Hello! And welcome to my blog. This is a new project for me, and I'm still working out the kinks in the templates and such (anyone know why blogroll won't work? anyone? bueller?), but over the next few weeks I'll be fixing it up and rolling out some content.

Obviously, the topic of this blog is vegetables, and the always-exciting adventure of using up each week's share from our CSA. But it's also about food, and cooking, and how it's possible to be busy, sometimes exhausted, and occassionally lazy, but still manage to put together some really kick ass meals. However, since it's still only March in Maine, the CSA is just starting its planting, so in the meantime I'll be writing about cooking in general. I'll include my recipes when possible, and Otis's as well. It should be interesting to compare and contrast. (An Otis recipe: start with 1/4 lb of pork fat. A Marya recipe: spray the pan with Pam.)

I'll also post about restaurants we've gone to (I'll soon write about our incredible Shelton Brothers Beer Dinner at Hugo's this past Sunday), and dinner parties, and all sorts of other foodie-type stuff. Thanks for reading!

Instead of giving each other gifts for Valentine's this year, Otis and I decided to go out for a fancy dinner together, and when we received the flyer advertising a Shelton Brothers Beer Dinner at Hugo's, it was obvious we should sign up.

March 11 was an unseasonably warm day, especially coming on the heels of a wicked cold snap that was making me wicked cranky. And, since we anticipated drinking a fair amount of beer, and are responsible citizens who don't drink and drive, we walked from the West End to Hugo's, spending the twenty minutes or so anticipating our dinner, and pondering whether it would be a really reasonable way to spend 200+ dollars.

It turns out, it is possible to experience a meal as simultaneously incredibly expensive, and yet a good deal. This meal was advertised as a six-courser, with paired beers that would compliment the food. We ended up with nine courses, including intermezzos, and nine beers. Even better, one of the Shelton brothers, Will, was present to narrate and embellish on each of the incredible beers, most of which were so outside the mundane norm that I'm not really sure if I even have the vocabulary to describe them.

Luckily, Will had the vocab, plus a droll delivery that complemented his eccentric bald head and geekish obsession with the minutia of each beer's provenance and specifications. He was a charming guy with an obvious love for his work, and a great sense of humor. Interestingly, he is a vegan who couldn't eat any of the normal courses presented. Of course the Hugo's folks created special dishes for him, which he said were delicious. I do find it hard to believe they were as tasty as what we had, though. Since I'm being fairly long-winded I'm going to use the extended entry field, so click the link below to hear about the details of the meal.

One of the great food-related gifts I received from my parents was an early appreciation for Asian food. As the story goes, they would make stir-fries and wash the spicy bits off, until I was about 3 or so and demanded to eat everything fully spiced. I'm not sure of how accurate this story is, but I do know that I love pretty much all types of Asian cooking, the spicier the better.

Back then, of course, Chinese was the big thing-- easily accessible outside urban areas, and very much Americanized. Now there's a Thai restaurant on every corner, and Vietnamese, Malaysian, Japanese, Cambodian, Korean, and many more... and in many places you can get Chinese that consists of more than Chop Suey, and is acually accurate for its region. (Supposedly there are eight main Chinese cooking traditions, although I believe that is debated.)

(A note to mollify my parents, if they are reading-- they certainly never prepared or purchased anything as prosaic as chop suey or egg foo yong.)

Now, my favorite flavor profile is the salty-sweet-fishy-yummy taste of Thai and Vietnamese food made with lots of fish sauce. It's all part of the greater taste sensation of umami, which in context can make my mouth water like nothing else.

But sometimes I want those flavors to be easy to come by. I don't always want to go out to dinner, or get take out, or work too hard for any sort of cultural or culinary authenticity.

Faux Thai Pasta fulfills this need. Basically, it's pork meatballs over rice noodles in a spicy peanut sauce. It's got lime, fish sauce, peanut, chili paste, cilantro, and vegetables, and only takes about half an hour to prepare. Click the link to check out the recipe.

When I was in law school in Michigan, and I lived in the dorm for the first summer, I had a little electric wok and a teensy fridge, and I ate a version of this almost every day, made with a packet of ramen noodles, a lime, p.b., soy sauce, and chopped scallions. (I was very poor. I don't necessarily recommend it as an everyday meal!)

As I drifted off to sleep last night, visions of delicious cookies made with dried apples, cinnamon, and oats danced in my head. I've never made cookies with that particular set of ingredients, but I am 100% confident that they will be damned delicious. I'll post the recipe later in the weekend once I've baked.

I have no idea where this craving came from, as usual. Sometimes it seems like my subconscious mind is wholly occupied with food cravings. Or maybe it was the fact that earlier this week, I had a lunch meeting which came with a bag lunch, and the cookies for dessert were so unsatisfying.

There's something about generic storebought cookies that just depresses the hell out of me. They have this weird neutral background flavor, no matter what type of cookie they are. Mix cookies taste the same way. I will never in a million trillion googleplex years understand why anyone would use a mix to prepare baked goods. Homemade tastes so much better, and takes at most 15 minutes more (and that's a generous assessment.)**

Earlier this year I was explaining this to Otis, who despite his incredible cooking skills, doesn't bake. He was somewhat skeptical, and to prove it I hit pause on Survivor (yes, I watch it...no I don't want to talk about it), got up, and returned in less than 20 minutes with warm homemade brownies. i think they were the utterly simple recipe from my ancient copy of the Good Housekeeping Cookbook that I stole from my mother. Allow me to summarize here: melt butter and chocolate. Add eggs, sugar, vanilla. Add flour and baking powder. Stir. Pour in pan. Bake.

Seriously, it's that easy.

My attitude, obviously, gets me in trouble sometimes at pot lucks and such. I have a really hard time controlling my face if I bite into something and can tell that it's storebought or mix-based. I don't know what I look like under those circumstances, exactly, but I imagine it's a mixture of incredulousness, surprise, and disappointment. So, if anyone reading this has been the recipient of such a face, I apologize. It's not personal. And if you ever want to come over and bake with me, please do. It'll be fun. We'll get flour everywhere and drink wine.

** Of course I realize there are baked goods that take a long time. The delicious lemon curd cake Jenn made earlier this year, for example, must have been extremely time consuming. I made some chocolate concoction from Cook's Illustrated that took about an hour to prep over the holidays. But here I'm talking about your baking basics: cookies, brownies, loaf cakes, muffins, etc.

My husband has a sweet tooth that constantly surprises me. Not only does he love candy of all kinds, and would cheerfully eat dessert with every meal, but he also demands that his desserts be very sweet. It's a constant battle because I'm the opposite-- even though I love to bake, I can usually take or leave sweets, and only really love rich chocolatey things to be very sweet.

So, Otis really doesn't like the apple-oat bars I made after my cinnamon daydream. I think they're especially tasty, but I've promised him cupcakes to make up for the disppointment.

Apple-Oat Bars

Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter (if you can get it, try Kate's Homemade butter. Yum.)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 t baking soda
1 1/2 t salt (a little more salt than usual brings out the apple flavor)
2 t cinnamon
2 cups old fashioned oats
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup dried apple, cut into small pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Cream the butter and sugars
3. Mix in the eggs, one at a time
4. Mix in the vanilla
5. Mix in the flour, soda, salt, and cinnamon
6. Fold in the oats, walnuts, and apples
7. Spread into ungreased 13 x 9 pan
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until slightly brown on top
9. Let cool for 5 minutes before cutting into squares

We ordered a pizza from Domino's last night. And you know what? It wasn't half bad.

A little background is in order: I am a fiend for pizza. As far as I am concerned, it's one of the sublime foods in the universe. This applies to pretty much all forms of pizza. It's one of those foods that even when it's not very good is really very good. But-- and this is a big but-- sometimes I dream of real, thin, crispy, New York pizza. Portland has many advantages as a food town, but the pizza scene here is pretty disappointing.

Ricetta's is usually good, assuming it arrives at your door within an hour (which is by no means assured). It's fairly pricy as pizzas go, though, and sometimes we just don't want to wait that long.

When I worked in the Old Port, I sometimes got slices from Portland Pie. Something about the cheese they use makes their pies really greasy, though, and with any type of topping it's almost impossible to eat without a knife and fork. Plus, the last time we got delivery the pizza arrived cold. Yuck.

Amato's provides a simple, workaday pizza, at a reasonable price. The crust is a little thick, though.

So, when one of those ubiquitous flyers arrived in our mailbox for Domino's, I noticed that it was advertising "Brooklyn Style" thin crust pizza, and figured we might as well give it a try. Since the only other dinner options in the house appeared to be Quorn patties or leftovers for the 3rd night in a row from the King Ranch Casserole I made earlier in the week, the decision was easy to make.

And the verdict is: two thumbs up. The pizza was very thin, and the crust, although not really New York style (not crispy enough) was nice and foldy.

But...I'm still waiting for that perfect Portland pizza. Maybe someday.....