the petite pig

this week, meal by meal

i hate weeks where i don't have the time to sit and write. this has been one of those weeks. fortunately, i did find time to do some cooking so i'll just have to have the photos do the talking for now. jamie oliver's happy days with the naked chef has become one of my main go-to's for the weeknight meal. his pot-roasted chicken with sweet and sour sauce is perhaps the easiest one pot meal i've ever made. a great take on roast chicken where the end result is not just roast chicken, but a vibrant medley of vegetables, colors and flavor covered in a surprising sauce.

on saturday, trapped inside by clouds and rain, i relied on comfort. inspired by last week's episode of top chef (yes, i am still addicted), i followed in betty's footsteps, making my grilled cheese, all grown-up and a creamy roasted red pepper concoction. the grown-up part of the grilled cheese comes in the form of a roasted garlic puree that gives the sandwich a sweet but spicy bite. for the cheese part, i used gruyere and smoke gouda for an unexpected combination of flavors.

i almost considered not hosting sunday dinner this week, but it has turned into a bit of tradition for me. i look forward to ending the weekend with one last all-out cooking spree in the kitchen before heading back to the daily grind that mondays bring. tonight it was an ode to italy featuring my spaghetti and meatballs, an eggplant caponata and an olive tapenade dip. no recipes, just me playing in the kitchen.

tomorrow, i am back to the daily grind but it'll be a little bit different as i'll be in tokyo. i have never been and am excited to see this metropolis in action. for awhile now, it has been my dream to swallow the poison of a blowfish and live to write about it. it is rare to come upon a food that can really make you live dangerously, but blowfish provides just that "do you dare?" experience. i'll let you know if i get the balls to give it a try. sayonara for now.

 

"what's a blog?": my introduction to 101 cookbooks and the world of food blogging

about three years ago my friend heather told me i should really check out heidi swanson's food blog 101 cookbooks. my response to her was, "what's a blog?" she explained to me a blog is short for web log, a website that is centered around a particular subject and is updated frequently. she then took me to 101 cookbooks, introducing to me the world of not only blogging, but food blogging. going through swanson's blog, i thought to myself, "this is brilliant!!! yay for all the technogeeks out there!" since then, 101 cookbooks and heidi swanson have found a place in my kitchen. 101 cookbooks is a particularly unique food blog structured around the mission of "exploring cookbooks. one recipe a time." her blog is centered around her cookbook collection. each entry tells a story of her experience with a recipe. swanson's blog has inspired me to grow my cookbook collection and appreciate the heart and creativity that have gone into each one of my cookbooks. they have become my bedtime reading and much of my cooking inspiration.

swanson herself has also authored one cookbook cook 1.0: a fresh approach to the vegetarian cookbook, a favorite of mine. filled with crisp, beautiful food photography, the cookbook is divided into 8 chapters. chapters 1.0 to 3.0 take us through our daily meals from breakfast dishes to the lunchbox to one-dish dinners while chapters 4.0 to 8.0 focus on sides, spreads, sauces & salsas, sweets, drinks and food ideas. i have especially enjoyed her pocket tart ideas in the lunchbox chapter and her modern take on the pot pie in the one-dish dinner chapter, perhaps because both involve the decadent wonder of puff pastry. it has always been my go-to cookbook when i'm having vegetarians over for dinner or when i'm in need of a simple but chic meal.

tonight was one of those nights where i wanted a warm, comforting dish to greet the noticeably cooler autumn weather that has finally set in. it didn't take long to decide that it was a night fit for the warm comfort of good ol' pot pie. i took cook 1.0 off my shelf and decided to put a spin on swanson's chipotle-potato pot pie. the original recipe calls only for potatoes, and i could not resist adding some sweetness to the mix by dicing in some sweet potatoes and yams (also featured in my autumn risotto - can you tell i'm ready for thanksgiving?). swanson's recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of adobo sauce which is the real kicker to this dish. that additional hint of heat provides that extra layer of warmth on a cold night, exactly what i was craving. in between greeting our constant stream of trick-or-treaters, my roommate anne and i prepared my favorite menu so far this season. anne fried up the last of the tomatoes from our backyard to add to the southern comfort feel of the pot pies. i threw together my favorite autumn salad. three friends sitting down to a warm, comfort meal. it doesn't get much better than this. thanks heidi.

jess' take on heidi's chipotle-potato pot pie (from cook 1.0, page 66)

preheat oven to 400 degrees. to a large pot over medium high heat add:
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup diced potatoes,1 cup diced sweet potatoes and/or yams (1/4 inc diced)
1/2 teaspoon salt
saute, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.

stir in:
1 tablespoon adobo sauce from a can of chipotle chiles*
1 cup corn kernels
in a small bowl, combine:
2 cups cold milk
2 tablespoons cornstarch
stir into the potato mixture. bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and cook until the filling starts to thicken. remove from the heat and season with more salt to taste. pour the filling into small ovenproof bowls or ramekins, each three quarters full. cut a piece of puff pastry dough** to fit each bowl, with some overlap. place the odugh on the bowls and fold over the edges. brush the dough lightly with egg white for a golden crust. poke a few holes in the top with a fork to allow steam to escape. bake until the crusts are tall and deeply golden, about 15 minutes. 

*you can buy adobo sauce on its own, but the adobo sauce from a can of chipotle peppers transfers the additional heat of chipotle peppers into your pot pie, making this dish so unique.

**puff pastry dough can be found in the frozen food aisle of your local grocery store. most large-chain grocery stores will stock the pepperidge farm variety. however, some gourmet stores offer a less-commercial version which always seems to be puff up much lighter than pepperidge farm's. just a warning, once you discover the light, flaky, buttery heaven of puff pastry, there is no going back.

the silver spoon

i was recently reading josh friendland's blog "the food section" (which definitely deserves a bookmark in any foodie's internet browser) when i came across his post "this is how we roll" where he talks about a cookbook that i am sure many of us own, the silver spoon. i am certain that all of us italian food lovers rushed out to grab our very own copy of this italian food bible when it came onto bookshelves last year. friendland aptly writes: "how many of you cookbook collectors out there picked up a copy of the silver spoon last year only to leave the behemoth languishing on your bookshelf to gather dust? i confess that i did."

well, i am guilty as well. since acquiring the italian cookbook of all cookbooks, i have been more than afraid to take it off the shelf. the sheer weight of the book has been deterrance enough but combined with the task of actually choosing one dish from the thousands and thousands of recipes would certainly cause a minor heart attack. however, my boyfriend tim (a food celebrity in his own right for competitive eating skills that could rival the japanese), being both physically stronger and emotionally braver than me, lugged the cookbook off the shelf last weekend on my birthday to find a gnocchi recipe. well he found about 100 but chose the basic gnocchi so that we could recreate one of the first meals we made together over three years ago. even though the gnocchi you make at home might not be the melt in your mouth experience you might get at your local italian joint, creating gnocchi from scratch not only satisfies the guilty pleasure of returning to your childhood play-doh playing days but also gives that much more satisfaction with each bite, knowing you made this as a labor of love and didn't just boil those frozen dumplings from trader joe's (although those are pretty damn good to have on hand too). so that night in celebration of my twenty-five years of life we ate our homemade gnocchi dressed in pesto. ok, so i definitely could use a food mill or a potato ricer in my kitchen, but there's nothing wrong with biting into a small chunk of potato in your gnocchi - after all, that is what they are made of! anyhow, sitting there that night to dinner, filling our bellies with our heaping plates of pesto-ed gnocchi, i remembered the reason i bought that book in the first place - to remind me of the many authentic italian meals i enjoyed in italy - and i promised myself it wouldn't be another year before i pulled that behemoth off the shelf again.

and then some crazy thought crossed my mind.  what if i attempted the julie and julia challenge with the silver spoon? alright, i'd probably have to give myself a good 10 years as opposed to just the one that julie powell had to conquer every recipe in julia child's mastering the art of french cooking but if i was able to complete this daunting challenge, i really will have mastered the art of italian cooking as it just might include every conceivable italian dish ever. anyway, when i picked up that book again, i was quickly reminded of how heavy it was, and my crazy idea quickly subsided back into crazy-ville but hey, it was a thought . . . any takers out there?