Full Gastronomic Tilt

Dinner plans, via text message:
“Have leeks & potatoes. Thinking something rustic/French. Ideas?”
“Gratin! With thyme and carm. onions.”
“Perfect. Gruyère?”
“I’ll get it. Bringing wine, too.”‘
Gratin: n. French origin, from grater (to scratch), typically refers to any dish with a lightly browned top crust of crumbs, butter and/or cheese. A base of potatoes is traditional. (see also: delicious)
Many [...]

Flip. flip. Flipflip. flip. Cookbook after cookbook. I had agreed to whip something up for a 10 person gathering - mostly vegetarians, one vegan, one gluten allergy. I thought something hearty, warming and fulfilling would be appropriate before extended discussion involving, among other things, community building.
What’s more communal than soup? What’s more friendly, vegan [...]

I stumbled on this recipe while flipping though a friend’s copy of Bon Appetit. It caught my eye because of the ras-el-hanout, which I am still trying to use. This dish has a…simple elegance to it. The sauce is a little sweet, a little tangy, a little rich, a little ‘what’s that?’ - not too [...]

13-hour days don’t lend themselves to involved cooking. Especially when watching the latest episode of House on Hulu takes significant precedence over fueling your body.
I know, I know. Based on my last post you’d think that I always make feeding myself a priority.
My caveat: after 9 PM.
If I’m just getting home at 9 PM or [...]

This began as me wanting to make the mother of all pizzas - roasted red peppers, swiss chard and smoked goat cheese. I got as far as making the pizza dough before my plans shifted, as they too often do. The dough went into the freezer and I promptly forgot about it.
During this past [...]

Listening: Regina Spektor’s new album, Far
Perfect for a quiet Sunday afternoon in the kitchen.
It is truly fall here in the North Carolina mountains. The temps have dipped below 40 degrees and I’ve added a few more blankets to the bed, stubbornly resisting turning on the heat. The drop in temperature has jump-started my cooking creativity. [...]

I love this late-summer/early-fall dish. Tarragon can be so dramatic and ill-placed, but it works great in this tomato sauce, plus eggplant and chèvre pair incredibly well together. I like this dish to feel a little more rustic, so I don’t peel the eggplant, preferring the chewy contrast the skin gives the dish. I also [...]

[Pretty chowder pictures to come later tonight. It has been a busy week!]
More often than not, I Twitter my dinner plans. A bit of participatory food geekery, if you will. I get instant feedback: “What ingredients?” “Which recipe?” “What else ya makin’?” and people reply with their own dinner plans. Seems silly, but [...]

Good Monday morning!
I am still knee deep in papers and tests (two weeks to go!), but after missing last week it is a slippery slope. Food in brief must go on!
~ Funny: xkcd skewers Twitter and the mass hysteria building around swine flu.
~ After a successful trek to the Asheville City Market on [...]

Depending on who you ask, Twitter is either the next hot thing or so yesterday. An annoyance, or the thing that renders you unable to remember life before it came along. I fall guiltily, almost accidentally, into the latter camp.
It began innocently enough, when a particularly NET-worked friend of mine kept poking [...]