Feral Cook

Onigiri, First Attempt

2012-01-23T20:10:00.026-05:00

During Christmas week, JustAwesome and I went to San Francisco. We saw some old friends (and their babies), ate some amazing chow, and (my personal highlight) stayed in Japantown. It was like sleeping at Mitsuwa but way better! I loved it. Lots of shops and restaurants and spas. Lots of Japanese knick knacks. JustAwesome came back to the hotel with this:

Rice Ball Face Maker

Um ok, I guess we’ll make some rice balls. We had just been talking about it. What a great afternoon snack it’d be (JustAwesome), what a delicious breakfast (me). We tossed in the drawer with some other single-task tools and quickly forgot about it.

Until I saw this post.

Brown Rice Ball with tuna (from a jar)

Our first try was Delicious (cap D) but I don’t think we packed the rice enough. But so cute, with those little faces! I think we’ll probably try again soon (tonight if JA has her way). I don’t blame her. The possibilities of these are endless.

Garbage Night (aka Playing Ketchup)

2012-01-11T17:20:00.055-05:00

Empty Fridge with film and ketchup

The refrigerator is oddly empty so I’ve decided that tonight should be Garbage Night. Tonight we will eat whatever crap is in there. Hopefully it isn’t a gross combo…

DINNER MENU

• Whitefish salad (Russ & Daughters) on cracker. There is only one cracker’s worth (each) left. And that sh!t is too good to toss.

• Edamame from freezer. (see, NEW RULES)

• Salad. Definitely the last day for the greens. Thankfully we’re getting more food tomorrow.

• Pea Soup. Just made from frozen peas.

• Butternut Squash Soufflé. Heated up in oven from freezer. I have no idea where they came from or when we bought them. (see, NEW RULES)

• Sausage. Grilled in pan. A little salsa on top. These are the most delicious vegetarian sausage in existence. We discovered this company at Bark. I like them better than meat sausages. We always have these around and are great when you need a protein. No, I’m not a vegetarian. Yes, they’re very good.

• Vanilla ice cream. Leftover from the tasting. Can probably find some cookies, too.

• Beer or wine, water or seltzer.

NEW RULES:

No more frozen fruits and vegetables. Not until we prove that we actually eat it. We never just “toss some in” as we think we might. And we don’t bring edamame as snacks. We just don’t. Keep buying peas though. It’s a good soup and only takes a few minutes to make.

No more impulse buys at Trader Joes’. Under what situation will frozen File of Sole suddenly sound appealing? And, please, no more random meals from Asian markets. There is too much sodium. And questionable ingredients. I am too afraid to actually try them. Yes, (vegetarian) mackerel would be delicious as an appetizer with nori and avocado, I just can’t imagine defrosting that thing when I happen to remember to buy nori and my avocado is perfectly ripe.

IN CONCLUSION:

I think Garbage Night was a success. The fridge and freezer are neat and organized and I didn’t spend a cent. I had some protein, some veg, some carbs, some fiber and some fat. And I stayed on Plan. With all of the money I saved, maybe I should buy a new pair of skinny jeans...

New Years’ Resolution

2012-01-08T17:27:00.025-05:00

This year I vow to make more cocktails.

I love a great cocktail but I don’t really know much about them. I did go to bartending school once for kicks but never really made any. Yes, we have our small repertoire of pretty good drinks (our favorite is The Back Forty, which I can tell you how to make but then I’d have to kill you so...) but mostly we drink beer* or red wine**. Honestly, I didn’t know much about beer or wine (or cheeses), or much of anything, until I met JustAwesome five years ago. She knows quite a bit about beer (even started a brewing collective once upon a time), but the other things just developed as things do...

We started at Saxelby Cheesmongers and Anne suggested, we tried and loved it, Anne suggested something else, we tried and loved it again. And so it grew. And then we tried this olive oil and that olive oil. And so it grew. And as I began to taste, I began to read more. I read about this new chef and that new product. And so it goes...

For wine, we just picked a good local shop, which had nice employees and good picks for under $20 and ordered a mixed (red) case. And we drank. And drank. And drank. And then we ordered another and another. And so it grew. And now I can go to a restaurant and pick out something that I’d like. I’m not intimidated. Do I know anything about wine? No, not really, but I’m definitely in a different place than I was 5 years ago. And so it goes...

We found a bartender (Michael C from Savoy) and he introduced us to bourbons and Meyer lemons and the freshest of freshest ingredients. And we drank. And then we tried cocktails at different places and found more bartenders (none as wonderful as Michael C) and drank more drinks. And so it goes...

I sometimes say I never tasted or smelled or saw color before I met JustAwesome. This embarrasses her, but it’s true. I really began to taste. She does have an amazing palate—she can really pull out ingredients from a particular dish—which helps (and also embarrasses her) but really she taught me to slow down and pay attention. This is our slow food movement. Discovering and enjoying new things with each other. And stopping to taste. Really taste in. It is a fun hobby.

So, where to begin? We downloaded a copy of The PDT Cocktail Book onto the iPad and we’re ready to jump in... Let the games begin!!!

L’Chaim! And a Happy New Year to you all!

*I think beer deserves the same respect that people give wine, damn it!

**We tend to drink the Italian & French ones, assuming that those come by boat, rather than Californian, which would presumably come by train. True? I don’t know. But they’re less expensive so that’s how we do it at the Feral Casa.

Auntie Feral’s Root Beer Tasting

2012-01-06T17:29:00.042-05:00

My niece, Rad Wigs, was coming to town and we wanted to have some fun.

Pizza night, of course. But then JustAwesome confessed that she was feeling JustAwful from her cold so we needed a new plan. And quickly!

And so I present:

Auntie Feral’s Root Beer* Tasting 2012

The Judges:

• Feral Cook, aka Auntie Feral

• Rad Wigs, a nine year old representing the state of Colorado

• JustAwesome, feeling JustAwful

The Categories:

• Smell

• Body

• Flavor

• Sweetness

The Contenders (I know, I did the best I could!):

• Boylans

• Gus

• A&W

• Mug

• C&C

• Stewart’s

The Winner(s):

Believe it or not, A&W and C&C did the best!

Next time, we should make our own root beer!

Some of our notes said:

Not as minty but not as sweet. Thick body, hints of vanilla. Smells like wintergreen.

Dessert:

Root Beer Floats with Adirondack Creamery Vanilla Ice Cream.

(The only nice thing that bodega sells!)

*Root beers came from our local supermarket so...

We Scream for Tissues

2011-11-20T09:28:00.021-05:00

This is the most beautiful box of tissues I have ever seen in my whole life. Although not eco-friendly or super-soft, I knew JustAwesome* needed to have these.

Upon seeing them JA said, “Whoa!”

In a conference room at Kleenex headquarters, someone said, “Everyone loves ice cream.” Someone else must’ve chimed in, “YES! Dairy and phlegm.” The intern said, “let’s make it triangular, like an upside-down ice cream cone!”

Bless these thinkers. I love seeing this box of tissues in the house. It makes me smile and reminds me that just because something is really, really stupid, doesn’t mean it isn’t totally awesome and beautiful.

*Your Feral leader uses these. Because she loves the planet and they’re super soft.

Baking with Dorie

2011-11-17T08:31:00.014-05:00

Lenox Almond Biscotti

Big fans of Dorie Greenspan, it was pretty much a no-brainer when we got our iPad that we’d get the Baking with Dorie app. To be completely honest, I knew I wanted an iPad because they’re sleek and shiny but I had no clue of what to do with one. I was essentially using it like a giant iPhone. This app makes sense. As my dad would say, “Azoy*!”

You can make notes to the recipe, add ingredients to your shopping list, make it a favorite. It is clear and easy to follow, plus there are instructional videos throughout. It is like having Dorie in the kitchen with you. And the biscotti was delicious! Just the right amount of salty.

The app costs $7.99, comes with 20+ recipes and 100+ videos.

Anxiously awaiting the Lucky Peach iPad app. I loved the first issue but it was, um, print. How yesteryear. (Beautifully designed print, I thought. And on my favorite topic! RAMEN!)

What other apps are worthwhile?

*That’s how it goes!

JA, Your dinner is ready!

2011-11-15T16:31:00.013-05:00

There is a possibility that I have made the ugliest soup in the world. And, I doubled the recipe so that we can have a lifetime supply of it. Some Feral readers might beg to differ. This looked pretty ugly. This too.

I have the last laugh though: when I plan out my meals, I lose weight. And what can be bad? Its a green lentil soup with curried brown butter, coconut milk (and coconut oil!!) and chives. Yum!! I hope JA likes it. (I’m going out tonight. Tomorrow’s lunch).

Green Curry Lentil Soup

with curried brown butter, and chives

JA,

Drizzle top with brown butter curry and chives—it’ll

help it not be so ugly. Eat with baguette. Drink beer.

And don’t forget to have a salad.

Love,

Feral

Beer. Brown butter curry. Chives.

No Posts. And a cheese tour.

2011-11-07T08:32:00.018-05:00

Yes, we’ve been cooking A LOT at the Feral household. So why no posts? Because they all come from the same freakin’ cookbook. I feel like a jerk. I ain’t no freakin’ cheerleader. Ugh. To date I think we’ve made 20 recipes from the bookwhichwon’tbenamed. All pretty great. That’s enough.

This was last night (and today’s lunch). Miso-Curry Delicata Squash with tofu, potato, kale, cilantro & toasted pepita seeds. Warm and delicious. The pepitas add a nice crunch. Definitely adding to the rotation.

Maybe I should tell you about our mini cheese tour of Vermont. The best stop was Cato Corner Farm (in Connecticut on the way up to Vermont). But they were out of Hooligan, my favorite of their cheeses. Was there anything we found in CT/VT that we couldn’t get from Saxelby Cheese at the Essex Street Market? No, not really. But she doesn’t have animals in her stall. Or fresh air. Maybe we should take a field trip to her cheese cave in Red Hook. Who wants to go?

We also got apples and caramel and syrups and jellies. Mmmmm!

Comfort Food

2011-09-27T18:46:00.018-04:00

I had a rotten day and I want comfort food. I want something creamy and warm. And plentiful. But I am trying to drop a few pounds and I swore to myself I wouldn’t be decadent on Tuesdays for a few weeks...

This is my favorite dish in the world right now. It is total comfort food. It is totally decadent. And guess what? Totally freakin’ healthy!

All of her dishes sound kind of disgusting. Official title: Black Pepper Tempeh (cauliflower rice*, garlic, ginger, natural cane sugar). Trust me, it is sooo good. Cauliflower, tempeh and coconut oil cooked with 15 cloves of garlic. Not 14, not 16. It is tempting to use a different amount but I’m afraid to change a thing.**

Except my mood.

Take that, Rotten Tuesday!

*The rice just refers to the size which you chop it. I like my chunks larger. **For some reason I second-guessed myself and did not include all of the cauliflower in the head. Big mistake. It threw off the balance of salty to sweet. But still delicious.

Reason #1473

2011-09-22T13:28:00.005-04:00

Why I love working from home:

Turkey-BLT

I don’t really have much to say. Just checking in to keep my Feral fans happy... In terms of learning to cook, honestly, this might be the second time in my life I’ve ever made bacon. I should really eat more meat. Sounds like a great resolution!

And, we are gearing up for pizza season at the Feral Casa. Very exciting!!

Hurricane Irene Hits the LES!

2011-08-29T08:39:00.008-04:00

Mayor Mike (el alcalde) told us to stay indoors all day on Sunday. We took this very seriously.

This is what happened to our tree.

Pasta and Sauce. The perfect storm.

Frankies’ Sunday Sauce

All kidding aside, we hope everyone is safe and sound.

Dessert Cocktails!

2011-08-09T23:01:00.009-04:00

I made my favorite summer cocktail, an Americano, and froze it. You can see the orange peel! It was tasty, though I think it is WAY more relaxing to sip while sitting on the couch, than lick while standing in the kitchen...

Z-licious!

2011-08-09T22:42:00.008-04:00

These were delicious. Moist and chocolate-y.

What a great way to use up some plentiful Z!

(And no, you don’t taste the zucchini.)

Zucchini Linguini

2011-08-08T08:30:00.015-04:00

I am always surprised when people don’t like particular foods. Tomatoes? Berries? What???

Food is delicious! It is the reason I wake up in the morning—it shapes my day. There is not a lot food that I don’t like, and even then, I’ll still eat those things... I am starting to think that maybe people taste food differently. If I had to choose my LEAST FAVORITE vegetable, I’d probably say zucchini or squash. I always found it to be really bitter. And, of course, it is so abundant in the summer—I can’t avoid it.

So, what’s changed? Well, I have noticed as I eat zucchini with more frequency that it is getting less and less bitter and more and more sweet. Has it? Or have my taste buds changed? Or maybe the idea of what I think it tastes like has changed. Or maybe it is because we’ve been preparing it differently? A different texture equals a different taste sensation? I don’t know, but I am beginning to like zucchini. There. I said it.

Last night we grated it and cooked it in oil, garlic, red pepper flakes and whatnots as per Heidi Swanson’s Summer Linguini recipe in THE BOOK. How did it taste? Not bitter at all! Good enough that I begged for seconds. Delicious with some nice red wine, salad with Lazy Girl Dressing, and some homemade blueberry ice cream. Life is sweet. Not bitter at all.

Sparkling Panakam at Sparky’s House

2011-08-06T14:07:00.014-04:00

JustAwesome is a genius. Or, maybe Heidi Swanson is. Anyway, at a recent barbecue on our friend, Sparky Rudy’s* ginormous patio, JA came armed with a pre-mixed mocktail to drink after we had a cocktail or two, before we moved on to beer or wine. You know, so we wouldn’t overdo it.

Sparkling Panakam: Ginger, cardamom, lime juice, sugar, salt and sparkling water. And lotsa ice. It is almost like a ginger beer.

Sparky said, “I like this drink. A lot.”

*Name has been changed to protect Sparky’s ginormous patio from interlopers.

Riddle Me Easy!!

2011-07-29T13:41:00.014-04:00

QUESTION: What do you get when you take a bunch of CSA tomatoes, garlic*, cucumbers and onions and toss them into a food processor with some oil and whatnots?

ANSWER: Tons of delicious gazpacho with not a ton of dishes to wash! YAY!!!

I love tomato season! Gazpacho is so refreshing—splash a small amount of “the good olive oil” on top to garnish and voilá—a great lunch, a great dinner, a great snack, a great side. Effin’ great. In truth, I prefer my gazpacho a bit chunkier but I couldn’t remember how I used to make it so I used an old Bittmann recipe** that called for stale bread, which we had and I hadn’t ever done before...

And I used the food processor. All by myself!! I’d guestimate this as one PointsPlus value treat for my Weight Watchers buddies.

*Farm garlic might be one of my favorite things on this planet.

**I added onion and red pepper, too.

Found It!!

2011-07-27T16:28:00.011-04:00

Well, close enough...

I have long been looking for something homemade-ish (read: that might not have a ton of ingredients in it) to replace the Korean Red Pepper paste that I adore in stir-fries, wraps and veggie bowls. Besides the fact that the paste comes in a ginormous tub that takes up WAY too much real estate in the fridge, I have always worried about what might be in it...

Imagine my delight one sunny afternoon in Carroll Gardens to find two Korean women selling this barbecue sauce outside of a deli. While it is very different from the red pepper paste, I can swap it easily. The barbecue sauce, as you probably know, is a little sweeter and less spicy, but oh, so delish!

Question for my Brooklyn friends: anyone know which deli? On Court? On Smith? I have no idea why they’re not selling this at Hester Street Flea, Brooklyn Flea (Smorgasburg), New Amsterdam Market, or even Whole Foods.

This is what I made for lunch today. If it was dinner, I might’ve added some udon noodles. Mmmm.

Squid and Onions in BBQ Sauce

(Not so Simple) Summer Salad Suppers

2011-07-26T17:20:00.013-04:00

Arugula and Beet Salad with

Watermelon, Feta and Sauteed Shrimp

I consider myself a purist. I don’t know if that is because I am lazy or because I just have simple tastes, but I believe in good ingredients and very few of them. Most of time I don’t do much more than olive oil, salt & pepper. On everything: fish, meat, vegetables. Everything. Of course, there are several types of oils, several types of salts and even several types of pepper. But not much else. Maybe some fresh herbs. Simple.

I took a class last night at the Natural Gourmet Institute (Thanks D&B!) called Summer Salad Suppers (Myra Kornfeld) which was the opposite of simple. The salads were complicated to make, but really just a series of simple steps. I never would’ve put these tastes together: Beets, Carmelized Nuts, Pickled Red Onions, Sauteed Shrimp, but soooo beautiful, soooo tasty, and soooo filling.

It was pretty simple to eat. Hmm, maybe I’m evolving.

Lazy Girl Salad Dressing

2011-07-07T10:35:00.000-04:00

I’ve mentioned this dressing lotsa times. I make it often. Sometimes several times a week. It first came to me as a comment from a reader/friend and it has changed my life. Usually I just have on greens with some tomatoes. Couldn’t be simpler.

Avocado

Good olive oil (I like Frankie’s or Segreto)

Maldon salt

Envy

2011-07-03T11:03:00.020-04:00

If I have one major envy/regret in my life, it is that I can not grill. I live in NYC, no terrace. And I really love barbecue. Mostly veggies (and fruits!), maybe some steak. And that regret has me looking at real estate sometimes. Ok, lots.

We made these (above) on our friend’s giant patio in Brooklyn. The top is a grilled caesar salad. Yes, grilled iceberg lettuce. So refreshing and exciting. Homemade croutons. Dressing from the Frankie’s cookbook. Dessert was pineapple and apricots. Mmmgrilledpineapple. My new favorite dessert. (Nice grill markings, SR!! When can we do it again?)

These (above) we made on our rainy weekend at Solid Sound. The festival was challenging because of the weather, but we made a few nice barbecues. Though, sometimes there are too many cooks in the kitchen...

These (below) I made at home, in NYC, on a grill pan. Not the same as barbecuing but the best I can do. Weird with the grapefruit-campari sorbet though.

Sandwich Salad

2011-07-03T09:51:00.019-04:00

Panzanella (blurry with excitement!)

Ok, it’s true. This blog is supposed to be about me learning how to cook. Thing is, I am cooking some but I make a lot of repeat, boring dinners—which I love—but I don’t think they are very interesting. And my food is usually kind of ugly. I’m just not there yet... But I am getting more confident in the kitchen. I’m sure I’m learning something.

And on the flip side, JustAwesome gets really excited about what she wants to make, always trying new things—reading new blogs, buying new cookbooks. So I post her stuff...

I’ve mentioned the new Heidi Swanson book a few times recently. By now, I think “we’ve” tried about 9 recipes and all have been really unusual, simple and delicious. I should mention that we had her first book and only made a few things because the recipes were too involved and had too many complicated ingredients (for us). The second book is AMAZING. I’d (almost) be willing to bet you $15.64 that you’ll love it, but I won’t, because I don’t have extra money to bet.

Last night JA made Panzanella which is a grilled bread (multi-grain pullman from Pain D’avignon) and tofu salad with oven-roasted tomatoes and peanut butter. Sounds crazy, right? All of her recipes kind of do but at this point we’ll try any (and all!) of them. This book has not been wrong. This tasted like a sandwich and a salad. The tomatoes were sweet from the oven and went great with the peanut butter sauce. I’d venture to say that besides the oven being on to roast the tomatoes, this was a pretty exceptional summer dinner.

And we chased it with two cold treats: a mocha sherbert and a peach sorbet. (Merci beaucoup, David Lebovitz.) What is the difference between sherbert and sorbet? I don’t know. (I didn’t even think sherbert was a real thing.)

What have I learned recently? Let me ask JA...

Millet Muffins

2011-06-16T10:07:00.012-04:00

What you may know is that JustAwesome is British. What you may not know is that JA is a baked goods fiend. How this translates? She is constantly on a quest to find baked goods which are not too sweet, borderline-savory. I introduce to you: Millet Muffins.

I was skeptical.

I’d probably compare them to cornbread, but the raw millet makes the texture really interesting. Almost like there are little bits of candy in each muffin. Not a bad start to my mornings...

The recipe is now one of seven or eight recipes that we’ve tried from this cookbook. Excited to try more!! Jolly good!

Yes, We Can!

2011-06-12T11:09:00.010-04:00

Something beyond exciting is happening in beer this summer. I don’t know why, but within the last month or so, two of my favorite local craft beers are being sold in cans.

Brooklyn

SixPoint

Cans are easier to stack in the fridge.

Cans make the beers colder.

Perfect summer drinking!

Others I like:

Summer Solstice

Dales’s Pale Ale

Mama’s Little Yella Pils

Session Beers (these aren’t in cans but cute little 11oz bottles)

Oh Happy Day!

2011-05-28T09:55:00.020-04:00

I love weekend!

JustAwesome has only owned this cookbook for less than 18 hours (and slept for 8 of the them) and has made 2 recipes already. I think it is going to be a great summer...

I came home last night to a popcorn with mustard, thyme, chives and butter because she thought it’d go well with the cocktails (with rhubarb bitters) she was a fixin.’ And I woke up this morning to a gorgeous dish of Baked Oatmeal, which has blueberries, peaches (the fruits can be flex), nuts and whoknowswhat.

Went great with my Longo Latte.

If you don’t regularly read this blog, you should.

My life is the best! Oh happy day! Winning!!

Baked Oatmeal

Pasta Primavera: The Remix

2011-05-15T18:34:00.008-04:00

Today’s NYT magazine has 8 recipes by Bittman for pasta primavera. I’m not usually very excited by pasta primavera, which means “springtime pasta”, but once I saw that JustAwesome had picked up some fresh pappardella from Piemonte Ravioli, I was quickly on board!

What I typically don’t like about it at restaurants is that it is usually too many disparate veggies, none of which I’m very interested in. And it always seems soggy and tasteless. Bittman simplifies it and adds a little kick.

Pappardella with peas, pecorino, chili and mint.

Soooo good. Clean and simple.

I hope it is springtime long enough to try the other 7 recipes. Fortunately, we have enough for leftovers tonight.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2011-05-08T20:45:00.008-04:00

Yeah, it's that time of year again. Consider this a PSA, since it is such a short season. So delicious. 3 will set you back $6.00 right now. Worth every cent. Good thing I live so close to Chinatown.

Riding the Love Grain

2011-04-24T21:30:00.023-04:00

I am not a very healthy eater. Inherently. Clue number one is that I probably wouldn’t just be learning how to cook now. I always thought my bent was a rebellion of sorts against my alfalfa-sprout-and-rice-cake childhood. Potato chips and beer for dinner. Mac and cheese. Chow fun.

But the truth is... I love grains. I love quinoa, farro, millet, bulgur, barley, buckwheat, whatever. Anything earthy. Love them. Prefer them.

Same thing with pasta. I love whole wheat pasta. I hear about people choking it down, trying to suffer through it. I don’t understand it. I love it. I prefer it. So maybe I am inherently healthy! Maybe I just don’t know it!

Tonight we made a large batch of Berley’s Quinoa Salad with sunflower seeds and hiziki (with a lime vinaigrette). Sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds. Corn, red onion (which he has you steam with the corn!), bell pepper, carrot, hiziki and radish (though we used edamame instead) and it was sooooo good. Really. Soooooo good. Swap this veg for that. This grain for that. A lot of prep work but sooooo worth it.

This salad has micro and macronutrients—whateverthoseare. Lotsa colors, which is important. Dunno, I think it is beautiful. It might end up being high in PointsPlus values (about 11?), but it fills me up. Tasty and filling. I always end up losing weight on the weeks we make these types of salads for lunches. And I need a little help this week after so much Easter candy this weekend.

I just can’t wait to eat it again. I love it. Prefer it.

Meringue Dance

2011-04-14T09:23:00.007-04:00

Meringue in Borough Market, London

Not a lot of cooking these days—still recovering from a cheese-laden, beer & whiskey soaked vacation. But JustAwesome has started practicing making meringues for Passover. This batch was maybe a little too sweet and a little too soft* inside, but I still managed to eat about a half-dozen of them. I don’t know where the recipe came from, but I do know she is planning another batch before Monday. I have no idea what Passover meringues are supposed to be like but I doubt anyone will complain.

*I can’t believe I’m saying that. Usually meringues are too dry and I long for more of the gooeyness inside!

Pasta A Casa!

2011-03-20T10:02:00.008-04:00

The quality of our lives changed dramatically in the fall of 2008, when JustAwesome took a pizza-making class with pizza guru, Mark Bello from PizzaACasa. Well, yesterday we took his pasta class. It was soooooo much fun. I can only imagine what our lives’ll be like now...

Here are some of the things we made:

Plucking the pasta chitarra (guitar)

Cacio e pepe ala chitarra

Ravioli

Pumpkin Pappardelle

with brown butter and crispy sage leaves

Holy Smokin’ Easy Soup!

2011-03-15T16:40:00.011-04:00

JustAwesome asked me to make a pea soup today. From frozen peas. She said it was super easy and really good. I don’t love peas, honestly. I find them too sweet. But I trust her judgement—if she said it is really good, then it is really good.

It is sooooooooo freakin’ good.

Not pretty, but smokin’!

The most challenging part is reading the recipe, which is, oddly, in paragraph form. I don’t usually type recipes, but I can’t resist here.

The quickest and best soup you can make is to cook 3 cups of frozen peas in 2 cups of vegetable stock made with a good-quality bouillon cube. When the peas are tender, purée in the food processor or blender. Add some olive oil (preferably basil-infused) and season to taste. Serve Parmesan to sprinkle over.

And that’s it. She does go on to say that you can add ham or this or that but that is basically it.

I used Whole Foods’ 365 organic petite frozen peas and Pacific veggie broth. Immersion blender. Salt. Pepper. Then, instead of basil-infused olive oil, I used a Smoked Extra Virgin Olive Oil that we just picked up this weekend. Clearly the pièce de résistance. Holy smokes!

Great with the leftover gougères that we froze!

Mango Madness!

2011-03-10T18:59:00.003-05:00

On our weekly shopping list it usually says, “fun fruit” in JustAwesome’s tight scribble. She writes this, I believe, because she loves me. I will never eat an apple or an orange for dessert, but I am usually super excited to have a pineapple, mango, pomegranate or even some grapes. (Especially frozen seedless champagne grapes. The best!) Sometimes they’re organic, sometimes they’re not. And, of course, they’re not local. I feel bad about that, I do, but I feel good about my shrinking waistline.

If there was a fire I’d grab: my pants, my girl, my dog and my mango slicer. I know that real cooks pooh-pooh unitask tools, but I am not a real cook and honestly, I doubt your mangos are as easy-to-prepare as mine. I’d go so far to say that you probably barely ever eat them. Because they’re such a drag to cut. Pooh-pooh on you, naysayers.

Easy to cut. Easy to clean. Fun fruit.

Mac & (cauliflower) Cheese

2011-03-04T12:27:00.009-05:00

Macaroni and Cheesiflower? Yes, please.

JustAwesome found this Bittman recipe in the March issue of Runner’s World. I don’t like to eat low-fat this and spray-on that but I am still trying lose my freshman 15*. This macaroni and cheese with cauliflower is a great solution. The pureed cauliflower adds the creaminess—much less cheese is necessary—and really bulks it up. And bread crumbs, yum. It was warm and lovely. I felt warm and lovely.

Does it replace macaroni and cheese altogether? No, I don’t think so, but it was really good. I’m sure we’ll be making this one again and again. Thanks, Mark Bittman.

Pass the Bittman Macaroni and Cheesiflower, please!

*I’ve lose 16.5 pounds to date. Thanks, Weight Watchers!

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Happy Meals

2011-02-20T18:43:00.044-05:00

I don’t like to “waste” meals.

Yesterday I took a quick trip to Ikea. I hadn’t eaten properly, it was getting late (and I was getting cranky), so I decided to eat the swedish meatballs that everyone is always raving about. EW!!! Gross! I could’ve had a lobster roll at the Red Hook Lobster Pound or even the one at Fairway. A wasted meal! (And wasted Weight Watchers PointsPlus values, as well. Good thing I only ate 1/3 of it!) Ikea didn’t even have what I wanted. A wasted meal and a wasted car rental!

Fairway, coincidently, was kind of gross, too. I wonder if Fairway Red Hook isn’t on the same level as the uptown ones. Or if things just ain’t what they used to be... Let’s just say, it was like no other market I’d want to go to again. A wasted trip!

Negativity ends now. The rest of the night was lovely: hanging out with JustAwesome, eating some baked pasta (a la Jamie O), drinking some delicious Nebbiola D’Alba. Ahhhh!

What seems to work for me—in terms of all around happiness plus healthy weight loss—has been preparing two or so dishes on Sunday to have during the week (or freeze for the future). Thing is, they have to be really tasty, they have to excite me. Otherwise, I won’t eat them—I’ll start thinking about going to this new ramen place or that favorite hand-pulled noodle joint. Not the best choices.

Last night’s baked pasta, for example, will also be tomorrow’s lunch. Tonight’s Indian feast (red lentil daal soup with mustard seeds, masala curry with cauliflower, peas, mushrooms & carrots, and a lemony basmati rice) will also be tomorrow’s dinner and probably lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday. Some of the soup will be frozen for another time. A future delight. A happy meal.

Red lentil soup, masala curry with cauliflower, peas,

mushroom & carrots, and lemon basmati rice

I haven’t tried all 650 recipes in Madhur Jaffrey’s book but I want to. Really easy and super tasty!

And no wasted meals. I love this stuff!

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World Nutella Day!

2011-02-05T09:02:00.009-05:00

We smuggled home tons of gianduja (chocolate hazelnut spread, much like Nutella) when we went to Turin last year. We first learned about it through David Lebovitz’s most excellent blog. Today, on World Nutella Day 2011, he made his own. We ate ours with bread and blood oranges from NYC’s Eataly and longed for a visit to Italy. Mmmmm! Good morning, all. And Happy World Nutella Day!

National Crêpe Day. YAY!!

2011-02-03T09:31:00.012-05:00

Yesterday was National Crêpe Day, as you probably already know. I don’t need much of an excuse.

Bittman’s recipe is really simple and really tasty. Buckwheat flour, some white flour, eggs & water. A tiny bit of butter or oil. They’re actually pretty low in PointsPlus values, if you care. Our main course pancakes were mushroom, onion and cheese (something in the cheddar family). Wine. Salad. Then a few sugar and lemon pancakes for dessert. Those are my favorite!

The filling possibilities are endless.

Two savory pancakes in one week. YAY!! My life rocks!

What should we do for Chinese New Year?

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Swiss Chard Pancakes

2011-01-31T22:30:00.000-05:00

After my earlier disaster (which actually turned out ok), I needed some cheering up. I had been eyeing some Swiss Chard pancakes from the new Dorie Greenspan book. Savory, warm pancakes. I knew those would cheer me up. They would turn my sad onion-y frown upside down.

I love chickpea flour pancakes. I love buckwheat pancakes. I love potato pancakes. And I love them crepe-y with sugar and lemon, too. I love pancakes. For dinner.

These pancakes were really delicious and different. Onion-y and hearty. Perfect with a salad. JA said she wanted to live inside her pancakes. I think she liked them.

Recipe here. I’d use less oil next time.

Shrimp Salsa. Or, Feral Uses the Food Processor

2011-01-31T14:17:00.021-05:00

I think I’m crying from the onions. It might be that I’m mad at myself.

The plan was to make this simple Shrimp Salsa from Pioneer Woman. Easy, chop, chop, done. Right? But before JustAwesome left for work she said, “Be careful with the food processor.” WHAT? I wasn’t planning on trying that crazy contraption on my own, not without a grownup present. Clearly it was a challenge.

Pioneer Woman’s Shrimpo de Gallo

Fast forward. Tears are pouring out of my eyes and instead of “Red Onion, Diced Finely,” I have onion soup mush and shrimp that I’m not even sure about*. What to do? Do I start over? I’d have to separate and re-rinse the shrimp, and use a yellow onion because I’m out of red. Or do I toss this crap out and move on?

I’ve decided to keep going. (And toss it out later if it is gross. When it is gross.) With my luck, I’ll touch my eyes with my jalapeño hands (I didn’t) and really have a good cry. How do I chop these things at around the same size when my onions are mush? Oy.

My Shrimpo de Gallo and

apologies to the Pioneer Woman.

The verdict? Not gross. Nothing I’d serve to company, but ok for alone snack. But now I have to clean the freakin’ food processor. (I know, it can go in the dishwasher). The results are no reflection on the recipe. Next time I’ll make by hand.

*I bought the shrimp already cooked from WFs. They taste salty. I rinsed them in cold water, hoping they’re ok. Never again. Lesson learned.

Mini Pizzas with Mini Me(s)

2011-01-17T11:50:00.003-05:00

I don’t see what the big deal is about kids. They’re so easy! Honestly, I've never watched my niece and nephew (age 5) before, not even for a half hour, so I was a little nervous. And they were so excited—asking my sister about when they were coming—everyday. For weeks. My feeling? They were going to disappointed. Very disappointed. Too much build up. It was their first sleepover, would there be tears in the night?

Plans:

Ride subway to Jacque Torres for hot chocolates (we spoke to a police officer on the platform)

Play with Scout the dog

Play wii

Make pizza*

Do arts/crafts

Read Beezus and Ramona

Go to sleep

Make Batter Blasters pancakes (letters and shapes are hard!)

Walk dog

Play in Playground (awesome one on Hester St)

Eat dumplings

Go home

Play wii again

Say goodbye

Take nap

*I gave them 3 choices for dinner: liver and onions, anchovy soup, or pizza

Oui, s'il vous plaît

2011-01-15T20:02:00.002-05:00

This Feral household is très excited about Dorie Greenspan’s newest book, Around My French Table. Her Baking book never fails and so far, so good with this one. To date we’ve tried a very simple cauliflower soup with which we made the most scrumptious gougères ever. (We froze most of them since we’re planning on lots of soups this winter.) And tonight I made moules marinière. My first mussels ever. And definitely not my last. (Even JA kept dipping bread in my sauce, even though she doesn’t really eat shellfish.) Délicieux!

Gorgeous Gougères

Moules Marinière

I love how the book is written. It feels very casual, like she is talking to you, but there is nothing casual about it. No guess work. No wondering what she means. It is all spelled out and easy to follow. I find myself reading this cookbook. I never read cookbooks. Seriously.

What to make next? I vote for swiss chard pancakes.

Grab and Go!

2011-01-15T18:42:00.000-05:00

Burrito. To go.

JustAwesome is always trying to think of healthy, easy-to-grab options to take for breakfast and/or lunch. Tonight she assembly-lined some burritos filled with sautéed onions, mushrooms, yellow pepper, jalapeños and cumin. Tossed in some black beans. Added some salsa, cheddar, cilantro and lime—and voilà—six easy meals in the freezer! She is almost excited to go back to work on Tuesday. Well, maybe not.

Assembly Line

Ready for the Freezer!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-06T16:42:00.000-05:00

Welcome back, Feral readers. I hope you had tons of decadent times—eating, drinking and being merry—I certainly did. I’m ready to stop the constant party, if you want to know the truth. I crave vegetables.

I have a few New Years’ resolutions:

First: we ate with friends at their apartment and were served a warm salad. What? I want in. Please. Tell me about your favorite warm salad and I’ll try it. I love salad. This is blowing my mind. I have none in my repertoire.

The night my world was rocked

Second: we got a food processor. We watched the DVD and are raring to go. What to make, what to make? (No seriously, what should we make?)

Third: get real. Two is enough. I don’t want to set myself up for defeat! And I want to have a great year... I loved 2010. Let’s see if we can top that!

A happy and a healthy to all!

—Feral

Hockey, French Fries and other Family Matters

2010-12-17T12:36:00.000-05:00

I remember my Grandpa Herbie once telling me that he could easily eat french fries at every meal. This was funny to me because a) my grandmother was the best cook ever (yes, way better than your grandmother) and b) I was, like, DUDE-GRANDPA, ME TOO!

We had 3 orders of fries this past weekend. One while watching the Whalers’ game in Danbury. The fries were great. I don’t know who won the game.

JustAwesome was (apparently) standing on the ice

during the game. I sat in the bleachers.

So, I decided to go back on my Weight Watchers plan, you know, get strict with it. With few PointsPlus values left for last night’s dinner, I made a roasting tray which JA then slow-cooked with some eggs for a More-Vegetable-Than-Egg-Frittata ala Bittman. Served with a large salad. It was so tasty and warming. Perfect. So perfect I decided to have it again for lunch but I didn’t have the patience to slow-cook the egg so mine was more of a scramble.

And I had enough PPVs left over for 2 gingerbread cookies (Lebovitz) from one of JA’s practice batches for her work Cookie Swap. I love that I live with someone who does practice batches!

Gingerbread cookies. Lebovitz

Midnight Crackles. Greenspan

Incidently, I lost 3 pounds this week. Thank you, Weight Watchers!

Love Spell

2010-12-05T19:01:00.000-05:00

On Saturday afternoon we took a trip uptown to Kalustyan’s, a beautiful spice store on Lexington, which incidentally (or, oddly), is where Vice President Chester Arthur was sworn in as President when Garfield died from gunshot wounds.

JustAwesome picked up some star anise, burdock, sarsaparilla, mint and whoknowswhat. In a pot they all went (with the nose hair of a small statured man and the ear wax of a Siamese cat). From the other room I heard a cackle or two. She magically turned our water into seltzer, mixed with the aforementioned concoction, and we had homemade freakin’ root beer. NO WAY!!! JA made root beer! All natural! I am under her spell.

Tonight for dessert? Root beer floats. What else?

Pomegranate Party!

2010-12-04T18:49:00.000-05:00

The pomegranates arrived on Wednesday. Almost immediately I started to worry that they’d end up in our new compost bin because I had this idea that they were impossible to deal with—way beyond me and not worth the hassle. What? I did a few quick searches on the interwebs, watched a video, and now I have a lovely bowl of healthy antioxidants. It took a few minutes, and no my hands didn’t get stained.

Pear and pomegranate salad? Or a pomegranate vinaigrette? Pomegranate martinis or a pomegranate granita? I can’t decide. I think I’ll eat this one straight up for dessert tonight. Fresh fruit is FREE on the new Weight Watcher’s Plan, you know.

What should I do with my other one?

Seventh Generation

2010-11-28T22:47:00.000-05:00

We all recycle. Big deal. When JustAwesome found me four years ago, that is just about all I was doing. Fair Trade? Local? Organic? What are those words? I had no idea. I’ve come a long way, baby. These are some of the tiny, little things we’ve started doing that we hope will make an inpact. Do these things help? I have no idea.

Of course, we live in Manhattan—don’t own cars, don’t have children—our carbon footprints are pretty small. We do a little traveling and when we can, when we remember, we try to offset our carbon emissions. Do these things help? I have no idea. I just try to do what I feel good about. I try to picture the planet still being here for my nieces and nephews’ offspring and their offspring and so on. For seven generations, as the Native American do, as best as I can. (Ok, I was an American Studies (double) major. One of my professors was Oren Lyons, Chief of the Onondogas. It made a big impression on me). Can I do more? Most definitely. I’m not trying to pretend that there isn’t room for improvement. I’m just doing what I can reasonably do.

I watched No Impact Man. You should, too. He is a little annoying, but he was doing what he could. He was trying something. He admitted that he did it to get work, as a project, as a challenge. He wasn’t trying to be noble. And people gave him crap for it, which is odd. Why be mad at someone who is trying something?

LITTLE THINGS:

Gold cones. Still using filters? Really? I love not buying filters. They’re silly and wasteful. In my opinion.

Cloth napkins. No, you don’t have to iron them. In fact, the more you wash them, the better! I like the ones from Sur La Tabla. I think they’re 4 for $9.99. Bright, fun colors. If the meal isn’t particularly messy we put napkin rings on them and reuse a second time. (One ring for me, two for JA)

Reducing paper/plastic bag use. Bring your own bags. It is very easy. I think all supermarkets should give an incentive for this. $.10 off. $.5 off. We have an awesome cart that we lugged back from France a few years ago. Not your Granny’s cart. Pretty pale blue. You can even get an insulated one. Great for the Farmers’ Markets. Great for lugging local growlers home from Whole Foods.

Batteries. For most things we use rechargeable. It is a big layout all at once but you never really have to buy batteries anymore. For everything else (hearing aids, smoke detectors), we recycle. Whole Foods does it. Ikea. Walgreens. Imagine if everyone used rechargeable batteries on all of their kids’ toys? Or (better yet) imagine they didn’t allow their kids to have toys with batteries? You know, you can make limits. I had one hand-held video game that a friend gave me. The 9-volt battery lasted for 25 years. No joke. It just stopped working recently.

Plastic bottles/Metal bottles. So, apparently plastic recycling is not great. Paper is much better. At this point, plastic recycling reduces a lot of waste into a-little-bit-less lot of waste. Boo. Your 5 minute refreshment lasts how long? JA uses these. And stop refilling your plastic ones. Full of bacteria and leaching. Blech.

Plastic bags. I’m guilty of this. I wrap things in sandwich bags, storage bags, freezer bags. But I am trying to rely more and more on Tupperware. Working on it. I rinse and reuse.

Seltzer. If you drink a lot of this (I don’t really but love gadgets), you must do this one little thing. It is so easy. Like the batteries, big layout at first but...

Wine. File this under “I have no idea if this is true or makes a difference” but we generally drink wine that comes from France and Italy rather than the West Coast. By boat rather than by train. Ideally we’d keep it local—keep it east coast—but we are human.

Green products. Do Seventh Generation products make a difference? I don’t know. I don’t want to find out if they don’t. Things cost a little more but I waste plenty of money on sillier things. I thought it was fun bellying up at the soap bar with my dishsoap container. I think it was about $.12 a litter or something.

BIGGER THINGS:

Mail. Quit your job and spend three months on the phone, calling every company and asking them not to send your their catalogs and to email your statements. It is painstaking work, doesn’t work super-well, but will make you feel like a hero. I promise you.

Composting. We just started this tonight. Considering that we filled up our 3 gallon bin completely during the preparation of one single meal, I’m thinking that maybe we are good candidates for this action. Hopefully it doesn’t suck the soul out of me. Wish me luck.

HANGING MY FERAL HEAD IN SHAME:

Lightbulbs. I haven’t gotten around to this yet.

Biodegradable doggy bags. I will start to use these. I promise. They offer such deals on the other bags, I will try to resist. I know, I shouldn’t use bags at all, but I believe that not everything is about the planet. There are so many people that go through the garbage in NYC, I really feel that it is the most humane thing to do. See? I’m all about doing what I can, doing what I feel right about.

Happy Thanksgiving. Think of the Seventh Generation to come. Do what you can reasonably do.

Sunday Sauce

2010-11-15T11:07:00.000-05:00

Sauce in Progress. Notice how I am lovingly

hugging the pasta from Eataly!

While I had absolutely nothing to do with last night’s dinner, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention what was without a doubt, hands-down, the best sauce ever to go through the Feral kitchen. JustAwesome has been eager to make the Sunday Sauce from her The Frankies Spuntino Kitchen Companion & Cooking Manual since the book arrived in July. Here is her old post.

While it takes a really long time to cook (the timeline has you starting at 7am, after mass, as Nonna would’ve done), there isn’t actually a ton involved in making this sauce. And the results were phenomenal. Again, this is such a beautiful and funny/sweet cookbook. It’d make a great gift, even for yourself.

Pasta with Frankies’ Sunday Sauce and

Eggplant Marinara (salad and wine not shown)

A Whole New Ballgame

2010-11-12T14:06:00.000-05:00

Last night I tried a new recipe for cauliflower. I used scallions instead of chives but oohyummy! I don’t think I used much more oil than I would in an ordinary roasting tray and the lemon zest just hit it out of the ballpark. A home run!

Served with the usual suspects:

broiled chilean sea bass, sautéed swiss chard, wine (local stuff brought over by a Feral cousin from France. Thanks, Dan! Goosebumps!)

Happy Anniversary, JustAwesome! Four more years! Four more years!

Soup, there it is!

2010-11-10T09:29:00.001-05:00

Smoked Ricotta with arugula, oil and sea salt, kale chips,

Ginger-Carrot Soup (with potato) and salad. Ok, and wine.

The weather isn’t exactly frightful yet, but still, I am beginning to crave warmth. I want soup. I have to force myself not to go out for ramen everyday. And I have got to start eating a little healthier... I have visions of Richard Simmons having to break through my 14th floor window to rescue me.

My favorite soup to make isn’t necessarily my favorite soup. It is a Ginger-Carrot Soup. I love it because it is so easy to make and there are, like, 5 things in it. Simple and good. You can make a lot and freeze in portions so you don’t get sick of it—an easy lunch. It’d probably go well with a lunch muffin! And you don’t have to be precious when doing any of the cutting because it gets puréed* at the end.

Also, it solves the problem of too many carrots. We get a bag of carrots each week from our veggie box. Normally this is doable—we have carrot sticks for snack or throw some on a roasting tray for a side. It isn’t stressful. Unless we are lax one week. And they pile up. And I panic. Unless I make this soup.

Menu: Tiny baguette with smoked ricotta, arugula, oil & salt. Kale chips. Salad. Carrot-Ginger soup with potato. Wine. Beer.

What did I learn? I could’ve added more potato to the soup, to make it a little thicker. I’m not complaining. It was good. I overcooked the bread, maybe because they were such small pieces. The kale chips are fun to eat though not totally satisfying. But it felt like we had a ton of food, but it was all really healthy. I think I used about a dozen vegetables for this meal. And honestly, I can’t remember the last time I got sick. Knock on wood.

*I like to use a hand blender/immersion tool. Makes every soup have that creamy greatness, without the cream!

What We Had For Dinner Last Night

2010-11-04T09:54:00.001-04:00

My favorite thing about living in New York* is that I can walk to a fresh pasta store. With no idea what to make for dinner, I knew I wanted to finish up our weekly veggie box before the next batch arrived. They have so many different kinds of pasta there, all fresh: raviolis, tortellinis, cannellonis. I went for a wide fettucini (or was it a narrow parpardelle?) which I know JustAwesome loves. Although the store smelled amazing because they make their own marinara, I held firm and didn’t buy any. I really wanted to get that last batch of spinach in some kind of pasta dish. I couldn’t deal with yet another side of spinach—sautéed in garlic, like I always do...

I heated up some oil with some spicy flakes of whoknowswhat, tossed in some onions & garlic, browned some Trader Joe’s meatless sausage for a little protein (I cut these way too small!), blanched then tossed in the spinach, likewise with the pasta. Topped with freshly grated pecorino.

The verdict? Yum! Fresh pasta is always yum! Was it my best dish? No, not really. But it was a good, satisfying, warming meal. Ate with a lovely salad and some vino. And, I tried something I hadn’t done before, spent about $3, used up the spinach, and accomplished all of this without calling JA fifty times at work to discuss. The ultimate verdict? Success.

With all of this fresh pasta at my beck and call, I still want to take this pasta making class with our pizza guru. I had one of his pasta dishes once at Beer Table and dream about it. Often...

*Ok, maybe not my favorite thing... and probably not my best post either. But hey, that’s what we had for dinner last night.

The Root

2010-10-26T22:19:00.000-04:00

The other night I had a celery root pot pie with cheddar and whatssit(?). I remarked that the dish had one of my favorite tastes, but I wasn’t sure which ingredient I was diggin’. So JA picked up some celery root at the New Amsterdam Market on Sunday. Crazy lookin’ mutha! Also called celeraic, celery root is linktodescriptionhere. Please, I’m not a food expert...

We also picked up some amazing bread made with Six Point Ale. And some local cheese. And a new case arrived.

And today I made a simple potato, leek soup with celery root. And a side of spinach. We mixed the bread with olive oil and salt and toasted it in the oven. Larger slices we ate with the cheese and wine, smaller ones after with the soup. Delicious!

Did I like the celery root in the soup? Did it add anything? I think so. It is hard to tell. The soup felt like it had a depth that it doesn’t usually have but who can say? It was really, really good! Might’ve been good regardless. It wasn’t much of an effort to deal with the celery root—was just funny to look at. Would I do it again? Yes!

Xtra Ab-Normal

2010-10-25T18:59:00.000-04:00

I made a movie to give you an inkling into JustAwesome’s life.

What do you obsess about?

Toot, toot!

2010-10-18T18:44:00.000-04:00

JustAwesome had to work late. I decided I would eat some meat and maybe catch up on some Dexter episodes. As a side, I would make a spinach with sesame and garlic, which JA could eat—hot, warm, cold, whatever—whenever she got home.

But:

• I couldn’t find the sesame seeds to toast.

• I used way too much oil.

• I used way too much soy sauce (why is there no spout thingy??).

And I could not get a nice photo. (Perhaps the director of photography can try one when she gets home? Probably not.)

Sigh.

But at least I got to eat some meat. A rarity in this house. And it smells really good in here.

Bad Behavior(s)

2010-10-18T10:07:00.000-04:00

Still nothing doing at the Feral Casa. I know. WTF? And my scale has started screaming when I get on it. Hmm, what am I doing wrong?

• Should I not pretend it is snowing on a 60-someodd degree October day just so I can have fondue for dinner?

• Should I not drink a lovely bottle of wine with it? You know, the cheese might congeal in my stomach and kill me. I need that wine. It is a safety issue.

• Should I not try two new neighborhood restos in one weekend? Both were excellent. And I had to try lotsa things. I had to.

http://www.osteriamorini.com/

http://thefatradishnyc.com/

And I have nothing new to say about roasting veggies either. Except that they sure look more beautiful with the new camera. Nothing. Except that it was genius of me to roast extra potatoes and steam extra string beans last night. And it was genius of me to boil some eggs.

So today I’ll have a nice salad nicoise for lunch. With some fancy-ass tuna we brought home from Italy. And hopefully my scale will shut up.

Really, really good.

2010-10-10T23:27:00.000-04:00

Not much is doing lately in the Feral Casa. We went away, ate a ton and came back craving home-cooked simple meals, and salads. Lots of veggies and salads. So I didn’t really have anything to say. But I really, really wanted to use our new camera. So, I took some photos of the lasagna that JustAwesome was making. Just to take some photos.

And then we ate the aforementioned, pre-photographed lasagna and it was really, really delicious. It is a riff on the Jamie Oliver's Simple Baked Lasagne which uses squash. That’s why we made it—a good use for squash. (We have reupped our Urban Organic box, for now, and are assuming we’ll get more squash than we know what to do with over the next few months.) Anyway, the recipe also calls for créme fraiche which is mixed with anchovies. Say what? Squash and anchovies in your lasagna? Yes! And it was sooooo good. The créme fraiche gave it an amazing creaminess, the anchovies gave it the meaty, smokiness. Served with much-needed salad, less-needed wine. Really, really good.

A New Addition

2010-09-18T09:58:00.000-04:00

It is with great joy that JustAwesome and I welcome a new addition to the Feral Cook pizza repertoire. Stolen from Roberta’s, the best (hands down) pizza place in New York City, I present:

Salad Nicoise Pizza

Potato pizza with a tuna/egg mixture tossed with arugula, green beans and a sicilian green sauce. So bright and tasty. She makes us smile.

September 18, 2010

7:17 p.m

13 inches

Salad Nicoise Pizza

Sicilian Green Sauce

Tuna-Egg Mixture

Also on the menu tonight:

• margherita

• smoked ricotta, basil, parmesan and mozzarella (2x)

Smoked Ricotta

Serve salad with Karen Skurka’s Lazy Girl Dressing (in the comment).

Drink beer in frosty glasses and homemade blueberry soda.

Young Pizza Lover with Tiny Pineapple

The Works

2010-09-13T19:57:00.000-04:00

With less than 10 days until we go on what will undoubtably be a gluttonous trip, I have got to get serious about my waistline.

Tonight I did a ton of prep: I made my famous egg salad (for tomorrow’s lunch). I made a WW’s cabbage and carrot salad to have as sides for a few days (ugly but tasty). I roasted some brussels sprouts and carrots, like I always do. I cut up celery (peanut butter? hummus?). I cut up carrots (I do not like pre-cut carrots. Blech). I washed the lettuce (keeping the leaves whole to use as wraps). I made a salad (to eat for tonight’s dinner with canned salmon and a crusty bread from the New Amsterdam Market).

And then I remembered: I had some uncooked kale that I hadn’t used, already cut up and ready to go... Roasting pan was out from the brussels sprouts and calling my name. WOO HOO! Kale chips!! They were so tasty! I just put olive oil and salt on them and laid in a single layer. Better recipe here.

Kale

And then I thought: Why not eat it all for dinner? At once! I must be some kind of genius.

The Works

So we had: Salad with salmon (with a homemade mustard dressing), crusty bread with homemade pesto, cabbage and carrot salad, roasted brussels sprouts and carrots, and kale chips. With homemade seltzer! A weird mix, but it all worked. And a sensible Weight Watchers meal, I think.

JustAwesome is in the kitchen, right this minute, preparing this panade from The New York Times Magazine. How many POINTS is that? OY! Seriously, I can’t wait!

Oh, what a relief it is!

2010-09-07T12:31:00.000-04:00

What a lovely weekend! A visit to The Brooklyn Kitchen yielded a brand new seltzer-maker. We don’t drink a ton of the stuff right now (because we don’t like throwing out plastic bottles) but game-on! Oh, the possibilities! Ours came with some flavor samples plus we bought a gorgeous bottle of Ginger syrup. And now we don’t have to avoid having any teetotalers over for dinner.

So, what flavors sound good to you?

Our Flexitarian Table

2010-09-01T08:48:00.000-04:00

JustAwesome grew up eating very little meat. Naturally, she became a vegetarian and thankfully, for practical (read: traveling) purposes later started eating fish. Coincidentally, she doesn’t love shellfish beyond the occasional lobster-roll, so I think of her as a kosher-style pescetarian. And so, we are, flexitarian.

I don’t feel punished by meatless meals. We have tons of variety, especially when adding fish to the mix. I do hate when restaurants have only one vegetarian option and it is usually more like a consolation prize. I eat plenty of meat, usually when we go out, but once in a while I’ll make some meat or treif for myself. I don’t believe people should lose themselves for their spouses—avoiding onions, for example, that their spouse deems “stinky poo-poo”—like Laura Linney’s character on Showtimes new series The Big C.

Last night I decided to follow Berley’s recipe for Grilled Shrimp in Harissa, found in, of course, The Flexitarian Table. This kind of, sort of, went with-ish the cauliflower and corn and pea red curry that I made for our main entrée. (I broiled it).

Then I saw the recipe and rather than improvise and try something else, I kept going. Next thing I know, I am toasting fennel and cumin seeds and then grinding them with a mortar and pestle because we didn’t have already ground spices. WHAT??? WHO AM I?????

The mortar and pestle, by the way, we only own because I saw it at a HomeGoods store, it was really, really cheap and it matches our Le Creuset stuff!

Anyway, this cracks me up. I don’t recognize me. The shrimp was good and the house smelled amazing because of the toasted seeds. YUM!

Shame shame shame...

2010-08-30T17:17:00.000-04:00

Chilean Sea Bass

Ok, I have something to confess (hanging Feral head in shame). My favorite fish to cook at home is Chilean Sea Bass. I know, I KNOW! It is not technically on the endangered species list anymore but I probably shouldn’t be eating it. If it was a really dire situation, Whole Foods & Fresh Direct wouldn’t sell it. Right?

It is SOOOO yummy. And I really don’t eat very much of it. And, I’m a very good person. As a New Yorker, my carbon footprint is practically minute. Sometimes I remember to offset my carbon emissions. I recycle, I use green products, I’ve removed myself from mailing lists. I’ve reduced my plastic waste dramatically (since my Lunch post). I carry bags, I shop locally. I tell everyone I know to rent No Impact Man (available on Netflix). Really, I’m good. But I love me some Patagonian Toothfish. I am a flawed human person.

A standard dinner in the Feral rotation is Chilean Sea Bass (broiled), potato (boiled? roasted?), greens (usually sautéed in garlic), maybe a salad. But, alas, I have just “discovered” potato salad. Bittman has an easy recipe with scallion or onion, parsley, and a mustard vinaigrette. I hate mayo, so I never really considered adding potato salad to my repertoire. Until now. Really easy and perfect on a hot day (and for lunches later in the week).

Potato Salad

I’d give you the recipe but I am not a copyright infringer—just a fish killer. And really? You should own at least one Bittman cookbook. JustAwesome swears by the iPhone app, too. Hopefully, I didn’t overcook the potatoes and she likes my potato salad.

Tofu or Not Tofu?

2010-08-09T18:42:00.000-04:00

Proper tofu custard from Hibino — YUM!!

The Plan:

• Tofu custard

• Dashi

After taking a tofu-making class back in June, I’ve decided to give it a go at home. I really love tofu custard which is a little easier (um, well) to prepare than regular tofu. Of course, as I sit here typing this, I don’t really know if it is going to work. I screwed up a million little times and I’m pretty sure all of my measurements are wrong. Too many steps? Yeah, probably.

The short of it:

Soak beans, purée, boil with water and then strain through a cheese cloth. That makes soymilk. The milk is then mixed with a coagulant (nigari). Then you pray. If you’re not religious, you think good thoughts at it.

I made milk!

Lesson #1

You have to soak the soybeans (bought in bulk at WF’s. Cost $.75. Organic.) for 10 hours before you make the soymilk that becomes tofu. So my batch will be ready at 9pm? Oy. Next time I’ll do that part overnight. Then I panicked that it was going to go rancid and stuck in the fridge to make the next day. Might’ve just messed everything up right then and there.

Lesson #2

Save the water that you soaked it in. I read that line after I tossed my water. Might’ve just messed everything up right then and there.

Lesson #3

Pay attention in school. My math is really bad. I suspect this is a bit like baking and needs to be exact. Might’ve just messed everything up right then and there.

I think this is actually really easy to make but you need to plan a little better than I can manage these days. And then I was improvising a bit using this recipe plus what I got from the Tofu making class at Brooklyn Kitchen. I will try again if this batch doesn’t work...

A Final Word:

It sort of came out. It looked really gross. I should tell you that in the class only 3 out of 30 portions came out right (mine was one of them!). We ate with dashi, scallions & wasabi.

JA’s opinion:

It looks like curdled snot but tastes delicious, clean, fresh and delicate. I hope Feral tries again.

The Verdict:

I’d rather have someone else make it for me. I haven’t been but I hear that EN Japanese Brasserie makes a really nice one, like, every hour. I thought the one at Hibino in Brooklyn was delish, hot or cold. But I think any upscale-ish Japanese place should do it well.

Curds for Dinner! No whey!

2010-08-05T18:18:00.000-04:00

Ever since my very first poutine in Montreal back in ’07, I’ve been hooked. Traditional poutine uses beef gravy (as well as pork fat for the fries), but JA & I do a tasty version with mushroom gravy. A real winter treat. Tonight we are going to turn on the AC (and dust the cobwebs off of our stove) and try yet another version utilizing some of the crazy-colored carrots from the Farmer’s Market.

The recipe comes from a great blog called Everybody Likes Sandwiches, which of course, everybody does. We use frozen french fries. No shame in that. We changed the recipe quite a bit—the first try was too spicy and too thin. The second try was just right.

real poutine from Montreal

An early iteration. I can’t find a photo of our usual which is darker.

The cheese curds are from our favorite cheesemonger. Do they squeak? Probably not, but really yummy.

crazy carrots

Tonight’s veg’d up version. Mmm, mmm good!

The Verdict? It was good but I’m something of a purist. I missed my mushroom gravy. (Not shown)

Pancakes, hold the syrup!

2010-07-26T21:29:00.000-04:00

JustAwesome has been experimenting for the past few weeks with chickpea flour and I’ve gotta tell you, I am really diggin’ it! I don’t know what excites me exactly but the texture and the flavors are just different, you know? Different then the same old, same old. It feels wholesome and homey and how often do you get your protein from your starch?

The recipes came from Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian: More Than 650 Meatless Recipes from Around the Globe and I have a very distinct feeling that we are going to be trying a lot of them.

Last week’s pancake was thick, like an American breakfast pancake, with onions, tomato and cumin mixed into the batter. It was so tasty. OMG! Almost like an Indian latke... But a bit too dry, it needed a topping. I thought maybe if we cut up some more tomatoes like on a bruschetta? Maybe a chutney? A yogurt? Definitely needed something. But not much.

We tried again this week, a simpler batter (sans tomoto/onion) and it was thinner like a crêpe or a dosa. JA pulled together some toppings from what we had in the fridge — a beautiful rainbow chard sauteéd presumably with garlic, some cremini mushrooms & shallots, and a jar of chutney that we picked up on Saturday at The New Amsterdam Market. JA had sampled it on a cheddar and chutney sandwich from our favorite cheesemongers...

Again, another great summer dinner. Light and fresh and simple. And on top of the stove. But if she buys any more flours, we are definitely going to have to move.

Home Alone!

2010-07-18T14:10:00.000-04:00

I don’t know if it is clear to my 14 readers but if I say “we” made something, it usually means that JustAwesome made it. We made this and we made that. JA made it. All. She’ll come up with the idea and I’ll say, “Yummy! Me like!” and that’s about the extent of it. Maybe I’ll do a little shopping or a little chopping. I almost always do the dishes. But make no mistake, I didn’t make it. I barely helped.

Today I am making ice cream. We make amazing ice cream. I’ve never made it before.

After a really good restaurant-week lunch at Esca on Friday, we saw some farmers selling their crops out of their truck. No Farmers Market affiliation. What do I care? I have no idea what farm they’re from, I assume it is local, not organic. Again, I don’t care. I bought peaches and plums.

A scorching hot Sunday with nowhere to go, I pulled out our second copy of The Perfect Scoop (the first we gave away). We have other ice cream books, JA swears that this is the only one worth owning. I linked to his page, not the book, because it is a great site—with some recipes and general Parisian yumminess.

The goal: Peach Ice Cream.

Weird things:

1. Peeling the peaches was incredibly simple because I scored the bottoms and blanched for 20 seconds. Peeling the peaches was really, really weird though. I felt like the guy from Silence of the Lambs who was making clothes out of skin. Blech.

2. Our world-traveling neighbor brought us some vanilla beans (from Madagascar?) which I held onto for too long. Rather than use vanilla extract, I decided to soak the dried beans and bring them back to life. A good idea? I don’t know yet. Instead of cooking the peaches in fresh water, I decided I should use the water that I soaked the beans in. Another stupid idea or genius? I don’t know yet.

rehydrating the beans. stupid or genius?

I’ll toss the remainder of the beans in my cinnamon-sugar mixture, which I use every morning in my coffee. Mmmm! Genius!

I’m pretty sure I over puréed this thing. Sigh.

I’m not sure why I take such risks on stuff I’ve never done before. Maybe if it’s gross, JA won’t make me help out anymore. With my dumb luck, it’ll be amazing.

Well, I’m heading out to the movies now. I’m not allowed to run the ice cream maker without a grown up anyway. I’ll let you know how it turns out.