Gastronome

I was SERIOUSLY craving potato salad and made this recipe from Epicurious, slightly altered. God, I love that site.

If only I had a digital camera to show off my creations like you guys! (Hmmm, except that what’d you see is a big ungarnished white glob in a bowl on a very messy counter.)

Potato Salad with Garlic Mayonnaise and Chives follows!
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See what happens when meriko leaves the country? In lieu of our scheduled Sunday Dinner, I tried to pick up the slack and learned how to cook a new vegetable. Last Sunday I left Food Network on while I cleaned the tv room and caught Bobby Flay making kale, a veggie I know my husband loves but rarely makes for himself. I had to try.
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Mmmmbeans

Originally uploaded by Michael Dietsch.

This is a “guest post” of sorts from my fiance Mike, which meriko suggested we share here:

Fresh limas from my grandparents’ garden were a staple of summertime dinners when I was a kid. We’d usually overboil them, like we did with most veggies, and then drown ‘em in butter and salt.
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In my continuing quest to build meatless entrees in spite of being raised to consider meat-starch-veggie as your basic meal, I cooked up some protein in the form of the following dish from the Herbfarm Cookbook. On checking the book out from the library I did a little research that informed me that eating at the Herbfarm itself tends to cost $150-200 per person. Ouch. Won’t be doing that anytime soon.

At any rate, the cookbook’s free from the library, and the beans were dandy. Any requests for other postings from the book?

Oh yeah, and please witness that since reactivating my gastronome account i have been contributing! honest i have! seeeee meriko?
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borrachos

Originally uploaded by Jenblossom.

Growing up, one thing my brother and I always looked forward to at family gatherings was my Grandma’s “Drunken Beans”, or Borrachos. They get their name from the addition of beer, which adds a nice richness and the slightest hint of sweetness to balance the saltiness of the pork and zing of pickled jalapenos. These humble beans are super easy to make, and taste even better the next day -
they’re a great addition to any summer menu, but are hearty enough to carry you through the winter months, too.

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When in South Carolina a couple of times I was introduced to the extraordinarily yummy mustard-based BBQ sauce there. This recipe for sauce is dang easy and comes pretty close to what I tasted there. It’s best with pulled pork, but I imagine you could use it anywhere you’d use BBQ sauce.
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This evening, while I pondered over what to accompany my ribeye steak, and deciding that the green beans I had just weren’t enough, I looked at my catch of fresh ingredients from the farmer’s market, and discovered I had conveniently picked up some fresh corn and basil (actually, my harvest of non-fruits were just corn, beans and basil).

Last year, at about the same time of year, meriko treated me to a delicious variation to her normal risotto recipe, which adds some corn kernels right before the end (like 1-2 minutes left) and a good handful of corsely chopped basil at the end.

Serve in a open bowl with your favorite steak, this is as close to summer bliss as you’ll ever have. You’ll want to mop up the juices from the risotto and the steak. Thanks meriko!

Super easy and really delicious, this side dish pairs perfectly with simply prepared pork.

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Last night, I had to feed a craving… a craving for something rich and creamy, warm and comforting. I wanted, no *needed* macaroni and cheese. And no blue box concoction would do. In fact, I took it a few steps beyond your standard from-scratch recipe by using a blend of five cheeses, and topping it with crunchy panko crumbs and fresh herbs. This was most certainly not your momma’s macaroni and cheese - it was simply decadent.

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This dish was the surprise hit at Thanksgiving 2004. Since we were doing the potatoes mashed, I wanted the sweet potatoes to have a different kind of texture. We decided to wedge them into pieces and roast them in the style of patatas bravas, and William whipped up a very tasty chipotle-maple sauce to accompany them. We used two preparations of chipotle in the recipe - Tierra Vegetables’ chipotle powder and chipotles en adobo. I don’t particularly care for sweet potatoes, but even I thought these were pretty darned good. Apparently, we should have made more sauce….

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