Archive for August 2009

EVENT: Saturday Night Barbecuing
VENUE: Cara’s Mother’s House, Long Island
PARTY SIZE: 6
MENU: Eggplant with Sweet Sesame Soy; Lettuce Wraps with Cod and Condiments
PHOTOS BY: Alex

Jill, my older sister, is not as culinarily disposed as the rest of my family. She likes cooking now more than she used to, but where the rote parts of making a meal—cutting, mixing, and stirring—provide me an entrance into a nearly meditative state, for her, they are a little dull. For whatever reason, she does seem to…

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DISH: Steamed Vegetables in Curry Sauce
TYPE: Working with What You Have
MAIN INGREDIENTS: Kohlrabi

Sometimes, when I’m in the mood to feel pampered, I’ll take my mother up on her offer to get me some farmers’ market vegetables when she’s out shopping for her own. Though this is a luxury, it also come with some risks. Recently, when I requested “cucumbers, tomatoes, and some greens,” I received cucumbers, tomatoes, and a bunch of kohlrabi, three purplish bulbs with long leafy stems. I had been…

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DISH: Guacamole
MAIN INGREDIENTS: Avocado, Cilantro, Lime

I think with perhaps the exception of a fried egg, guacamole is the dish I’ve made the most in my lifetime. It started as a summer tradition with my mother, but slowly, as I began honing my tricks of the trade in kitchens beyond my mom’s—entertaining friends in high school, college, and beyond—I discovered that mashed-up avocado is a foolproof and simple crowd pleaser. Even at parties where I’ve stuck my nose up at the host’s bland, under-spiced, under-seasoned attempts, the bowl of guac would…

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We hope very much that you get sick of summer squash‘s ridiculously plentiful bounty before you get sick of us blogging about it. Still, before you write us off as overdoing it (there’s chips, saut ées, and cake, already we know), we offer up this simple pasta, in which the grated summer squash (from Cara’s shopping bag) has a rich, melt-in-your-mouth quality, only bettered by the addition of butter—rather than olive oil—garlic, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. It is truly very good.

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where meals really come together: the shopping bag

Cara’s Shopping Bag: Summer Squash, Parmesan, Onion, Kohlrabi
Phoebe’s Shopping Bag: Tomato, Avocado, Cilantro, Cucumber

It’s been a long time coming, but finally, we have a banner. Quite frankly, we’ve been a little Goldilocks about the whole thing. Over the last six months we’ve tossed around many ideas and design iterations, some good, some bad, but in the end, not one until now, felt just right. For this beautiful, final version, we have to thank…

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Farewell Enchiladas, packed tighter than my co-workers

EVENT: Onto Greener Pastures
VENUE: Cara’s Apartment
PARTY SIZE: Same size as the cube, aka 4
MENU: Nachos; Enchiladas; Raspberry Sorbet Squares

Sitting in a cube breeds a quick, peculiar intimacy. Before you know, say, where your cubemates hail from or what they like to do over the weekend, you know how fast they type, where they prefer to shop online, what their favorite YouTube videos are, how often their cell phones ring, how loudly and long they gab on the phone, the scent of…

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EVENT: Julie & Julia Supper Club
VENUE: Phoebe’s Apartment, Flatiron
PARTY SIZE: 10
TYPE: Celebratory Foodie Feast
MENU: Heirloom Tomato Bruschetta; Boeuf Bourguignon; Asparagus with Tarragon Vinaigrette; Organic New Potatoes with Butter and Chives; Reine de Saba (Chocolate Almond Cake)

When Julie & Julia opened last weekend nationwide, you could almost hear the mock multi-octave “Bon Appetit” echoing through the Union Square farmers’ market. Though the media positioned the film as every self-declared foodie’s wet dream and, in the process, did its best to make…

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New Potatoes with Butter and Chives
Makes 6 side dish servings

Read the original post here.

Ingredients
2 ½ lb new potatoes
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp finely chopped chives
salt

Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to boil. Add the potatoes (whole or halved) to the water and cook until a knife easily slips in and out. Remove to a colander and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking. When cool enough to handle, cut the potatoes in half, and toss with the butter, chives, and a generous…

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Asparagus with Tarragon Vinaigrette
Makes 4 servings (I doubled it for this party)

I improvised this dish using my newfound Julia technique of tying the asparagus into bundles, and finished it with a tried and true tarragon vinaigrette I often use with simply prepared vegetables. Read the original post here.

Ingredients
1lb asparagus
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp tarragon
¼ cup olive oil
Salt
Kitchen Twine

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Wash the asparagus and separate into two bundles.…

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Boeuf Bourguignon
Makes 10 servings

Since we quarter-lifers today don’t necessarily have as much time or space as the average American home cook of Julia’s era, I mixed and matched her techniques with a simplified version of this dish in Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. The ingredient ratios were also adjusted to fit my crowd of 10. Read the origina post here.

Ingredients
12 ounces cured bacon, diced
5lbs chuck beef, cut into 2 inch cubes
2lbs carrots, peeled and sliced into 1 inch pieces
3 Vidalia onions, diced
4 tbsp…

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