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Showing posts from August, 2011

Miscellanea: Sicilian Caramelized Onions and Homemade Pita Chips

Last month, my family came to visit. My father, who has recently been getting back in touch with his Sicilian roots, is a wonderful cook and I'll admit that I've always been a little daunted cooking for people who cook really well. At any rate, we decided to have a barbeque, invited a few close friends, and I cooked...for three days. This was certainly the most cooking in which I have ever engaged for a single event. Because the attendees to our barbeque ran the gamut of dietary concerns and preferences, I wanted variety. And variety there was. The menu (aside from the meat, which we left to my dad to grill): homemade roasted peppers Sicilian caramelized onions homemade pita chips tabbouleh Amish slaw Chorizo salad watermelon and fresh mint salad To keep this blog post short and sweet, I'll only blog two recipes (the ones that are hyperlinked have been blogged before). First, the pita chips. My dad wanted to help me in the kitchen (something toward which I am usuall

A Pie for Mikey

This came in over Facebook from Simply Recipes. It is a beautiful tribute video for Mikey, the husband of Jennifer Perillo What I love about the video, in addition to the beautiful and touching thoughts from the online food community, is the beauty of the process. For me, there is much comfort to be found in the making of food...food that takes time, commitment, and concentration. This video captures it beautifully. Grief is also a process, as the saying goes. But it isn't just rhetoric. I just hope Jennifer feels the warmth of community as she cooks in grief's kitchen. And someday, the sun will re-enter the window as she makes Mikey's favorite pie, and she'll know he's smiling as she takes it out of the oven.

Experiments in Granola

Reb's Granola It is rare when I find something to be outrageously expensive (like a small box of granola for $9) that I decide to go ahead and make my own. I usually just go without. The other morning, however, I was determined to make my own granola because I had a recipe from one of my favorite books ( The Craft of Baking ), and a whole cabinet full of various nuts and dried fruits which I needed to empty. Is it hard? No. Is it time consuming? Yes. This explains only a SMALL fraction of the markup, I assure you. I doctored the recipe a bit, so we can say it is largely based on the original with a few modifications. Anything I modified or added is in italics. Reb's Granola (based on Karen DeMasco's "Toasted Nut & Honey Granola") INGREDIENTS: 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes 2 1/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats 1/3 cup hazelnuts, roughly chopped 1/2 cup slivered almonds 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil* 2 tablespoons honey 2 tablespoons packed dark