the SIMMER blog

beets: it's what's for dinner.

It's hard to love food as much as I do and not weigh a kazillion pounds, believe me. But I've been trying. And since the farmer's market opened I've been trying extra hard, since I always get seduced by the pretty pretty colors and end up buying lots of produce, which I then need to find a way to use.

In my usual no-middle-ground way, I've decided that the solution is to make dinners consisting entirely of vegetables.

Let us start with that old bugbear: beets.

 

Now, I know a lot of people don't like beets, and I have to admit, the canned ones taste like evil. But fresh, small ones, roasted up, chilled and dressed and seasoned just right? Those are another thing entirely.

 

colicchio, continued

So you might think that I love Tom Colicchio because of Top Chef, but that's not it. I mean, yes, I watch Top Chef, and have all sorts of opinions about it, but the reason I became a Colicchio fan wasn't the show.

It was the sandwich.

A goat cheese sandwich, to be precise. Goat cheese with avocado, celery, watercress, and walnut pesto on multigrain bread. I first bit into it in a shopping center in San Francisco while doing some last-minute Christmas shopping with, and for, my husband's family. We'd been running around, changing time zones, I wasn't sure when I was going to eat again, and I knew there was a 'wichcraft location in San Francisco and when I stumbled upon it I knew I had to take advantage, so...

cue the angels singing, if the angels were to sing about goat cheese. Which I imagine they do.

Fast-forward to two years later, when my husband was spending the summer as an investment banker in New York City, and I was making the trip up from Philly every weekend, touring around New York and getting comfortable in the city and familiarizing myself with what it had to offer.

And despite the joy of the mozzarepas at the street fairs, and the olive oil gelato at Otto, and the pork belly buns at Momofuku Ssam Bar, I still found that one of the best things New York had to offer was... the 'wichcraft goat cheese sandwich.

 

colicchio! the short version

What with one thing and another I didn't get blogging time until late, so today you get the short version of yesterday's book signing with Tom Colicchio at Williams-Sonoma.

The line:

(not as long as I feared, and yes, Philly does have the world's prettiest Williams-Sonoma -- check out that ceiling!)

The snacks:

(panini with balsamic caramelized onions, among other things)

The man himself:

 

(not as blurry in person, naturally) 

Check back tomorrow for the blow-by-blow.

 

wordless wednesday xiii

 

wordless wednesday: special birthday edition

big news at Intrepid Media!

Over where I wear my other hat, the editor-in-chief hat, we've got some VERY exciting news for writers.

Intrepid Media Partners With Lulu!

dinner party tips: the list

It's almost misleading to call "make a list" my #1 dinner party tip. For in fact, I don't just make one list for a dinner party. I always make at least three.

One: the grocery list, which can involve shopping at up to five stores. Yeah, I know. Overboarding is the only way I do things. It's a theme around here.

Two: the task list, which breaks all my dishes down into tasks, so I can figure out what needs to be done when -- how far ahead should I make the cake? Can I set out the crackers an hour ahead so there's less to do in the minutes as people are arriving? This keeps me from getting ready to assemble my mini-cheesesteaks just before people arrive and realizing that not only haven't I baked the rolls yet, the dough needs to sit out for 20 minutes before I can roll it. Eek.

Three: the cheat sheet.

 

This is the one I used for that Guinness dinner party a couple months back. And, truth be told, I should have made it a smidge more detailed.

Because the reason I make this list and keep it out on the counter during the party is so I don't forget to serve anything. And at the Guinness dinner I totally forgot to set out the green apples with the fondue -- the generic "dippers" note wasn't enough. The asparagus and potatoes and bread certainly fed everyone so it wasn't a tragedy, but still, there's no reason not to serve everything you plan to serve, since that's the point of planning.

But that is, in fact, my #1 dinner party tip. Make a list of everything you're serving and keep it out on the counter during prep.

And really, this note size fits so nicely on the corner of my knife block, I'm plenty motivated to keep it brief. Because making the cheat sheet is also pointless if you put it out on the counter and then end up putting something else on top of it. Not that that's happened to me... very often.

wordless wednesday xii

pastaversity

The busy cook's lament is always this: I never have time to try anything new. We all get into a rut, making the same things over and over again, either because that's easiest, or because it's less expensive, or because it's what our families want. Nothing wrong with that. But if you find yourself itching to change things up just a bit, here's a quick tip.

Try a new pasta shape. This one's called strozzapretti:

 

It's my new favorite, and not just because its name means "strangle the priest", which seems unnecessarily violent and jarring for... pasta.

These, I used to make "pasta fries", a recipe from The Improvisational Cook, a cookbook that runs through a lot of variations on simple ideas to demonstrate how easy it is to change things up. So it's fitting that the change-it-up-with-pasta tip and the change-it-up-with-variations cookbook are being mentioned together today.

Anyway, strozzapretti is a nice handy short noodle that can be used in place of ziti, penne, gemelli, or other short tubes. Takes about 10 minutes to boil up. And it makes a mean "pasta fry": al dente pasta stirred with butter and olive oil and parmesan, baked in a jelly roll pan at 450 for 30-ish minutes until some of it is brown and crisp.

I wish I had a picture of that. Heck, I wish I had a plate of it. In any case, next time you're in the supermarket or your local Italian store (if you're lucky enough to have one), try a pasta shape you're not familiar with. Can't hurt.

(Unless you're the priest, I guess.)

words, words, words

At the Backspace Conference (which was fabulous, by the way), I spent some time talking to other writers about whether or not it's worth it to invest in an MFA program. I really felt like my MFA experience improved my writing tremendously, but at the same time, it definitely is an expensive proposition. And really, learning to be a better writer is far more than classrooms and workshops. You can find valuable writing lessons in a lot of unexpected places.

For example, watching "CSI: NY."