PT and I went apple picking last weekend and for the price of a dinner for two, were allowed to roam through a local orchard in Ipswich, chomping on apples, and occasionally dropping the most perfect red, round orbs into a peck-sized bag.

It was a gorgeous day, bright and crisp, and the orchard was helpfully marked with signs indicating where the various tree varieties – fuji, macoun, macintosh, golden delicious – were located. After a visit with the farm’s miniature horse, Possum, who was delightfully sweet and gentle, and a satisfying afternoon snack of fried whole belly clams and clam chowder, PT and I were headed home with more apples than I knew what to do.

Continue reading ‘Red Wine Caramel Apples from Gourmet’

As promised, November’s posts starts with a recipe made from Gourmet’s October issue, what they called Scarlet Carrot Soup, but which I’ve modified to more of a Vibrant Veggie Soup. When I described the contents to PT – tons of carrots, beets, and parsnips – he crinkled his nose and grabbed a carrot cupcake with maple frosting, presumably to soothe himself from the raw shock of so many vegetables.

As it turns out, the soup was delicious, thanks to a liberal dose of coriander, which playfully and spicily tickled the back of my throat. And while I hope that you do try this soup, as it is incredibly easy, healthy, and tasty, it’s not really what this post is about….

Continue reading ‘Vibrant Veggie Soup and little Monday (or Tuesday) Morning Quarterbacking’

November is the last month that Conde Nast will publish Gourmet Magazine. The ending, its Thanksgiving issue, is bittersweet and complex – how can we be thankful when we’re losing such a beloved American icon, and, yet, Gourmet gets to go out with a bang, issuing
arguably its greatest and most-anticipated issue of the year.

Like so many other home and professional cooks, I’m mourning the loss of Gourmet. The loss of those frissons of excitement I felt when it appeared in my mailbox, loss of the relaxing moments I would spend, lazily browsing for intriguing and innovative recipes, loss of the recipes themselves, which did more to inspire me in the few months that I was a subscriber than the ocean of cooking content available in print, on the web, and on TV.

But, in addition to the personal loss, I also feel the loss of a cultural icon – an institution that has been influencing and guiding the changing tastes of professional and home kitchens for almost 70 years. Every page of Gourmet was celebratory and filled with life – it represented an America and a lifestyle that we wanted to reclaim and revive, particularly during an economic downturn that, ironically, played a fair part in Gourmet’s undoing.

Enough has been said, here and by others, on the passing of Gourmet. Now, it’s time to celebrate. All recipes on Besotted this month will come from my last 2 lovely issues of Gourmet. I also fully intend to make this Thanksgiving, like those past, a Gourmet Thanksgiving and look forward to sharing the experience.

Enjoy!

I’ve regaled you, dear reader, a few times with some of my more clumsy and amusing kitchen mishaps, but, thanks to a small dinner party I threw recently, I have a whole cadre of new tales to tell, which, if all goes according to plan, will put any fearful hostess-wannabe at ease about their ability to host lovely, entertaining dinners.

I’m going to Tarantino this tale and start at the end – plates licked clean, full bellies, and lots of laughter – otherwise, a successful evening. Now, let’s start at the beginning, and you’ll get a real feel for what a disaster in the kitchen I am….

Continue reading ‘Entertaining Mishaps – You don’t know clumsy….’

The weekend is almost here, and I figure we could all use a liberal dose of HAPPINESS right about now. Maybe you’re cranky from work, the lack of beach weather (it goes that way sometimes in October), or just because you’ve stubbed your toe 5 times in the last 3 days…. well, these cookies are easily the best cure.

I dubbed them “Happiness Cookies” the first time I made them – they are instantly cheering, sunny, warm, and unbelievably delicious. The only sad thing about them is when you get down to the last 1 or 2 of a batch. Luckily, more can be whipped up in about 45 minutes, including baking time.

Continue reading ‘Cherry Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies – Happiness Cookies’

Every food blogger has their own reasons for engaging in the odd behaviors, rituals, and self-disciplines that go into maintaining an active food blog – apologizing to loved ones for consistently serving cold food because you needed time to photograph it, rarely cooking the same thing twice because you want to be able to make a post out of something new, timing each part of a recipe’s preparation, in order to give an accurate estimate of the preparation time – it’s all a bit nutty.

Some of us do it because it’s an escape – a place that is our own, but that we share with the thousands (millions?) of food blog readers, some hope to become famous food writers, and some, like me, enjoy the idea of keeping a flexible, updatable library of our favorite recipes (and, yes, I secretly dream of being a famous food writer, as well – with realistic expectations, of course.)

Continue reading ‘Pan-Roasted Chicken with Cognac Mustard Sauce’

hospitality |ˌhäspiˈtalitē| the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.

It has been said that great service can save bad food, but that great food can not save bad service. Recollections of Seinfeld’s Soup Nazi aside, I find that this adage of the hospitality industry to be both true and almost altogether dismissed by the industry itself. This is an industry that creates an elite of those that will spend a fortune to get a noteworthy designer to create ambience, stock 50 kinds of premium vodka behind the bar, and source its pig from farms down the street, yet it seems to take the most perfunctory and dismissive attitude towards the service it provides.

Continue reading ‘Where did the “hospitality” in the hospitality business go?’

There are certain cookbooks in my library that are stained, dog-earred, and otherwise, lovingly mistreated with their overuse. And then there are those that are not. This latter number is far smaller, and there is one reason why 3 or 4 of my cookbooks are rarely opened…. these cookbooks scare me.

They are all derived from famous restaurants around the globe, were all bought in a fuzzy haze of culinary ambition bordering on delusion, and have fantastic, exotic sounding recipes that, as it turns out, are a bit of a pain in the ass to actually make. When a cookbook actually dictates the type of green you must use (lamb’s lettuce, butter lettuce, red perella, perhaps) as opposed to the quotidian “mesclun mix”, you know you’re in trouble.

Continue reading ‘Lovely Fall Onion Jam’

I imagine that you probably think that farmshare folks sit around in homespun hemp gnawing on raw vegetables with ascetic delight. And that may be true for some folks, but I prefer a bit of indulgence to balance out the veggie virtue.

The late comedian, Mitch Hedburg, once declared that he believed that eating a good food with a bad food cancelled out the negative affects of the bad food. Eating a carrot, along with some fries, gave the fries a ‘free pass’ into his gullet, and I must admit, I adhere strongly to the same principles.

Continue reading ‘Harukei Turnip Gratin – Trying to achieve balance’

After a weekend of decadent wedding food and, horror of all horrors, two pit stops at McD’s, I came home craving, yearning for my the fresh veggies from my latest farm share.

Not long after arriving at home, a pile of peppers, bunches of carrots, and one large, firm, brilliant head of cabbage found themselves on the chopping block, awaiting shredding by my lethally powerful Cuisinart.

A bit of mayonnaise, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and mustard later, and I was delving into a crunchy, tangy, refreshing, and so-satisfying bowl of tangy mustard cole slaw.

Continue reading ‘Tangy Mustard Cole Slaw’