2010

An All-Season Tortilla Soup

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Tortilla Soup

Last winter, instead of serving a sick boyfriend bland chicken soup, he ate a sultry Vitamin C filled Tortilla Soup. Actually, this soup is a good choice to serve between seasons. The potatoes and the chicken give the soup the hearty weight of winter. The sweetness of the corn and the tomatoes has the reoccurring flavors of summer. When the weather abruptly switches from warm to cold to rainy, the spiciness of the soup reminds the soul that summer is on the way. Now, on those warm spring days, in which time outside is preferred to the indoors, this recipe is quick to make when the warm sun finally gives way to the coolness of moon. Read more →

Quick Chicken Dill Salad Served with Mustard Vinaigrette Green Beans

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Chicken Dill Salad Served with Mustard Vinaigrette Green Beans
Chicken Dill Salad Served with Mustard Vinaigrette Green Beans

Six months since starting this food blog, writing about food has become an unexpected newfound passion. The topics in my mind about food are as diverse as the spices on earth. Let’s talk from morning to night about ingredients, the environment, health, food, nutrition and recipes… on another day. This week there is little time for an all day conversation about these ravenous topics. As this post is being written, a silent prayer is being chanted: “Please, God, let this food post about the Chicken Dill Salad be short and savory. Taxes need to be filed, a design proposal, dinner for tonight that I have no idea…”

Viola, prayer granted! As this is a quickly written post, so is the recipe.

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The Only True Lovers are Chefs or Happy Birthday, Edna Lewis

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Edna Lewis, Chef and Cookbook Author
Edna Lewis, Chef and Cookbook Author

“…so yes this is a love poem of the highest order because the next best cook in the world, my grandmother being the best, just had a birthday and all the asparagus and wild greens and quail and tomatoes on the vines and little peas in spring and half runners in early summer and all the wonderful musty things that come from the ground said EDNA LEWIS is have a birthday and all of us who love all of you who love food wish her a happy birthday because we who are really smart know that chefs make the best lovers…………….especially when they serve it with oysters on the half shell.”

Read the whole poem: “The Only True Lovers are Chefs or Happy Birthday, Edna Lewis,” Love Poems by Nikki Giovanni

Frittata with Baby Spinach, Sweet Potatoes, Young Fontina Cheese, Red Onions and Fresh Rosemary

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Frittata with Baby Spinach, Sweet Potatoes, Young Fontina Cheese, Red Onions and Fresh Rosemary
Frittata with Baby Spinach, Sweet Potatoes, Young Fontina Cheese, Red Onions and Fresh Rosemary

Does this recipe look crazy or tastefully coordinated? It was a well thought out experiment, because green compliments orange. The difficult decision was determining which big cheese to add to the frittata. Ricotta was too salty for the dish. Comte would have competed with the other flavors. Fresh mozzarella is a mild cheese with an overvalue taste (For example, a macaroni and cheese recipe with more than four cheeses, including mozzarella, is showing off gooey numbers. The strategy is the masterful coordination of three to four chesses to create a creamy, sharp taste). A short trip to a store’s cheese department helped finalized the decision. The sales clerk offered a few suggestions of cheeses that would’ve naturally dominated the dish. Concerned about choosing too strong of a cheese, mozzarella was about to be the winning choice, again. That’s when it was suggested to try a young fontina cheese, instead. It’s another mild cheese, with a little more flavor. A winning cooking strategy demonstrating a brilliant coordination skill, young fontina paired well with the spinach and the sweet potatoes.

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One Turkey Meatball Recipe, Two Different Dinners

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Recipe Number 2: Turkey Meatball Sandwich with Mozzarella Cheese
Recipe Number 2: Turkey Meatball Sandwich with Mozzarella Cheese

From one Turkey Meatball recipe, two different meals were served, sans the classic tomato sauce. Recipe number one was Turkey Meatballs with Creamy Mushroom Sauce and Lemon Arugula Spaghetti. The second recipe was a Turkey Meatball Sandwich with Mozzarella Cheese. Why should tomato sauce have all the fun? This is a versatile ingredient that will add instant flavor to other dishes, as well. Flatten a raw meatball to make a breakfast sausage served with pancakes, add a pre-cooked meatball to a salad for lunch, or try it in another pasta dish for dinner. Read more →