A weekend feast

(image from Apartment Therapy) I’ve been in the kitchen a lot lately. For whatever reason, the prep-prepare-plate-eat-clean ritual is soothing after a long day at work. Maybe because cooking allows for improvisation and creativity. You can substitute, add, and edit as you please and I’ve found that my senses are much better at gauging what food needs than a cook book. And the best part is, you get to enjoy and share the results with your favorite people! More specifically, my motivation to cook has come from the realization that it is nearly impossible (or very limiting) to eat a healthy diet if you don’t cook your own food. I’m defining healthy as food that isn’t processed, has hydrogenated oils, chemical pesticides or preservatives. Nick and I have both been trying to limit our diet to food that comes from the ground or from an animal: whole grains, beans, lean protein, vegetables and fruit (all organic, preferably). This takes planning and a culinary skill set that I haven’t quite mastered. So I devoted this weekend to braising, baking, kneading, and sautéing as much food as I could get my hands on. So much goodness came out of the kitchen…along with a couple of mishaps a long the way. The good: 2lb chuck steak braised in red wine and homemade chicken stock
4lbs of mashed potatoes with celery root topped with creme fraiche and chives
2 roasted beets
1 vinaigrette (shallot, orange zest, red and sherry vinegar, Dijon mustard, olive oil)
1 watercress salad with poached egg
A surplus of hand made gnocchi
5 cups of tomato basil cream sauce with caramelized shiitake mushrooms and leeks
1 cup of reduced vegetable broth (was meant to be 2.5 quarts but I forgot about it for a few hours… whoops…)
A loaf of honey wheat bread
6 cups of granola (whole oats, flax seed, flax meal, almonds, pure maple syrup and cinnamon)
3 dozen lemon butter drop mini cookies (for a little after dinner treat) The bad: 1 egg, under cooked, then pulverized in microwave
1 pint of perfect cherry tomatoes, spilled in the scary (dirty) nook behind my stove
1 cup of cream, unattended and boiled to a really gross consistency. Boiled over. Stuck to my stove top
1 broken wine glass
1 cup of spilled wine
3 heads of garlic, marinaded in spilled wine All in all, it was pretty successful. And luckily, I have a hungry man around who is very happy to make it all disappear. I learned a lot this weekend. And it feels really good to know exactly where my food came from and how it was prepared. Cookbooks used: A Platter of Figs by David Tanis, How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittmen, Chez Panisse Vegetables, by Alice Waters