uh-oh is it spring

Don't look now, but I'm pickling ramps, blanching asparagus, and poaching cage-free eggs!  Finally, something to believe in!

tasty pig's feet

the feet from Veritas Farm are an unquestionable success!  Well, except for a little porcine hair, they are delicious!

Art of Simple Food - meal 2

Another hit parade for Sunday dinner.  This week was all about shallow-frying.  We shallow fried pork shops and cauliflower.  Both were divine.  The recipe for the cauliflower called for making a sauce.  And that sauce was fantastic - a combination of garlic, onions, scallions, & tomato paste.

We also made a lemon tart by combining two recipes - lemon curd and pate sucree.  The lemon curd was made with 3 parts Meyer Lemon and 1 part Blood Orange.  I have to admit to never making a lemon tart before and thus was pretty anxious about it.  Will the curd set? Will the tart shell fully bake?  I realized that anxiety is the opposite of simple.  If you own the process, not the outcome, then you'll probably enjoy more journeys in life.

art of simple food - meal 1

So week one was three aces!  Braised chicken legs, pan-fried potatoes, blanched asparagus, and tangerine ice.  

The braised chicken legs needed four ingredients.  The potatoes only 2!  Each were fantastic.  The potatoes were so tasty that my 4 year old asked, "Daddy, can I have this for my birthday dinner?"

But the highlight was the tangerine ice.  I used tangelos and organic sugar.  Then each hour, we took the mixture out of the freezer and scrapped from the edges in.  After four hours, we let it freeze for four hours.  REMARKABLE.

mixing it up by getting simple

Conventional wisdom has it that adding to your cooking repertoire requires complex technique, esoteric spices, & unique heat transfer (sous vide anyone).

That's one way, but probably a much harder way.  A friend gave us a cookbook around the holidays - "The Art of Simple Food."  I love Chez Panisse Vegetables and actually I love Chez Panisse.  I don't consider it to be the 'best' restaurant in America, but it's my favorite one.  

Anyhow, my repertoire is growing a little stale.  How many ratatouille, poulet a roti, & bolognese can one family eat?

So, as Spring begins, I'm going to make a meat, vegetable, sauce & dessert from this book each weekend.  Let's see how it goes.