My wish list goes something like this:…Great British Food for its delightfully witty writing and quirky design …Olives and Oranges for delicious vegetarian meals…Coco for the star-studded line up of chefs and outrageously trendy recipes…i love macarons so i can learn how to make my own. i’m afraid i will be a little crabby once Lucia’s doesn’t offer them daily!

i’m a little embarrassed to say that i haven’t cooked much from my newest cookbook; a beautiful copy of i know how to cook that i received from my little sister for christmas. i did however piece together my very own mac & cheese recipe using their bechamel sauce! i am sure i will get more use out of it once our csa deliveries start in a month. we’re also courting with the idea of using this butcher after we get two incomes rolling through the door. it’s a possibility that we could be eating 99% local this summer! if anyone has a favorite recipe from i know how to cook let me know. i think the sheer size of the book is intimidating to me.

(some extra spreads from Great British Food below)

i am living with a man who is finishing his last few months of graduate school. many of you know what this means: odd hours-late nights-papers-conferences-thesis-anxiety-driven months. nick has always coped remarkably well. but as level-headed and calm as he is, the words “there’s just not enough time in the day…” have been uttered in a slight panic more than once. so i’m doing my best to bring some bright spots to his long days. i baked these triple ginger cookies yesterday, because let me tell you, the man loves cookies. last time i baked cookies, he put them in his morning cereal…which i’d highly recommend. anyway, i’ve been meaning to make these triple ginger cookies for the past year and boy were they worth the wait! these bite-sized babies explode into a sweet, spicy dance party in your mouth. you must try them.

then i went a little over board. it may have been the intense 365 day cooking marathon Julie Powell accomplished (I finally saw Julie & Julie last week!) but i was in the mood to cook (alotta food) this weekend.  saturday was spent on a velvety leek and potato soup by nigel slater*, that we devoured for dinner along side grilled cheese sandwiches. save your parmesan rinds people, they work their magic in soups.  sunday morning i made  roasted tomato basil soup that we will eat for lunch this week. Later that afternoon was spent working on dinner, meatballs with peas, served over fluffy mashed potatoes. best. idea. ever.  it may not be the most attractive dish you’ve pulled out the oven, but it’s full of quirky fun surprises. if you’ve never tried putting golden raisins in your meatballs before, you must. unexpected, bright and juicy.

we’ve got a fridge filled with homemade ready-to-eat meals this week, which makes my busy man very very happy. tonight, i tackle a big patch of giant chipotle bean casserole, an old favorite which will freeze nicely for the next few (crazy) months.

photo (1) by yours truly, photo (2) here.

*i’m loving niegl’s book the kitchen diaries, practical and thoughtful recipes.

things haven’t been going in my favor today. it might be the weather, the computer issues or the fact it is only tuesday. but i think it may have more to do with the fact i drank one too many of those big beers while watching the vikings beat the packers last night (GO VIKES!). i was up tossing and turning all night, dreaming of football!

so i’m skipping my workout, heading home early with nick to make that pasta carbonara i mentioned and settling in to watch the biggest loser. sounds like the perfect cure for one downer of a tuesday.

image via gourmet magazine

my favorite magazine is closing its doors after 69 years.

just last night i curled up to finish the october issue of gourmet before the november issue arrives in my mailbox (any day now!). it made me hungry enough to get on my coat and walk to the grocery store to get the ingredients for a deliciously simple rendition of chicken and dumplings. nick and i went to bed blissfully full, already discussing when to cook their rendition of pasta carbonara this coming week.

i heard the news via cup of jo this morning. it is an outstanding publication with quite a history, and an enormously talented staff. gourmet, your gorgeous styling, thoughtful articles, challenging and simple recipes, i will miss you.

read more here.

last night i made nick and i some grilled cheese sandwiches. it occurred to me that these sandwiches might be known for their kid friendly qualities, but they don’t have to suffer from the blandness of white bread and Kraft singles (though sometimes this really hits the spot). so we grabbed some thick slices of our to-die-for “seeduction” bread, some creamy mozzarella, nutty parmigiano-reggiano and pecorino romano cheeses and thinly shaved smoked ham. slather on the butter and oh. my. god. we topped them with avocados, dipped them in some ketchup and were both in heaven!

i can’t wait to try some of these sammies the next time i need a comfort food fix.

images from here.

1. My leather biker jacket. It fits like a glove, the leather is oh-so creamy and it makes me feel like kind of a bad ass. I have this style in a deep hunter green.

2. A perfectly poached egg over quinoa, coarse sea salt and shavings of Parmesan. I am kind of embarrassed to admit it, but this meal is one of the first things to pop in my head in the morning. I get way too excited about breaking that yoke open and have been known to throw out an over cooked egg. I’m a bit of a diva when it comes to how my eggs are cooked.

3. Chanel nail polish. Their spring colors make my feet look tan and it coats impeccably.

4. Little birds, beautifully screen printed by Fanny Shorter. Gorgeous colors and detailing and each bird is printed to scale. I wish I could afford a real print, right now they just grace my desktop. They make me happy.

5. The album Oracular Spectacular by MGMT. The past couple weeks have been busier than usual and this album has kept me focused and my head bobbing. Kids, Time to Pretend and Weekend Wars are some of my favorite tracks.

(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