Gastronome

The boy and I spent two months of a Danish winter living in an uninsulated unheatable summer cottage. Consequently, I developed a great appreciation for Danish soups. Asparagus soup is a Danish menu staple. In winter, they make with with canned white asparagus; in summer, they use fresh green stalks.

At the Monterey Market today, Cui was trimming asparagus bunches to make them pretty. This left him with a box full of asparagus trimmings. My eyes got very big — he gave me as much as I wanted. Free asparagus soup!
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This is turning into my weeknight/lazynight/must clean the kitchen blue plate special. You can start dinner and then let it finish in the oven with minimal prep. I’ve been making a few variants: so far the sherry and tomatoes are my favourite. The tomatoes give the sauce a pretty colour and provide small bursts of salty-savory tomato goodness.
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Dinner: February 1, 2006

Originally uploaded by Jenblossom.

I promised lovely meriko a writeup of this recipe, so here goes!

After days of feeling funky, my first day back in the kitchen had to be low-intensity. I had never cooked with lemongrass, though I love the warm, bright flavor of it, so I perused epicurious.com to see what I could come up with, and ended up putting my own spin on this recipe. It was perfect - light, soothing, satisfying, just the sort of restorative meal I needed. This one’s a keeper.

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Last year, I pointed you towards a project conceived and coordinated by Pim - a group of food bloggers put together a tasting menu in hopes of raising tsunami relief funds.

They’re back - Pim’s put together a world-class lineup of food bloggers - and this year they’re offering more than a recipe as part of a menu in order to raise funds for relief in Pakistan. Each blog has put up a prize in a grand raffle. All proceeds from the raffle go directly to Unicef. Go check out the list of prizes on Chez Pim - pick your favorites, and then head over to the JustGiving site to donate. (You’ll need to cite which prize you’re dropping your tickets in the comments field. Don’t forget!)

Go on. It’ll feel good.
(I’m in for the photography lesson from Heidi.)

This year’s NYF was beset by a rather silly theme: “Around The World in Eight Courses”. Despite the wacky travel, the courses seemed to transition nicely from region to region; we even managed to through the cheese course and enjoyed hot chocolate chip cookies with our Veuve Cliquot midnight toasts. The big winners of the evening were definitely the gnocchi, the curries, and the ceviche.

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