Fast, Healthy, Seasonal and Delicious (or It took longer to do the dishes than to cook)

No real recipes or magic, here. This one is as easy as it gets.
Spaghetti squash has directions on a decal Right On The Squash!
While it cooked, I sauteed some shrimp in some sliced shallots, scallions, garlic and oil.

That's it.
Simple.
Easy.

Many thanks to one Lindsay for reminding me of the taste and timeliness that is the spaghetti squash. More thanks to another Lindsay for the cost/benefit analysis of organic fruits and vegetables. Give up a coffee a week. It's worth it and more!

Sunday Breakfast

Nothing extravagant. Just delicious.

Ready For Spirng

Last week I went to a nearby tapas restaurant with a friend. While perusing the menu, something caught my eye. Shrimp in a honey chile sauce sounded perfect. It has been warm in Georgia over the past few days and this has me longing for spring, with its blustery weather, budding trees, warm aromas, and the return of fresh foods.

The problem was that I was left underwhelmed by honey chile sauce.

Of course this got me thinking...

So, I invited my friend over for dinner later that week and began scouring recipes for something that still held the comfort food values of winter, but with the promise of a spring to come. This is what I found.

Seared Scallops with Mango and Melon Salsa

This didn't satisfy my longing for honey or chiles, but it was close. When making the Salsa I began by whisking together some honey and Sriracha sauce, learning a valuable lesson about the strength of the rooster! A Little goes a long way when it comes to Sriracha. Consider yourself forewarned.

I followed the recipe for the remainder of the salsa. It is definitely beneficial to leave this in the fridge for a while to let the flavors combine. This salsa was good with dinner but fatastic the next day. I found myself in front of the fridge, spoon in hand, more times than I would care to admit.

When discussing this recipe in advance, with eyes to a starch, someone at work quipped, “Well, I think just about anything is divine served on top of mashed potatoes." Such words of wisdom are not easily ignored.

Dinner was great. The company was better. It was a good recipe and fun evening.

...and I got both my spring and my chile fix.

Maybe eat is a metaphor for live and this isn't just a food blog.

From A Softer World. I love their aesthetic.

Words of Wisdom

"Preparation of good food is merely another expression of art, one of the joys of civilized living." ~Dione Lucas

"We may find in the long run that tinned food is a deadlier weapon than the machine gun." ~George Orwell

Blues is to jazz what yeast is to bread. Without it, it's flat.”~Carmen McRae, Jazz Great (1920-1994)

“Iced tea is too pure and natural a creation not to have been invented as soon as tea, ice, and hot weather crossed paths." ~John Egerton

“I understand the big food companies are developing a tearless onion...after all, they've already given us tasteless bread”~Robert Orben

“Breakfast cereals that come in the same colors as polyester leisure suits make oversleeping a virtue.”~Fran Lebowitz

“Eat butter first, and eat it last, and live till a hundred years be past.”~Old Dutch proverb

"The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you're hungry again."~George Miller

"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it."~Mark Twain

Quotes from Foodimentary, a comprehensive, topical food blog.

Cogito Home >>>

Pot Luck Soup and Chili lunch at Work.

It's COLD in Atlanta. Is it Indiana cold? Colorado cold? Of course not.

But for Georgia, this is dead of Winter cold. The wind is howling and we will not get above freezing today.

On Monday, after a look at the weather forecast, a lady at our office suggested we throw a soup and chili pot luck lunch to insulate ourselves from today's chill.

We all shared and compared notes. My personal favorite was a delicious and earthy Chicken Tortilla with chunks of Avocado floating in it; followed closely by a very rich Mashed Potato Broccoli Cheese Soup.

For my contribution, I decided on a roasted root vegetable soup. I get the urge to make these about once or twice a year, always in the late Autumn into Winter. I don't have a recipe and it is never the same twice. This time I started by filling a baking sheet with butternut squash, turnips, carrots, leeks, and some garlic. These were liberally drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper then popped into a 450 degree oven for about 40 minutes.

I took them out of the oven and chopped them roughly before adding them into a blender. I added just a little chicken stock (you could use vegetable stock and this dish would be 100% vegan). I kept the blender on and continued to add stock, Little by Little until I got the consistency I wanted.

Next I seasoned the soup with additional salt and pepper. I also added cumin (fresh and toasted, if you please), paprika, ground up red pepper flakes and a few grounds of FRESH ginger from the Microplane.

For the office event I put the mixture into a Crock Pot which I turned on about an hour and a half before lunch. If I was serving this at home, I would either use warmed stock or move the soup from the blender to a sauce pan , stirring until warm enough to serve.

For the presentation, I placed a dollop of plain yogurt (of course you could use sour cream) in the middle and sprinkled on some minced chives and more cracked pepper. The devil in me required the I also add some Sriracha chili sauce. The color brings some good contrast and it adds a great kick.

Some previous variations I've had success with include:

• Using less stock but adding in some cream to give it some richness and smooth it out.
• Adding some bacon fat. It also smooths things out and really punches up the flavor (plus you can garnish with chopped bacon!)
• I nearly always use parsnips, as well, but Kroger really let me down, here.
• Add plantains! This idea was put forward to me, today and sounds great.
  

Dinner and Debauchery, at Liberty

I've been wanting to have a dinner party for a while, now. Now that the holidays have passed, the timing seemed right. I managed to con a couple from work and some new friends from the Liberty Lofts to join me for a meal this last Saturday.

While I had some ambitions to wow the crowd with wild mushroom risotto or an authentic paella, I took the wise advice of one of my guests and kept it simple.

I've been wanting to try a Steak Au Poivre. Beef and I have always gotten along well in the kitchen so this seemed just the thing.

Alton Brown has never done me wrong. I began with his recipe.

Alton's Recipe

But of course I can never leave anything alone. I added a Little porcini mushroom and some shallots to the pan for the cream sauce. I also don't generally keep congac around but I found some white wine worked quite well.

Laying all of this on top of some mashed potatoes seemed a perfect comfort food move for midwinter.

All in all I think we did pretty well. Dinner was tasty. The company was exceptional. Everyone pitched in with kitchen and DJ duties. There was plenty of wine.

It was a good night. Thanks to all who came to play. It was a genuine pleasure to host.

The leftovers were pretty good, too.