THE LADY OF SHALLOTS

With the heat wave we've been having in Boston, our tomatoes have been busting out all over. I've read a lot about the MIRACLE of slow-roasted tomatoes but thought it was just one of those trendy things designed to make you use your oven for 90 minutes so that you feel like you've done something amazing. Well, it turns out that may be true, and they really are amazingly flavorful and it can work miracles even on tomatoes that are underripe OR a bit (A BIT) past their prime (e.g. NOT ROTTEN, just overripe). I took inspiration from Deb Perelman's Roasted Tomato Picnic Sandwich from Smitten Kitchen Every Day (p. 107), but unlike that, which is really a RECIPE and involves baking pizza dough, this is a lot more akin to one of those recipes Antoni shares on Queer Eye . Now, I mean NO SHADE here--when you are trying to get a person who can barely maintain the rudiments of personal hygiene to cook for their significant other, you don't have them try their hand at chicken...

Warning---more prose than usual. I'll try not to do that too often. ----- I've been trying to intentionally cook vegetarian meals at least twice a week. I like MOST vegetables, but the ones I don't like, I REALLY don't like (I'm looking at you, eggplant). I also have legume/bean issues.  This makes it hard to cook vegetarian as I also want to be low-carb and my hypoglycemic-self needs some protein. So understand that it is with some measure of pride that I substituted chickpeas for cannellini beans in the recipe below.  I actually LIKE cannellini beans (one of the few), but we had none in the cupboard. What we did have was a can of chickpeas, of which I'm not a fan. But it turns out I'm even less of a fan of walking to the store in 88% humidity for one can of cannellini beans. So, I opened the can of garbanzo beans/chickpeas to make sure they were still ok (that can was there for a looooooooooong time), and here's where the pride comes in: I ...

This past week I needed to make Pasta Primavera for the women's shelter. According to Wikipedia , this dish has its roots in Manhattan in the 1970s--something that surprises me. Certainly it was not part of the culinary legacy my grandmother passed down to me, but I had always assumed it was a traditional Italian dish. Had I the time to dig more deeply beyond Wikipedia, I might be able to unearth different origins. At any rate, my mother-in-law gaveme an old British cookbook from the 90s called Classic Pasta Cuisine , edited by Rosemary Moon, complete with illustrations more reminiscent of a cookbook from the 1970s. I decided that this was probably the best opportunity to use it, so I cracked it open and found a Primavera recipe that looked legit inasmuch it had pasta, spring veggies, and herbs. Per usual, so there is no copyright infringement, I will list the ingredients, but not the amounts:  pasta (I used  De Cecco  penne rigate no. 41) salt asparagus green b...

If you had told me prior to last month that I'd ever get excited about cauliflower, I would have given you that face...you know the one. And if you don't, let's just move on. Working my way through Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen Every Day  (although admittedly I have not yet used it EVERY day), I came upon her recipe for roasted cauliflower, with the ultra sexy title of CAULIFLOWER WEDGE (pages 42-43). But I like the understated title because it holds a secret... THIS IS THE BEST CAULIFLOWER YOU WILL EVER HAVE. Ok, so maybe it is *my* favorite cauliflower. It doesn't have to be yours. It is light and flavorful, and you can still taste the sweetness of the cauliflower. And it looks pretty on the plate! Part of what makes this recipe so great is these: Those are fried capers. I'm certain if you put fried capers and parmesan on just about anything you can eat it! Except eggplant. There is no helping eggplant. The recipe calls ...

I received Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen Everyday cookbook for Christmas, and finally had the time to crack it open. I started with the Smashed Cucumber Salad with Salted Peanuts and Wasabi Peas (page 50)... As always with a copyrighted recipe, I'll post the ingredients, but not the amounts. The basics: seedless cucumbers, kosher salt, sake , rice vinegar, sesame oil, hot pepper flakes, salted peanuts, wasabi peas So, this recipe had me at "wasabi peas"--so much so that I completely overlooked the SAKE (hence why I have it italicized and emphasized up above). I didn't read the recipe beforehand, because I thought that wouldn't be necessary for a "salad" and because I am sometimes not-so-smart like that. That would have saved me from my omission of sake, but alas. And I usually always read the prose from Deb Perelman because she's hilarious. So, what to do when you don't have sake? Internet to the rescue! There were two suggestions fo...

Honeydew is always hit and miss with me, usually because it is either too sweet (overripe) or not ripe enough. I came across this recipe from Rikki Snyder  (via Pinterest) however and was intrigued, because I was looking for something that would accommodate honeydew at almost any level of ripeness. It did not disappoint! I did find that I didn't have the patience to use the melon baller on the entire thing, so that's why you see chopped honeydew in my salad. I'm sure there is some home economics maven out there who is incredibly disappointed in me. I'm sorry. However, I did find the strength to make just enough for a wonderful cocktail of my own devising:   I made this with gin (Sapphire (TM))--I'd use Hendrick's (TM) next time---I muddled the honeydew and it is basically a G & T with muddled honeydew.  Very subtle. And the thyme garnish? Well, I've become a big fan of garnishing my cocktails with whatever herbs I have on hand. I had a nice marti...

Cannellini and Lamb Soup from Jerusalem , p. 135, photo by RM This is probably one of the best soups I have ever made and was absolutely perfect for the snowy wintery weather we've been having. A few things. It calls for 20 cloves of garlic.   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KITCHEN GADGET ALERT: GARLIC EDITION! This is my favorite tool to peel garlic. It shouldn't cost more than 2 bucks. You don't need anything fancier. All you need is a clean, stable, and dry surface. The older the garlic, the easier it is to peel. This actually works, believe it or not, in removing garlic odors from your hands. Yes, I know, you can rub your hands all over your stainless steel kitchen faucet, but forgive me if I think this is more graceful. And a shout out here to Katie (over at Cook The Book Fridays ) who sent me my steel soap one year for Christmas! -----------------------------...