Food & Wine (November 2009)
So we've begun our Thanksgiving "auditions," trying out recipes for the big day.
We were drawn to this Fall Harvest Salad for a two main reasons. First -- obviously -- it sounded amazing: fresh autumn greens, roasted butternut squash, pumpkin seeds, pecans. What's not to love?
Second, though, this salad was kind of a redux for us. A second chance.
172 Recipes From 9 Leading Food Magazines
Thanksgiving is food magazines' time to shine. In years past, many of the food mags we read have used their November issues to really push the limits with innovative spins on Thanksgiving faves.
Sure, there are usually plenty of approachable standbys. But the classics usually sit alongside some really envelope-pushing ideas: Throw a Thanksgiving clambake! How about a Pacific Rim-fusion dinner? Truffle-laden turkey! Indian-spiced sweet potato gnocchi!! Vegan French-Vietnamese gluten-free stuffing!!!
Not so this year. From the looks of this year's crop of Thanksgiving food mags, 2009 is all about simplicity and basic, standard dishes. It's the Great Recession, and everybody just wants a big ol' piece of pumpkin pie.
Just look at what the magazines call out from the newsstands:
Martha Stewart Living: "Thanksgiving, simple and sensational"
Fine Cooking: "All the classics made easy"
Food Network: "Easy Thanksgiving"
Bon Appétit: "Thanksgiving made easy"
Everyday Food: "A Thanksgiving menu that's easy to make"
We have nine November issues in front of us, and nearly all of them are focused on "traditional" menus that are very straightforward.
The food magazines may have stuck to the classics this year, but that doesn't mean the options are limited. In the nine magazines we have, there are, in fact, 172 Thanksgiving recipes.
All those options can leave you more than a little stressed out. It's all too easy to get wrapped up in the idea that Thanksgiving has to be perfect and if you don't select the right stuffing recipe, your mother-in-law will break into tears at the table.
But fear not! We've cataloged all 172 options below so that you, dear reader, can browse this year's recipes and make some selections for yourself. Over the next three weeks, we're going to be cooking and writing as many recipes as we can fit in. We'll post our photos and let you know how they turn out.
And as you're gearing up for the holiday, if you have questions, post them here and we'll do our best to answer them.
Okay, ready for the recipes?
Continue reading "Thanksgiving Guide 2009: What the Food Magazines Are Recommending" »
Food & Wine (October 2009)
Things this Beet Risotto could represent at your upcoming Halloween party:
-- Brains
-- Guts
-- The embodiment of your childhood nightmares
Yeah, there's no getting around it: This beet risotto is the most unappetizing-looking dish we've made in a long, long time.
We'll allow that we may have overcooked the risotto a little, leaving it a little on the gummy side. But with its garish blood-red color and gelatinous, gooey consistency, this beet risotto looked, in a word, gross. We went back and forth over what it resembled the most: beef carpaccio? Fancy Feast?
One thing was for sure, though: This beet risotto would be right at home at your upcoming haunted house.
So how'd this gory side dish actually taste?
Food & Wine (September 2009)
We're not big poachers. As a cooking method, it's just never on our radar. In fact, we've only ever poached something three times -- two different egg dishes and some rhubarb for a dessert.
But this Poached Salmon with Corn and White Wine-Butter Sauce might just bring poaching into regular rotation around The Bitten Word house. It's quick and easy, and it wraps the salmon in light, lovely flavors.
Continue reading "Poached Salmon with Corn and White Wine–Butter Sauce" »
Don't you hate it when you have all this lemon confit just lying around, and you never know what to do with it but there it is, sitting in your fridge, making you feel guilty for not using it, and then finally you're just, like, "GOD, lemon confit, quit judging me," but the confit just keeps sitting there, staring you in the face?
Okay, maybe not.
But seriously, we'd made our lemon confit: packed the lemons in sugar and salt and preserved them in the fridge for a couple weeks.
But what to do with it?
Eric Ripert, the chef whose confit recipe we had used, says he uses it to flavor simmering dishes like pork and beans, or to make a lemon butter. They're also apparently a staple of Moroccan and North African dishes. Food author David Lebovitz uses preserved lemons in everything from sauteed vegetables to tapenade to Israeli couscous to ice cream.
We've come up with our own lemon confit dish -- far simpler than any of those others -- that we absolutely love. This Broiled Snapper with Lemon Confit could not be any easier -- or more tasty or more healthful. We've already made it twice in the past week!
Food & Wine (July 2009)
"Lemon confit" is one of those food phrases that sounds so complicated, so mysterious, so wonderfully French. It conjures images of culinary school, "Top Chef" and Michelin-rated restaurants.
At least it did for us.
But then we came across this incredibly simple confit recipe in the July Food & Wine. It's from the chef Eric Ripert (who, uh, went to culinary school, has made numerous appearances on "Top Chef" and who runs a four three-star Michelin-rated restaurant).
Ripert's method is so easy, though, that it's taken lemon confit from a beguiling menu term to a staple in our refrigerator.
But what exactly is confit? How the heck do you confit a lemon? And what can you do with it?
Initially, we had no idea, so of course we plunged ahead with making a batch.
Food & Wine (June 2009)
We're in a little bit of a lull with our CSA share right now. It's the time of the season when we're transitioning from spring vegetables to the summer harvest. We're not getting leafy greens or asparagus spears anymore, but it's not quite time for tomatoes, squash and corn.
In this little interlude, our weekly share has included things like: one kohlrabi, three turnips, some kale, and a smattering of other things, like carrots, onions and chard.
Of course we don't want our veggies to go to waste, but what to do with one kohlrabi? How could we use up three little purple turnips?
Time to get creative!
Continue reading "Turnip-and-Kohlrabi Slaw with Ginger Vinaigrette" »
Fine Cooking (June/July 2009) | Martha Stewart Living (July 2009) | Food & Wine (June 2009)
For Clay's birthday dinner, we were hopelessly undecided about dessert and went round and round in conversation about it. Should we make a cake? A pie? We knew three things for certain:
1. There had to be chocolate.
2. Dessert needed to seem special but not too fussy.
3. And we were going to make ice cream.
As we began to pick out recipes, we found ourselves drawn to three in particular. We couldn't make them all, so instead we settled on an option that the kids seem to find all the rage these days: a mash-up.
Food & Wine (June 2009)
We've made it to the final round of our trio of summer salads.
Following the light, citrusy Honey-Lemon Dressing and the rich Creamy Feta Vinaigrette, this Basil Vinaigrette sounded ideal!
Food & Wine (June 2009)
Our salad trio progresses on!
We love the idea of a light, summery dressing, like the Honey-Lemon Dressing we served with watercress.
But we just couldn't resist this Creamy Feta Vinaigrette. It sounded so bold and rich and delicious -- we couldn't pass it up!
