Five fresh reasons to check out my blogrolls

The Internet is filled with great information and just plain cool stuff. Here are five recent posts I found in my own back yard. Well, in the blogs and resources in my sidebars to the right. Take a look at these and explore others. Then share something cool you’ve found recently in the comments below.

1. Asparagus tips from Food Blogga

Susan over at San Diego-based Food Blogga writes that asparagus season in Southern California, which began in late February, is almost at an end. Excuse me a moment, Susan, while I call the wambulance. Just kidding, my friend, but since my neighborhood farmers market here in Chicago won’t even start until June, I have to admit to suffering from bouts of Southern California farmers market envy when I read you or Toni over at Daily Bread Journal.

What you’ll find in her May 10 Food Blogga post on asparagus—besides gorgeous photos like the one above and five delicious sounding recipes of her own and more by other bloggers—is boatloads of information on this wonderful, versatile vegetable. How to select it [including her views on the thin versus thick asparagus debate], how to store it, trim it and cook it—and why you should.

2. Closet Cooking does scallops with miso and maple syrup

The three ingredients in the name of the dish were all it took to rope me in. Scallops are always a great start—delicious, impressive and wonderfully easy to cook. The Japanese culinary mainstay miso [as Epicurious calls it] is infinitely versatile and beautifully subtle. Continue reading “Five fresh reasons to check out my blogrolls” →

Fishing for compliments: Simple, delicious Mussels in Tarragon Cream Sauce

Quick to make, beautiful to look at and hands-on fun to eat, Mussels in Tarragon Cream Sauce make a delicious main course for two or a sociable starter for four or more.

THERE’S JUST SOMETHING COOL ABOUT EATING WITH YOUR HANDS. Intimate and involving, with a slouchy casualness. It’s something best done with significant others or really good friends, and usually involving wine or cocktails or really cold beer. Continue reading “Fishing for compliments: Simple, delicious Mussels in Tarragon Cream Sauce” →

Fighting injustice with coffee, combating cancer with food, part two

A Seattle-based coffee company will donate 100% of its May revenue, up to $1 million, to fight slavery, human trafficking and other forms of violent oppression. And the delicious results of Mele Cotte’s Cooking to Combat Cancer III.

Storyville Coffee gives it all away in May to fight slavery

For many of us, the word slavery conjures up the past, a dark chapter in America’s history. Unfortunately, for millions of people worldwide, it is a harsh daily reality.

“There are more slaves in the world today than at any other time in human history,” says Ryan Gamble, co-president of Storyville Coffee Company. “More than 27 million people are held in slavery, nearly 2 million of them children exploited in the global commercial sex trade each year.”

So this month, the Seattle-based Storyville is giving it all away—100% of its revenue for the entire month—to International Justice Mission, a human rights agency that works around the world to rescue victims of slavery, trafficking and other forms of violent oppression. Continue reading “Fighting injustice with coffee, combating cancer with food, part two” →

Spring greening: Lively Broccoli Mint Soup

Mint and a drizzle of curried yogurt give healthy, creamy [but cream-free] Broccoli Mint Soup the vibrant, fresh taste of spring. Serving it room temperature makes for an elegant, surprising first course. Recipe below.

broccoli-mint-soup

Sometimes watching television can be good for you. On a recent Saturday morning, I was flipping through the channels trying to get a weather forecast [answer—it started raining as we pulled out of our parking place later that morning]. Suddenly, I saw someone cooking and was of course immediately glued to the set [we don’t have cable, so moments like this are rare for me]. It was New York chef Paul Liebrandt making a version of this lively, lowfat soup on the Early Show on CBS.

Chef at the critically acclaimed Tribeca restaurant Corton, Liebrandt has been branded both a tempestuous diva of the old school and an English wunderkind, by the same publication, no less. On the Early Show, he seemed gracious and poised as they hurried him through three dishes in what seemed like 2.3 minutes. The soup was the one that caught my eye. Broccoli is one of those insanely good for you cruciferous vegetables. The problem with most creamy soups made from broccoli is that they’re loaded with cream—or cheese. Delicious, of course, but suddenly less healthy. This soup is broccoli, water, mint, salt and pepper, with a lively flavor boost from a swirl of lowfat curried yogurt with lime zest.

Marion is fond of quoting Robert DeNiro’s character in the thriller Ronin. He’s part of a crew that’s supposed to take something from some really bad men who really don’t want it taken from them. He insists on doing reconnaisance on the attack point and is told they already have a map. To which he says, “The map is not the territory.” The soup Liebrandt described as he made it on TV was not the recipe posted on the CBS website. I took that as license to put my own spin on it. Well, my spin aided by Marion. Continue reading “Spring greening: Lively Broccoli Mint Soup” →

Bees, pigs and swine flu in the news

A possible cure for the colony collapse disorder currently decimating honey bee populations and threatening horticulture and sustainable agriculture farms. Is “the other white meat” really red meat—and does it matter? And stocking your pantry for a potential swine flu pandemic.

A breakthrough in saving bees, saving agriculture

Over the last few years, honey bee colonies have been dying off in record numbers. Not just bees within the colonies—entire colonies. This is bad. As an article published this month at EurekAlert! puts it, “The loss of honey bees could have an enormous horticultural and economic impact worldwide. Honey bees are important pollinators of crops, fruit and wild flowers and are indispensable for a sustainable and profitable agriculture as well as for the maintenance of the non-agricultural ecosystem.”

But finally, there seems to be some hope. In a study published in the new journal from the Society for Applied Microbiology, Environmental Microbiology Reports, scientists from Spain have isolated a parasite Continue reading “Bees, pigs and swine flu in the news” →

Fighting cancer with pizza. Seriously.

This Tomato Spinach Mushroom Pizza is chock full of ingredients rich in antioxidants, vitamins and nutrients all thought to fight cancer. Recipe and suggested variations below.

We have all been touched by cancer at some point in our lives. Friends, loved ones, family members, colleagues… Chris over at Mele Cotte says that her own diagnosis eight years ago, coming close on the heels of the loss of her beloved grandmother to cancer, “rocked my world in a way that profoundly changed my view on many things.”

First, she made some changes in her own life, quitting smoking and making other healthy lifestyle choices. Then she set out to help others make changes too. In March of 2007, she launched an annual food blogging event, Cooking to Combat Cancer. Now in its third year, this event is both a celebration of her beating the disease and a call to arms to eat healthier. Chris invites bloggers—and even non-blogging food lovers—to submit recipes using cancer-fighting ingredients for a round-up she then posts. The deadline for Cooking to Combat Cancer III is Wednesday, April 29, so get cooking!

Turns out eating healthy really is good for you. It seems that every day, we hear that eating good stuff and avoiding bad stuff is even healthier than our mothers ever imagined. Choosing the right foods can lower cholesterol, reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes, fight the onset of Alzheimer’s… And according to a growing list of scientific studies, a whole raft of foods can help fight cancer. Continue reading “Fighting cancer with pizza. Seriously.” →

Doing good by baking cookies, drinking wine

What if you could help the others by having friends over to decorate cookies—or by just cracking open a bottle of wine? Turns out you can! Here’s how:

Drop In & Decorate cookies for Mothers’ Day, May 1 – 10

If you’re even a semi-regular reader here, you’ve probably seen the colorful Drop In & Decorate logo in the sidebar. And in case you’ve ever wondered what it is, I’ll let founder Lydia Walshin tell you: “Drop In & Decorate is a simple concept: bake some cookies, invite friends or family [or neighbors, or co-workers] to stop in and help decorate, then donate your cookies to a local food pantry, emergency shelter, senior center, lunch program, or other community agency Continue reading “Doing good by baking cookies, drinking wine” →

Warm, simple antidote for reluctant spring: Braised Chicken with Scallion Purée

A base of coarsely puréed scallions and potatoes adds a rustic note to this hearty country dish with a French accent, Braised Chicken with Scallion Purée. Recipe below.

The April issues of the food magazines are filled with springy, hopeful recipes and pictures. Beautiful, slender spears of asparagus abound, as do fresh snap peas, baby spring greens and fingerling potatoes. But as T.S. Eliot warned us, “April is the cruellest month.” It certainly has been here in Chicago. A snowstorm postponed the White Sox home opener by a day; cold rain fell on the Cubs’ first outing in Wrigley Field. And persistent, sharp winds have more than once made us regret abandoning our down parkas for mere wool coats.

So I was quite happy to find this hearty, comforting dish in the April chapter of Amanda Hesser’s The Cook and the Gardener: A Year of Recipes and Writings for the French Countryside. Although the green onions [two dozen of them, no less] give it a springlike brightness, the long-braised chicken has a definite wintry stick-to-your-ribs quality about it as well.

This is the second of three Francocentric cookbooks that Karin over at Second Act in Altadena has recommended to me. I can see why she likes it so much—and why avid [obsessive?] gardener Christina from A Thinking Stomach loves it. I’d be hard pressed to name a cookbook that more completely connects the garden to the dinner table. Author Hesser spent a year as a cook in a 17th-century French chateau in Burgundy, and a central figure in the book is the aging caretaker of the chateau’s kitchen garden, Monsieur Milbert. Hesser gradually overcomes his Gallic reserve, and he shares the secrets of the garden with her.

Beautifully told stories aside, this is an impressive cookbook, with more than 240 recipes arranged by seasonality. I haven’t spent nearly enough time exploring it, but the straightforward goodness of this recipe tells me I’ll be back for more. Continue reading “Warm, simple antidote for reluctant spring: Braised Chicken with Scallion Purée” →

Six blogs, websites, etcetera about food, health, etcetera worth checking out

We’re always on the lookout for new or new-to-us food-related blogs, websites and resources. Here are a half dozen that have recently caught our eye. They range from helpful to health-oriented to hip to hmmmm. Found a new site recently? Share it in the comments below.

1. Still Tasty: Edible or not?

I don’t know about you, but our fridge is usually chock full of leftovers, ingredients waiting their turn to become meals and partial containers of all manner of foodstuffs. So one of the most frequently asked questions in our kitchen is “Think this is still okay?” Well, now there’s a site that answers those questions without looking like a warning on a cigarette pack.

Still Tasty delivers loads of useful food safety information in a stylish, friendly site. You can search foods and beverages by name or browse by category. You’ll also find tips on expiration dates, safely thawing frozen foods, getting the most flavor and shelflife from fresh fruit and more. Bookmark this site now. Thank me later. [Speaking of which, thanks to Thrillist New York for bringing Still Tasty to my attention.]

2. The Daily Plate: Eat right, live strong

As frequent headlines and countless blogs remind us, obesity is a daily struggle for far too many of us. Underlining the fact that this is not just an aesthetic issue but a serious health concern, The Daily Plate has teamed up with Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG.COM to provide guidance and encouragement Continue reading “Six blogs, websites, etcetera about food, health, etcetera worth checking out” →

Tubas and inspiration: Spicy Lemon Maple Salmon

Spicy Lemon Maple Salmon fillets have a subtle but lively flavor and just a hint of heat. Finishing them under the broiler caramelizes the glaze. Recipe below.

IF WE HADN’T GONE TO THE TUBA MUSEUM, I probably wouldn’t have made this dish. Actually, it was the Travelers Club International Restaurant & Tuba Museum, a wonderfully quirky little place we visit anytime we find ourselves in Okemos, Michigan. As we did this past weekend.

No, we didn’t have fish there, although they do serve it. What caught my attention was the maple malt Marion ordered. I was quite busy taking on an amazing slice of pecan pie, so I turned down her repeated offers of a taste. But I took her exclamations of its deliciousness to heart. And I found myself remembering the Spicy Sweet Chicken I’d made about a year ago, marrying the sweetness of maple syrup with the heat of Chinese chili paste. So later in a book store, when I saw the word maple connected with salmon on the cover of the current issue of Cooking Light magazine, something clicked. And with a quick look at the recipe, I knew I would be putting my own spicy spin on it. Continue reading “Tubas and inspiration: Spicy Lemon Maple Salmon” →