cook pot stories

It's winter here in Kansas City. I've discovered this means weather at least as variable as in New England. Mark Twain famously said, "If you don't like the weather in New England, wait a minute." Considering the man was from Missouri, where we've had one day with a high of 12F followed by another with a high of 45F, he knew what he was talking about. When the weather turns cold and dark I bake. (I know, wheat is considered evil by many these days. I go back and forth about it. Right now, my need for mental and emotional comfort is winning, so I bake. If that bothers you, move on to a different post. ) I love the feel of dough in my hands, the heat from the oven on my cheeks and most especially the smell. Oh, the magical chemistry of flour, water and a few other things! The kitchen light becomes as welcoming as a sunny day when my home smells like baking. Soon the house feels cozy and warm, a fortress against the grey outside. I've most recently ma...

‎This is my advice to people: Learn how to cook, try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun. -Julia Child

Really. I'm not kidding. I recently took a three-day road trip from Kansas City to Boston. When I take long drives like this I try to stop at interesting places along the way, though my desire to stop is balanced by my need to get where I'm going. In the past I have seen amazing outsider art , giant muffler men and had some wonderful (and terrible) local cuisine. This time, I stopped at Marlene's Restaurant and Crane's Country Store in Williamsburg, MO . It's a tiny town with a closed museum and a historical road. The restaurant is housed in the same building as a sweet little museum and an antique shop. The antique shop is more of a thrift store, but there were hidden treasures, among them this: As you know, I love cookbooks, especially old quirky ones. How could I resist? At first glance it's a typical 1940's era cooking pamphlet, full of recipes and advice for the modern housewife.  On a  closer perusal I found this: It’s ...

“Cooking is like love, it should be entered into with abandon or not at all.” – Harriet Van Horne

“Life itself is the proper binge.”  – Julia Child

Da Capo Take the used-up heart like a pebble 
and throw it far out. Soon there is nothing left.
 Soon the last ripple exhausts itself 
in the weeds. Returning home, slice carrots, onions, celery.
 Glaze them in oil before adding 
the lentils, water, and herbs. Then the roasted chestnuts, a little pepper, the salt. 
Finish with goat cheese and parsley. Eat. You may do this, I tell you, it is permitted.
 Begin again the story of your life. — Jane Hirshfield

No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of present, the wisdom of cookbook writers. - Laurie Colwin

I am not a glutton. I am an explorer of food. - Erma Bombeck

Coolness of the melons 
flecked with mud 
in the morning dew.


 Matsuo Basho Translated by Robert Hass

The first time I ever ate anything calling itself Mexican food was probably when I was little and my mother prepared tacos at home. If you grew up in the U.S. anytime before 2000 you have probably had these, too. Brown some ground beef with the seasonings in the packet; chop up some lettuce, tomatoes and onions; stuff it all into hard taco shells with some grated cheddar cheese. Tacos. Or something resembling them, anyway. It was years before I had real Mexican food, but somehow I caught the idea that Mexican cooking is one of our great cuisines and often overlooked. The balance of seasonings, the emphasis on fresh ingredients and the incredible range of what we call Mexican cooking have won me over. Give me a good mole´ any day. Since moving to Kansas City I've had excellent Mexican food, from mole´ to menudo and various things that I can't really identify but taste great. It's been a delight. My local supermarkets have aloe, cactus pads, dried chiles and more. Yum....

How can I describe it? Good food is like music you can taste, color you can smell. There is excellence all around you. You need only to be aware to stop and savor it. - Chef Auguste Gusteau, Ratatouille, 2007

"If you're afraid of butter use cream." - Julia Child Sounds like good advice for life in general. Fear one thing? Use something else just as rich.

“The value of the myth is that it takes all the things we know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by ‘the veil of familiarity.’ The child enjoys his cold meat, otherwise dull to him, by pretending it is buffalo, just killed with his own bow and arrow. And the child is wise. The real meat comes back to him more savory for having been dipped in a story…by putting bread, gold, horse, apple, or the very roads into a myth, we do not retreat from reality: we rediscover it.” ― C.S. Lewis, On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature

"Mosquitoes remind us that we are not as high up on the food chain as we think." - Tom Wilson

Today was the first delivery from our new CSA, the first one we've joined since moving to Missouri. It's through Kevin's work and is considerably cheaper than any we found in Massachusetts. It also has much more variety. Today we got: baby bok choy 2 nice cukes cherry tomatoes pickled beets a lb of local cheddar sourdough from a local bakery a lb of local organic beef a cookbook (Eating Local) honey sticks from local apiaries and a dozen eggs that came complete with a story. The eggs and story are, of course, what charmed me. It reads: Good Morning! We arrived home last night after being out of state for several days to attend Grandmom Edna Shrock's funeral. Brother-in-law LaVern Swartzentruber did a good job taking care of the chickens and gathering eggs. This morning our little girls are so excited to find the first red strawberries out in the garden. Enjoy your day!  I'm thrilled. Missouri is looking better every day. (c) 2013 Laura...

“And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart: Your seeds shall live in my body, And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart, And your fragrance shall be my breath, And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons.” ― Kahlil Gibran

So, it snowed last night in Kansas City. In May. It was actually quite beautiful, the new green leaves shaking off the rapidly accumulating snow. I thought the trees looked like teenagers, offended that they were cold but not quite willing to do anything about it. I know. these late snowfalls are harmful to the new growth, but really, I'm sure you can imagine what I mean. My response to unexpected cold weather is predictable. I make soup. I'd already been planning to make french onion soup last night, the snow just made it all the more appropriate. I love french onion soup, it's my go-to choice in many restaurants. I'd never made it before and decided this would be a good time, since soon it will be too warm for the long cooking process and, besides, I had some great beef stock in the freezer. I used the recipe in Julia Child's classic, Mastering the Art of French Cooking . It's clear, simple and really, really good. Because this is a story blog as well ...

In general, I think, human beings are happiest at table when they are very young, very much in love or very alone. - M.F.K. Fisher, An Alphabet for Gourmets

Perhaps the World Ends Here Joy Harjo The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live. The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it has been since creation, and it will go on. We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe at the corners. They scrape their knees under it. It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be human. We make men at it, we make women. At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers. Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our children. They laugh with us at our poor falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back together once again at the table. This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella in the sun. Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place to hide in the shadow of terror. A place to celebrate the terrible victory. We have given birth on this table, and have prepared our parents for burial here. At ...

My only regret in life is that I did not drink more champagne. - John Maynard Keynes

Edible, adj.:  Good to eat, and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm. -Ambrose Bierce, the Devil's Dictionary

“We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.”  ―  David Mamet ,  Boston Marriage

Last night my sweetie and I went to Blue Nile , an Ethiopian restaurant here in Kansas City. I've had and enjoyed Ethiopian food before, so this was a treat. We had a groupon, given to us by my friend Priscilla , which gave us an appetizer and a sampler platter. If you've never had Ethiopian food before, here are a few things you need to know. Ethiopia is a land-locked Western African nation. It was a rich and turbulent history with many linguistic, cultural and religious influences. It's not a wealthy nation, so this influences the cuisine. The cuisine consists of vegetable or legume stews and spicy meat dishes. It's common for meat dishes in tropical climates tobe quite spicy; this acts both as a preservative and to mask mild decay. These stews are served on a large platter, on top of a spongy flatbread called injera. It's often slightly sour tasting, since it's a natural sourdough. You eat Ethiopian food by tearing off a bit of injera with your righ...

Our recent move to Kansas City means I've discovered some wonderful new foods. It's been great, exploring the local restaurants and markets. It also means a few of the things I am accustomed to just aren't available or have become prohibitively expensive.  Moving to KC also means developing new relationships. One way to do this is by mining your connections; work is the most obvious, so last week Kevin and I hosted a dinner party for some of his work colleagues. When he first arrived at his new job he was teasingly told that the new guy needs to feed all of his new work buddies. We asked what they wanted and they suggested something from New England.  Now, although I lived in New England for over 20 years, I never really took to the local cuisine. I loved the fresh seafood that is so abundant, but most of the New England food I experienced was  either fresh, simple and seasonal (yay!) or bland, solid and designed to get you through a long, cold winter (eh). Ye...

Okay, so I don't live in New England anymore. But in a burst of sympathy for my New England friends, and in celebration of the easily accessible Mexican ingredients here in Kansas City, I made pork posole for dinner tonight. Warm, spicy enough, fragrant, comforting... just the thing to eat while holed up from a blizzard. Or while thinking about people you love in a blizzard. Or, really, anytime you want something rich, comforting, and have lovely tomatillos on hand. I added olive oil to a large pot, then sautéed a chopped onion 6 cloves of garlic I sprinkled all of this with about a tablespoon of oregano a few shakes of cinnamon and clove about a teaspoon of cumin and a few bay leaves for good measure After a few minutes I added a seeded, chopped green pepper 2 jalapeño peppers, seeds in, roughly chopped And a few minutes later I added 12 husked, rinsed and roughly chopped tomatillos. These were what prompted me to make posole in the first plac...

I love my new kitchen. It's an efficient space, not too big but with adequate counters and storage. As we settle into our new home I am becoming more and more enamored with cooking in this space. I'm (finally) using my cookbooks again and taking advantage of the riches around me. Tonight I pulled out the old, deep frying pan used by my grandmother who gave to my mother who gave it to me. It's the first time I've used this pan. I wanted to honor our Hungarian and Russian heritage, so I made chicken paprika. I modified a recipe from The World's Finest Chicken by Sonia Slyer and Janice Metcalfe. It's a nice cookbook, with easy recipes using stuff you'd generally have on hand, making very tasty food. Being who I am (and really, any decent home cook does this) I tweaked the recipe. Saute one large, chopped onion in olive oil. As I poured the oil in I couldn't help but wonder if my grandmother used anything other than schmaltz and Crisco. As the o...

Since landing in Kansas City last week (wow, only last week!) Kevin and I have been eating out a lot. Way more than usual. To a point where it's been a bit hard to get into the rhythm of cooking at home. What? I need to chop? Those dishes won't be whisked away? For all of then obvious economic and health reasons we're trying to cut back, but it's taking some time. Earlier this week we we went to Jimmy's Jigger/Jazz , a Louisiana style restaurant right here in our neighborhood. Jimmy's Jigger (a name to be careful with) is a Kansas City institution, a dive bar that was bought out by Jazz and expanded into a music venue. We sat in the bar and listened to the band from afar. The food was good. I got crawfish etoufee which had a rich roux base and a bit too much black pepper (though that may just be my palate). The rice was well seasoned and there was an ample serving of crawfish, with good consistency. Kevin got garlic seafood on tilapia which was delicious. ...

If you read my other blog then you already know I am relocating from Boston to Kansas City. It's a big move, one undertaken for all the right reasons but still scary. A move like this opens up all kinds of questions: Will I find friends? Will I find community? Will I find anything to eat? The first two questions will take more time to answer themselves (though I am quite hopeful) but the third, well, Kansas City is clearly a food town and I'm eating a space out for myself. If you follow me on foursquare then you know this already. If you don't, then please be patient. I don't want to recount every meal I've had in the last few days; I hope to revive this blog to include more of my eating adventures but, for now I want to think about what it means to be home, and to eat in a new home. When we decided to move to KC, one of my first questions was  Is there good food there, beyond BBQ? What I really meant was Will I be able to find comfort? Food carries such em...