragu, and it's also amazing, though of course a different recipe. I eat this for like 4 lunches straight when a girlfriend reminds me it's still pasta and no Italian would eat it like that.

So, I stop, and only have it every couple of days.

The trick is you have to let it cook, simmer, bubble away.

Julia Child once said she didn't like Italian cooking because of how few ingredients it includes and how easy it is to make most all of the dishes. She didn't consider it real cooking.

Totally unreal for sure.

Stewing for Grian

It’s winter, and in Chicago the wind blows hard and the temperature drops into the negs, and you feel the depressing nature of how little the sun shines. In these times, comfort food is important; this kind of noshing makes you feel warm and whole, so you can go out and dig your car out from under the 4 feet of snow and ice that has piled around it.

From time in memoriam, and before, people have stewed things. Whether it included meager roots and berries, or wild game and cellar veggies, this form of cooking was a way to make tough meat or the like tender and eatable. In this way, poor peasants were creating the ultimate comfort foods.

Dishes like beef bourguignon, coq au vin, soup de poisson and bouillabaisse (not the same thing), feijoada, and tons of other varieties from various countries have satisfied those of lesser social rankings for hundreds of years before they were seen on Michelin starred restaurant menus. They’ve stayed in existence much longer than the foods of nobility which were costly at the time, but not as creative as those of the serfs.

Creativity out of necessity? New concept? Hmmm.

I have stewed over many a stew. Usually, I go for a bourguignon-type deal with cheap beef cuts and veg, and lots of red wine. (The wine adds acid, and that is mucho importante when cooking, just as important as salt content. Most people add salt when they should really add an acid. In that case you just have really salty still bland food.) The recipe I made last night, an Irish Stew, had not only an entire bottle of wine, but 1/3 cup of vinegar as well. It had huge chunks of carrots and potatoes (hello, it’s Irish), fresh thyme and bay leaf.

One thing though. If I was an Irish peasant, you can bet I wouldn’t have a whole bottle of red wine that I was going to throw into some meat, I would be drinking it. So there must be something else that this recipe was missing for it to be truly Irish. I think it was beer; though beer, also, I would think an Irishman would want to keep to booze on…then again these stews were made by house wives.

Maybe one day, frequently intoxicated Grian O’Bryan came home and is wife Patty had gotten sick of him tipping the bottle while she was trying to cook and raise their 8 children, attempting to find what little variety in her extremely boring child filled existence that she could, and she dumped his entire brew stash into her stock pot. And Grian came home and freaked out, then they sat down to his evening meal and it was an amazing, delicious, unique experience. And Patty never looked back.

I like to think this is how it was. That’s how great recipes get discovered every day.

This stew was really great actually. Next time I am going to try it with a little of Grian’s favorite brew and see what happens.

See Ya' 2008, May You Take Your Troubles With Ya'

So it's been a bit!

What with the holidays and all, things have been busy.

I have been around the block culinarily speaking. Upon returning home to Chicago we had a delish new years.

It all started with an amazing new years eve. I, like probably most of you, joined friends toasting 2008 (even though it was kind of a shoddy year). A friend of ours had us over along with several others. Started off with a cranberry and champagne cocktail, and then proceeded to drink a lot of really bad booze. I mean some of it was fine, and some of it was cheap. Not that there's anything wrong with cheap, but WOW, what cheap bottles we drank. I have to say the prosecco was not bad at all though, oooooh and the rose, man that was good--I have no idea what it was! It probably come to at least 10 empty bottles total...most consumed by the 6 of us that stayed well into the night...

She had lots of yummy snacks. A brie wheel that she covered with a boozed sauce which melted the cheese instantly and it became a lovely goo. And her artichoke spread was great! Though by that point I was too hammered to remember exactly how she made it, but I do remember thinking it was really good.

Returning home well past midnight (oh how late it was), I awoke an extremely short time later and started re hydrating. We had been invited to a 2009 Dinner at another friend's, and I was cooking a side....and baking, which I have to say I am crap at.

But all went well! See, you knew it would turn out okay!

A very good friend of ours lovingly cooked a standing beef rib roast, and served it with both a horseradish sauce and a gravy. He made twice baked potatoes which were heavenly, a salad, YORKSHIRE PUDDING!!!!, and collard greens, which in his family they eat for good fortune in the new year. I contributed a bowl of black eyed peas, a tradition in my family for luck. Now here's the thing. There was this vegetarian that was supposed to come, so we left bacon out of all of the veg dishes, even though it would have been AMAZING!

She did not come.

Neither did the person allergic to mustard. That's a whole other story.

I could not put the traditional porky favorite into my BEANS! I really don't know why I'm making a big deal about this. I sauteed two onions, added a few sprigs of fresh thyme, then sauteed for another bit. Then added salt and Veg stock. It was so good. I mean this was a vegetarian meal I would tell vegetarians there was meat in just so I could eat more of it. SO GOOD.

And I baked a chocolate torte...who knew it was going to come out as well as it did. It was lush and light in texture, but rich and velvety. Ahhh, we left the leftover cake at our friend's, I have to say I was a little sad about that. I could have gotten up that night and eaten the whole thing straight from the fridge.

All in all, 2008 went out the way the whole year felt, one blurry drunken mess, though full of friends and loved ones singing and dancing in their various drunken states. And 2009 came in like a medium rare slice of roast beef with all the fixin's. And I have to say, that's one hell of a way to ring in a new year.

~Happy 2009~

Here's to you Captain Vegetable (Part 1 of a few, I'm sure)

Ah, the noble carrot, that passionate parsnip, you rugged rutabaga. Yes, the vegetable kingdom is wide and marvelous. Though we might not always think of a head of cabbage as being the most important thing in the refrigerator, there are many people around the world to whom these particular items are the bread and butter of their diet.

I am not one of them.

I am a carnivore, I like meat; but I am one who respects the vegetable, as meat is costly and you can only eat so much of if before you are...let's say, plugged up. Take my recent kick.

Salads.

Simple I know, but I'm really into salads of all kinds at the moment, preferably of the veg variety, with added proteins (as opposed to a mayonnaise salad like ham salad). The desk job I work part time has a fantastic cafe with a huge salad bar, lined with a daily variety of vegetation and proteins, as well as a hefty selection of different cheeses and crouton like toppings. I'll create a little mosh of regular lettuce, fresh spinach, carrots, and cabbage, as well as the occasional string beans, or kidney beans, et cetera. They have an array of chopped meats and cold fish as well. My protein of choice is the egg.

I could go on and on about eggs, so let's leave that for another time.

But eggs are darn good in a salad, the French knew it, and their nicoise salad (yes, named for Nice) is a fine example.

The Greeks have one of my all time favorites, Horiatiki is really the only kind of salad you get in Greece. I mean of course they have other kinds, but this it THE salad. Comprised of cucumber, ripe tomatoes, red onion, kalamata olives, feta cheese, mixed with salt, pepper, dried oregano, and olive oil. I believe that the woman who cooked for us while we lived in Greece also added white wine vinegar to the dressing. But that was it; so simple, so fresh, and it would keep for a long while, already dressed, unlike lettuce, which wilts after a time. We had this salad every day; it is a staple, and one of the things the husband and I missed most after our residency in Greece came to an end.

Every culture has it's version of a salad like this. I mean, the Italians put tomato, basil, and fresh mozzarella together, and it's become posh nosh in our young country. And people have been eating these types of salads for centuries, long before ranch dressing came into being--because they were healthy, and made of practical, on hand ingredients; and they were and are really, REALLY good.

Not to mention healthy. And fun!

I bet some kids out there would rather put together a colorful salad than finger paint. I know I would. Finger painting is messy and the red color always smells funny. Not to mention you cannot eat finger paints that you find in the art department at Target. That is a huge downer. Definitely should make one rethink finger painting altogether.

Anyway. Here's to you, you saucy salad (and sometimes not so saucy, depending on your taste). May you continue to reinvent yourself and cleanse our pallets; help us stay fit and keep our innards regular.

Primal Steer

Here in the land of beef, there are cows a plenty and as much meat as you can fathom. Just because the price of moo-moos has gone up in recent times doesn't make it any less delicious, or less craved. Or carved.

The husband comes from a farming family, many of which to this day raise beef cattle, and have on occasion provided us with cuts of amazing beef from their grass fed creatures. There is no comparison between this prior mentioned meat and what you get at the stores, even the best butchers. The fresh-factor is incredible. As soon as I am allowed to purchase a deep freeze, we will be purchasing a quarter or even half a cow for our very own, and then there will be beef a plenty for 6 months or more. Prime Partying!

I had never actually had home cooked prime rib before last night. This cut of meat is more expensive than the tenderloin, it seems--or at least close in price. It was almost 10 lbs for the 9 family members that were at table. You have to realize there were 5 men at the table, all of whom are exemplary eaters. We had only a little left in the end for treats today at lunch. As the chefs du jour, we chose a potato gratin, potatoes with 4 cups of cream, garlic, thyme and chives to go along, and a simple salad with homemade dressing. The Roast was cooked bone in with a crust of fresh horseradish and garlic, which was not curiously strong at all until after it was cooked for 2 hours. It was a perfect med-rare, and it was silent round the table after serving time. We did an accompanying mushroom sauce for the topper.

We brought a couple of bottles of the vine with us, and this year's beaujolais nouveau went along like a song.

This new holiday tradition in the husband's family's house will be much missed next year when we're with mine in Kansas, so we'll be expecting the P.R. at Thanksgiving, instead of the noble bird.

Happy Holidays to all!

Oooooooklahoma...

The Holidays are notorious for great food and time spent with family. They are also accompanied by frequent visits to other friends and families, and not a lot of time for relaxation. However, when we go stay with the husband's fam, it's quiet and peaceful, perfect for two city dwellers to kick back for a couple of days.

I have braved one of the things I fear most and have flown to western Oklahoma with my husband for the festivities. I hate flying, though one of the airports did have an Au bon pain.

Let's back track.

We had Christmas Eve at home in Chicago. I sing at a midnight service on Christmas Eve, so it limits us to when we can get to the homesteads. Christmas Eve for us was filled with more eating out than in as we were burdened with laundry washing and packing.

For a late breakfast/brunch, a favorite in Lincoln Square: Cafe Salmarie. The husband wished for (as Wooster puts it) E&B. And I just couldn't undo the lovely cleaning that he had done in our kitchen so didn't care what I ate as long as it was good and made for me somewhere else. And these guys, creators of prime pies, cakes, tarts, and breads, didn't disappoint. Corned Beef Hash with poached eggs. They make it all in house, and I highly recommend heading over there for an indulgence. You rarely find the hash on menus done as such.

I thought the eggs, cooked perfectly, could have been salted just a tad more, but the hash was perfectly seasoned, and cured really nicely, with home style potatoes instead of the traditional shredded. The Coffee here is lovely and they have great chilaquiles as well.

Dinner was simple, a little husband sauteed manchego and breadcrumb encrusted chicken with sweet potato fries and corn; and then it was off to sing.

After waking up at 3:30am to make a 6 am flight, I have to confess...nothing sounded better at 5am than a skillet burrito form McD's. I know, I know. Who knew. I did not however have McD's coffee, which I think is crap. The X-mas blend from Seattle's most notorious instead, which actually I think is not as xmasy as it could be, kind of bland this year compared to other roasts. At the Dallas airport changing planes there were yummy pastries to be had. I really prefer the Chocolate croissant the way the french do it and not like most American bakers, with actual pieces of bittersweet chocolate in the middle, rather than a paste of sorts.

The husband's mother is a great cook, and for lunch we had chicken and egg noodles with mashed potatoes, and green beans and stuffing, and dinner was chicken fried steak with all the fixin's. Our holiday meal is today, a we are awaiting more family to arrive.

When one is tired and burdened, a mother's cooking is in a class by itself. Warm and simple and just plain good. I have no idea how she makes any of the above, but I can say that it is no fuss, wonderful food.