3 butternuts

For the mixologist to make his signature fall cocktail, the harvest manhattan.

cecconi house breakfast

Heuvos rancheros with market salsa.   And Fin thinks micheael's knife skills are hilarious.

margi's sept. salad dressing

my latest favorite salad dressing:  roasted walnut oil and cheap cider vinegar, a little salt and pepper, of course.  simple and refreshing on early fall farmers market salads with french crisp lettuce, little cukes, raw corn and sweet tomatoes.

Kona Likes Simple Food, too

Kona wants to be part of the blog. She is enjoying a Chicago hot dog!

An important find in this era of Julie and Julia!

This is about SIMPLE and FOOD, but not about Alice. It is about a delightful discovery.

Today I bent my knees and looked at a pile of recipe books and food clippings that were stacked on a low shallow shelf in the pine chest under the PURE LARD, and pulled out the bottom book called, The Way We Cook by Julia Child, a lovely collections of recipes and photos. I had forgotten about that book, but am pleased to find it as the youngest Young cook and her father will enjoy it.

Inside where there are two photographs of Julia with yours truly and Papa, Julia autographed the book saying, " Bon Appetit to Grant!" It is dated 11/89 Beverly Hills, CA!

Youngest Cook, you have something to inherit!

Awesome cookies

3:30.After a long soccer practice and a refreshing swim, I decided to make some cookies. As I flipped through The Art of Simple Food I found a recipe called Chocolate Crackle Cookies. After checking with my mom if it was okay to make cookies, I went into the kitchen and attacked the recipe. I melted chocolate, ground almonds, sifted flower and baking soda, and whisked eggs and sugar. After I mixed it all to together, I wrapped it in plastic wrap and stuck it in the fridge..

3:30 the next day, I dashed to the fridge and pulled out a flat brownish dough. As the recipe said I got out two bowls, put white sugar in one and powdered sugar in the next(You need a lot more powdered sugar than white) . After I rolled the dough into small balls and coated each one with sugar, I put them on a cookie sheet with parchment paper. I baked them for about fifteen minutes. When they came out the sugar had made cracks so you could see the chocolate dough. They were so so so good and they looked really cool too. Ending statement: Cookies are good!

No more Court Bouillon for us...

.....at least not using the Simple Food recipe. The poached salmon was the worst salmon I've ever tasted, and it was the wild Alaskan king variety. It was dry and strong and acidic tasting. Alice's recipe had a very high % of white wine to water, more than suggested by Julia or Irma; maybe that was the reason.

But wait let's not jump to conclusions; I can't just blame Alice's recipe; cooking is an art and a science.

Maybe I over cooked it a bit, maybe the salmon had been caught 4-5-6 days before I bought it on Monday, maybe the 2 tsp. of salt in the recipe was a necessary ingredient to counterbalance the acid in the wine (I skipped it because of Papa's heart condition.)

So Alice is off the hook, but next time I decide to cook salmon, I'm going to quiz the butcher about the freshness of the fish, and put up with the smell in the house from the sauteing process, and use my own judgement about ingredient quantities in recipes!

not yet alice

i went to The Strand today to look for The Book.... and although they said there were 4 copies, i couldn't find one.   I am proud that I posted this picture of where it should be, but couldn't upload another i took of the kale I crisped in the oven tonight.  2 batches: one with tamari and sesame seeds and one with olive oil, brewers yeast and sea salt.  mmmmmmm.

Experiment - It's fun

Cooking is really creative and experimental. I love it because you can mess up and it can still taste good and that is why I think that you shouldn't be super uptight about your cooking because some times it's really fun to add some thing or make it up. Just some thing to remember- The youngest

Checking sources and trying new methods

I've just made made a quick veggie broth in which I will poach salmon soon. Here I am 73, the former cooking teacher and Martha Logan and Julia Child enthusiast, and I've never made Court Bouillon or paid any attention to the fact that it exists.

But, Alice Waters let me down! In attempting to be more of a vegetarian, I went to Simple Food where I expected to find a mouth watering recipe for a vegetable broth rather than chicken or beef. No help from Alice, but she steered me towards reading about Court Bouillon which I found interesting. So I looked to see if Julia had a recipe for Court Bouillon; sure enough. Then, Irma; sure enough. (And both had a recipe for vegetable broth, as well). Since I have salmon in the frig waiting to be cooked, and when I saute it over high heat I dislike the odor, I decided to poach it in CB. This will be a first.