From Fancy to Finger Food

Over the summer I decided to treat myself to a cooking class, sort of like a graduation present to myself. I had several classes in mind, but I settled on "Cooking Without a Recipe". My confidence in throwing together a meal from whatever ingredients are around has improved over the last couple of years, but I still felt that I could benefit from a class on flavor pairings and techniques. It was an all-day class, with a demo in the morning and then cooking in groups after lunch. For some reason, I thought a few hours of watching someone else cook might get boring, but it was awesome. Food Network live, but you get to eat the food . We were in groups of three for the afternoon session. We were handed a list of ingredients and told to sketch out a menu (we did three courses). At first, I had really wanted to work with meat, because I feel that that's a weakness of mine, but I was itching to bake that day. I saw oranges and almonds on the list, which reminded me that ...

For someone who adores baking bread and making homemade versions of things you'd normally get at the grocery store, homemade English muffins should have been a no-brainer. And yet somehow, it took a couple of years and the accumulation of three  recipes before I got around to it. Yes, I was busy being educated and whatever, but I never let that stop me before. A couple of weeks ago, though, I finally got the bug and spent a nice weekend morning making the most delicious English muffins I had ever had, by several orders of magnitude. The kicker is that for some reason, I was surprised. I knew they'd be good, better than store-bought, but they were so good . I didn't even toast them after I split them, but ate three in rapid succession with just a smear of butter. My plans for a fancy English muffin egg sandwich went right out the window. Why would anyone ruin this heavenly perfection with eggs and bacon? (You know I'm serious when I say that bacon would not be an impro...

Today, I make good on a promise I made a couple of weeks ago, and boy am I glad that I held myself to that promise. I don't know how/when I had the idea for these, but it was likely one of the more brilliant thoughts I've had in the last few months. These sort of evolved as I was making them. First, I decided that I wanted to make a big batch to have a homemade version of frozen, ready-to-bake tater tots. I've been trying to make meals and snacks to freeze, but not of the frozen-mystery-vegetable-casserole variety. I've made some pizza, now these tater tots, and hopefully soon some dumplings and/or pierogis. It'll be a nice way to avoid eating either fast food or cereal on nights when I get home late. I was watching Iron Chef as I made these (it's amazing how quickly I cook when vicariously afflicted with the anxiety of chefs who are asked to make 5 dishes in one hour ), and as I was grating the cheese, I heard someone say "chives" and realized that...

Well, the heat has officially been turned on here and I am back to the fall I remember from growing up (Maryland fall is quite warm). I can't say I'm exactly welcoming it, since I'm already pining forlornly for ripe, juicy stone fruit and sweet, vibrant strawberries, but there are a few things I enjoy about fall. The cooler weather opens up the possibility of soup for lunch, which I love because it's one of the few things I can make in large batches without getting sick of, and it reheats like a dream. I generally dislike leftovers because I often find reheated food to be a sad imitation of its former self. What once was vibrant is muted, crisp turns to mush. Naturally, this makes lunch a challenge. In fact, a lot of the inspiration for this blog so far has been a desire for lunch foods that either do not require heating or stand up well to the microwave. I think this soup will certainly do the trick. I adore broccoli in all forms, and cheddar is one of my fav...

I have a long list in the Notes app on my phone consisting of recipe ideas I'd like to try.  That way, if I am struck by a lightning bolt from the food gods, I can jot down my idea, wherever I am. This list is entirely separate from the massive  folder of recipe bookmarks on my computer (8 subsections and counting). Rather than being a list of recipes, these are just idle snippets, sometimes from my food daydreams and sometimes from menu items or things I see on TV. They range from mouthwatering (bacon cheddar tater tots??? * ) to intriguing (crème brûlée cookies) to bizarre (chicken tikka tacos...) to patently absurd ("zucchini hash browns?"). I'm sure many of them will show up here eventually, this recipe being the first of them. I made oatmeal cookies a while ago and the idea for this came to me while I was staring at the leftovers. First, cut your apples into thin pieces. It seems that most people are pretty averse to peels in their desserts, so feel fr...

There was one day when I was at Maryland that I had almost no food left except chicken, rice, an avocado, a tomato, a bit of corn, onions, sour cream, and some cheese. We must have been close to a break or something, so I was down to my last bit of food. I think it was fate, and I heeded the sign and made some burrito bowls. I knew they'd be good because it's hard to go wrong with those ingredients, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I found myself wanting leftovers, which is rare. I normally hate leftovers. Food is just so much less exciting the second time around. Something is lost when you reheat it. But I digress. I love this recipe because it's barely even a recipe. Don't have tomatoes? No problem. Pinto beans? Chuck 'em in there. Just about anything goes. The way I usually make it does have a lot of steps, but I promise none of them are difficult, and it's so worth it. Ready to go? Grab whatever vaguely burrito-related ingredient...

Because I've only been here for a little over a month, I've been getting a lot of, "So, how do you like Ann Arbor?" lately. I love it, and there are a lot of reasons why. But I can't stop gushing about the farmers markets. There is at least one every day except Monday and Tuesday! And these are no puny affairs, either. I visited the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, which is held twice a week during the warmer months and continues once a week during the winter, on Saturday. This market is essentially a weekly community event, with a semi-permanent market space (it's covered, so you can happily browse the tables in most weather conditions), and at least 20 tables, probably closer to 25 or 30. I wish I had brought my camera, but as it turns out, I needed every inch of space I had in my bag (and then some). I had absolutely no fresh produce aside from a few potatoes, so I was prepared to stock up. However, the sight of all of the tables overflowing (literally) with la...

Does anyone else remember drinkable yogurt? It was healthy snacking for the truly lazy (no spoon to wash!). I thought of drinkable yogurt the other day for the first time in years, as I was trying to come up with more exciting healthy snack options than just eating fruit all day long. Don't get me wrong, I love fruit. But it's necessary to spice things up sometimes. In an effort to curb migraines and just generally be healthy, I've been trying to minimize the amount of processed food that I eat (we migraine people also need to eat regularly, hence all the snacks - or at least that's what I tell myself and others). In keeping with that, I use plain yogurt in my smoothies, since it generally has little to no extra stuff thrown in. I figured I'd just mix in whatever I wanted to make a non-smoothie snack out of it. I had initially intended to make strawberry yogurt of the regular, eat-with-a-spoon variety to satisfy these snack cravings. However, when I went t...

I've recently been trying to be more conscious of how much food I waste, so I've been reading a lot about inventive ways to use scraps, bits of produce that would normally go in the garbage or the compost bin, etc. We waste an unbelievable amount of food in the U.S. , and I'm definitely guilty of contributing to that, especially when I buy an ingredient for a specific dish and don't know what to do with the rest of the jar/bottle/etc. Eventually I'd like to start a page here where I can list tips I've found for reducing food waste, but in the meantime, I'll share this carrot top pesto recipe. Did you know you could eat carrot tops? I had always subconsciously assumed that they were either inedible or unpleasant in taste, but not too long ago, I read about using them in salads or in place of herbs, which is where I saw the idea for carrot top pesto. Last time I went grocery shopping, I made sure my carrots still had their tops so I could try this out. Fi...

Often, when I tell people I love to cook, they ask me, "What's your favorite thing to cook?" I suppose they're just making conversation, but I never really know how to answer a question like that. Are they looking for a specific dish, or maybe a general category like "chicken"? Either way, I don't have a favorite thing to cook. What I love about cooking is that there is always something new to try, so I rarely repeat recipes more than once or twice (except for a few staples). That being said, there are some ingredients that I just can't get enough of, one of which is cauliflower. Weird, I know, but in my defense, I'm writing a blog purely devoted to food. I should be allowed a few bizarre food obsessions. On my first grocery trip to my beautiful new grocery store, I found a lovely head of purple cauliflower. I knew I wanted to do something fun with it, and I got my opportunity a few days later when I was assessing my lunch options. To...