Cooking the Books is moving!
By Ann | June 24, 2008
Bonjour mes amies! Apologies for the long, long silence. As I mentioned before, my diligent French studies have unfortunately swallowed up my cooking and blogging time. But now, I have an exciting announcement: Cooking the Books is moving to Paris!!!
Yes, the movers come on Thursday to pack up our apartment and move our belongings across the Atlantic. And, starting in September, I will be blogging regularly from the City of Light! I hope you’ll keep visiting this blog for updates on my gastronomic adventures in France and my nouvelle vie Parisienne!
Ah, but why, you may be wondering, doesn’t Cooking the Books en Francais start until September?
Topics: Cooking the Books | 2 Comments »
Bean burgers
By Ann | May 16, 2008
I love burgers–turkey, beef, chicken, or fish–I love the compact portability of a burger, I even love the word burger. I don’t, however, always love the saturated fat of a beef burger. Fish burgers are wonderful, but I can’t always get to Whole Foods to buy fresh fish, and while bocaburgers are a worthy vegetarian substitute, they are pretty salty.
Enter Mark Bittman’s simplest bean burgers, from the “tofu, vegetable burgers, and other high-protein foods” chapter of his book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. I made these earlier this week, when I didn’t have a lot of time to cook dinner. Truly, they are very easy–simply whiz together 1 can of beans (your choice–I used kidney), an onion, some rolled oats, chili powder, and an egg in your food processor until blended. The mixture was quite loose and gloopy, which surprised me. However, I managed to shape it into five patties, with the help of slightly wet hands (which prevented sticking). I was afraid they would disintegrate before cooking, but they held together beautifully as I fried them until golden (five minutes per side) in a nonstick skillet.
Topics: Cooking the Books | 2 Comments »
Veggie tales
By Ann | May 12, 2008
Bonjour, mes amies! Finally, I have finished a long and tortuous stretch of busyness during which I went to school, studied, worked, and, well, that’s it. While French class continues, I have happily finished and filed a ton of work, leaving me free to concentrate on other things like cooking and scouring used book fairs for out of print cookbooks.
And so, I am pleased to introduce a new book to be reviewed: Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. I am a huge fan of Mark Bittman (love his Minimalist column in the NYT) and was thrilled to receive his newest cookbook for Christmas. And, as we know from various sources–including Michael Pollan’s new book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto–eating well means consuming a largely plant-based diet. ( “Eat food. Not too much. Most plants,” says Pollan.) Voila, it seems like the perfect time to sample some vegetarian dishes–including one or two (or four) of his seven different recipes for veggie burgers–and I look forward to sharing the results with you!
P.S. Fans of Top Chef–don’t forget that you can read my recaps of the show on the Washingtonian’s website!
Topics: Cooking the Books | No Comments »
Blog, interrupted
By Ann | April 29, 2008
Sorry for the long silence, mes amies. I unexpectedly started an intensive French class last week that meets M-F for five hours a day. Sadly, this leaves very little time for (a) cooking, and (b) blogging. Instead, I spend a lot of time pinching my nose to make nasal vowel sounds and generally bumbling my way through simple sentences (Je m’appelle Ann!) — ah, the joys of learning a new language.
Anyway, this is just a note to say I haven’t forgotten about Cooking the Books and I’ll try to post once or twice a week. I have a new Five Items first course to blog about and another cookbook to start reviewing. Until then, bon appetit! A+
Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Five items: Quinoa, ancient grain
By Ann | April 22, 2008
Welcome to another, long overdue edition of Five Items. Today’s dish, quinoa pilaf, is more of a starchy side, but it would be a terrific accompaniment to tofu steaks, either my version or Martha’s, for a fast, high-protein meal.
But first, what is quinoa? Pronounced keen-wah, it’s an ancient grain from the Andes region that once played a ceremonial role in Incan and Aztec cultures. An incredibly hardy plant that can survive extreme weather and high altitude, its seeds (pictured above) are packed with protein and essential amino acids. Apparently, the leaves of the plant can also be eaten as a green vegetable.
I like quinoa because of its delicate, slightly crunchy texture and cute appearance — the seeds unfurl into tiny spirals when cooked. It’s also high in fiber and very easy to cook.
Here are the five ingredients:
1. 1/2 cup onion or shallot, finely diced
2. 1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and minced
3. 1 cup quinoa, rinsed
4. 2 cups chicken stock
5. 1 cup broccoli florets, blanched
In a medium saucepan, heat a dash of olive oil over medium-high heat and saute the onion and ginger until softened. Add the quinoa, stock, salt and pepper to taste. Stir to combine, bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed. Fluff quinoa and add broccoli. Stir to combine over a low flame until heated through.
Topics: Five items | 1 Comment »
Wrapping up
By Ann | April 21, 2008
Before we say goodbye to The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The New Classics, I thought I’d offer a few final positives and negatives –
+ Offers lots of easy, healthy, low-fat, flavorful recipes that are great for everyday dinners. Many of these are labelled “fit to eat” and have nutritional information.
+ Recipes for ethnic dishes like curries or lentil soup taste surprisingly complex without being fussy.
+ At 672 pages, the book covers a wide territory, offering unique ideas for almost every course.
+ Dessert lovers will adore the multiple chapters on sweets, which make up almost a third of the book, and include everything from cookies to candy, pies, frozen treats and fruit desserts.
– Many recipes are real yawners, bland and dull.
– A few recipes (like the one for Elke Wood’s lemon squares) have confusing instructions, which resulted in kitchen errors.
– Most of these recipes are available on-line at Martha Stewart’s website, which begs the question: Why buy this book at all?
Favorite recipes:
Broiled black pepper tofu – offers a terrific new (to me), method to make tofu steaks.
Fish burgers – light and fresh, but still satisfyingly a burger.
Southern Indian curry with mustard seeds – flavorful, exotic and complex.
Least favorite recipes:
Braised chicken with olives, carrots and chickpeas — very, very bland.
Spaghetti with garden vegetables — if possible, even blander than above recipe.
Haricots verts and goat cheese salad with almonds — ingredients were too rich, while the flavor was too plain. Also looked quite unappealing.
Would I buy this book? Probably not. I think there are better comprehensive cookbooks out there (Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything comes to mind), and frankly too many of the recipes made from the book ended up in the garbage or doused with too much Sriracha.
So, there you have it folks. Stay tuned for the announcement of our next Cooking the Books project, coming soon! In the meantime, fans of Top Chef may want to check out my recap of last week’s episode, posted at Washingtonian.com.
Topics: Cooking the Books | No Comments »
Nonstop Top Chef
By Ann | April 16, 2008
I’m on my way to So Cal this afternoon and won’t be able to post for a few days. But here’s a little interview I did for the Washingtonian with Top Chef contestant Spike, in which he discusses his new Capitol Hill burger joint, why Padma’s so calm, and where he keeps his secret ingredients.
When we return… final thoughts on The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The New Classics and a new cookbook!
(Photo courtesy of Bravo.)
Topics: Articles | 1 Comment »
CtB goes DIY (and some unfortunate news about overdue library books)
By Ann | April 15, 2008
Ta da! Here are the results of my very first DIY project! I inherited this particle board dresser from a friend six years ago. I forgot to take “before” photographs, but it started out an uninspiring “birch” color, with various stains, scratches and ugly nicks.
I’d long wanted to paint it but was intimidated by the process, particularly sanding. But finally I just couldn’t stand it anymore, so I googled “painted furniture” and found these extremely helpful instructions from Martha Stewart’s website.
I made a trip to Lowe’s (a store I’d never heard of before Friday) and purchased my supplies — a tarp, 2-inch paintbrush, sandpaper, spackling compound (to fill in any nicks), a putty knife, primer and paint. It’s hard to see in the photo, but I chose this Martha Stewart color, Araucana blue, a very pale blue inspired by the eggshells of Martha’s hens.
I also unearthed a 2-year-old gift certificate to Restoration Hardware to buy these pretty glass knobs:
I started the project on Friday and finally finished it yesterday. I am really, really happy with the results — the overall cost was about $100 (though $50 was paid for with a gift certificate that I otherwise wouldn’t have used), but that is so much less expensive than a new dresser!
Anyway, as you might suspect with all this DIY activity, I haven’t been doing much cooking. And then I made the horrifying discovery that The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The New Classics is overdue to the library — and because I’d renewed it once before, I can’t renew it again! And so, mes amies, I must return Martha to the library and hastily conclude my Cooking the Books review — unfinished — or should I say, half-baked?
I know this news is rather disconcerting, but fear not, Cooking the Books will return with a new cookbook to review soon!
Topics: Totally unrelated to food | 2 Comments »
Olive
By Ann | April 14, 2008
I must confess that DIY took up most of my weekend, leaving not much time for cooking. My painted dresser looks very pretty, however, and I will post pictures of it when it’s dry and assembled (annoyingly, I forgot to take “before” shots — sorry).
In the meantime, I wanted to post some pictures of my friends’ adorable new kitten, Olive. She’s only eight weeks old and still super tiny (not to mention super cute). Olive was adopted by my friends Lucia and Mike this weekend and is adjusting well to her new Brooklyn home.
According to Lucia, Olive has already learned how to jump from the couch to the coffee table. She likes the computer and her laser toy and is being a very good girl while her owners are at work.
Topics: Totally unrelated to food | 1 Comment »
Top Chef redux
By Ann | April 11, 2008
Between Top Chef and the Real Housewives of New York City (don’t even get me started on Alex & Simon!!) I can’t stop watching Bravo TV!
I’ve started doing weekly Top Chef recaps for the Washingtonian. Check out my thoughts on Zoi’s crazy earrings, Dale’s bitter rant and Richard’s unclean salmon here.
(Photo courtesy of Bravo.)
Topics: Articles | 1 Comment »