We’re just entering the thick of it in the Northeastern states. The colors are still subdued due to the recent drought (and it is also a little bit early for full autumn color change). But hopefully the recent rains and cooler temps will spruce them up a bit. I mean, the Kancamagus Highway in the White Mountains of New Hampshire is known as the best New England leaf peeping drive for a reason, and needs those brilliant colors to show up!
Reds, golds, bright yellows and oranges - these could also be the colors of foods we’re now making: orange and purple sweet potatoes and yams, deep red and golden yellow crunchy-crisp apples, orange pumpkins picked by your family from the local pumpkin patch, along with yellow butternut squashes, golden and red beets, and a harvest color that is special to Massachusetts: the bright red of cranberry bogs.
Gorgeous photo, @LindaWhit! Just dropping in to let everyone know our new DOTQ and COTQ threads are up - come join us as we cook, eat and share our thoughts about stews and Sichuan specialties!
Come join in on the fantastic choices for Cookbook of the Month for the rest of the year!
– MAANGCHI – who makes Korean food easy and accessible without losing any flavor, and
– CHRISSY TEIGEN – who seemed an unlikely recipe source, but her comfort food and flavor combinations were hits twice already on COTM, and she now has a third book and a website full of recipes.
Watched my bestie get married to her beloved in Serbia this morning on Zoom, and they both looked so happy! Couldn’t have asked for a better start to the day
It certainly beat what followed just a couple hours later: a molar extraction. At least the co-pay wasn’t ruinous for a change, but our Health Equity card is now maxed out for the year. Rah rah.
I was pretty good about icing it all afternoon & popping antibiotics and pain meds, and hopefully won’t have too much bruising — thankfully, no gigs until next week
Given the massive hole in my mouf, soft food was in order. I’d already considered making a pasta dish tonight & took a deep dive into my NYT recipe box, which is the culinary equivalent of flying economy: 90% chicken or pasta
This recipe
seemed a good candidate, as I already had spinach in the house. I rarely ever use ricotta, so I omitted that & added a few spoons of Boursin garlic & chive (as if the 5 cloves of garlic I added weren’t enough already), 2 mild & 1 hot Italian sausage for that extra protein, a splash of white & a splash of light cream, plus a healthy shake of my friend’s dried smoked hot pepper mix
I just looked at the recipe again, and apparently I was supposed to cook the spinach in garlic butter. I used olive oil.
Could have sworn I had some meat sauce in the downstairs freezer. I didn’t.
So I took out a pound of ground beef and a single large sweet Italian sausage and did a quick defrost before cooking and draining. Chopped onions, mushrooms, red bell peppers, garlic, tomato paste, fennel seed, dried basil, oregano and parsley, s/p and a Parm-Reg rind was mixed with the meat and another of the marinaras I’m taste-testing per this thread, Carmine’s of NY:
It was serviceable for a meat sauce but was utterly bland on its own, so I won’t be buying it again.
So…Prince Spaghetti Day was had (with Barilla sketti) with a healthy schprinkle of Parm-Reg on top.
Our outdoor grilling ban has ended for the year! American Wagyu beef burgers on the grill with all the usual suspects. Air-fried Kennebec spuds from the garden.
Cacio e Pepe from a CI recipe - interesting approach by building the base through finely mincing the pecorino in the food processor and adding a little bit of hot water to get a cheese “paste”. You use the cheese paste with the hot spaghetti directly from the pot, freshly toasted and ground black pepper and some concentrated pasta water (spaghetti cooked in a small amount of water) to finish the dish. Overall good flavor but the cheese sauce started to form a few small clumps once it cooled down a bit.
Pan seared boneless pork chop on a bed of sauteed romaine with tons of garlic, onion and diced tomatoes. A few dashes of Franks hot sauce for a bit of zing.
