Tag Archives: winter

Green

January 16, 2014 By in Recipes Tags: , , , , 3 Comments

Roasted Kale, Four Ways

crispy chicken skin
It should be around this time that I begin to crave green. The holidays are over. We’ve experienced more than one substantial snow event. I haven’t eaten a green bean in three months, an asparagus spear in seven. Unfortunately, though, this wanting began some time earlier. I’ve been itching for a fix of green that’s not broccoli, cabbage, or Brussels sprouts—because whose stomach can really handle mass quantities of those, as delicious as they may be? Certainly not my little fire pit. I want green that’s not greens—I’m not looking for leaves. I want fresh and delicate produce when I feel neither fresh nor delicate. I want quick-cooking when I’m slow. I want summer in winter. And, as in most aspects of my life, I want something I can’t have.

But I’m getting along with my beloved roots. Rugged and long-lasting, they’re versatile and their colors match those of the hidden sun, the long-lost rainbows. They’re earthy-tasting reminders of the ground from which they came that is typically covered this time of year by all that is winter. As for that green I crave, I’m getting most of it from, well, a green: kale. But kale is different to me than chard or spinach. Kale feels more substantial, its flavor hinting of broccoli. It’s the curly and hardy never-let-you down, always-make-you-feel-good vegetable that people couldn’t stand several years ago but suddenly can’t seem to eat enough of.

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What, No Cookies? (or, the worst photos I’ve ever posted…)

December 13, 2012 By in Recipes Tags: , , , , , 4 Comments

holiday endive and fennel salad…and more!

salad
It’s hard to love something but only be able to take part in it once a week, It’s distracting, longing for something that’s not within reach. It’s unfortunate that a particular passion can’t be pursued everyday.

When people ask what my weekend plans are, I typically have little to say. Working, sleeping, and running errands don’t qualify as “special plans.” They’re constants. Every Saturday, I try to squeeze in a couple of hours for myself. I’ll usually bake something in the morning and cook up a nice meal at night. And really, as someone who loves to cook, experiment, and just breathe in the kitchen, I’m only going through the motions one day a week. The kitchen will always be the center of my life, but on every other day, there’s little fun, little creativity in the kitchen—every act in the kitchen is necessary. It’s preparing. It’s putting together office lunches. It’s roasting vegetables for train dinners. It’s stuffing things in bags for snacks. Sunday is the batch-cooking day. I cook what works, what keeps, what will sustain me on long work days.

This isn’t a problem unique to me. You won’t hear me complaining. The world has changed, our lives spin fast, we don’t rest, we don’t stop.

So that leaves me with that one day. That one day to be in my own little world. It’s the reason why I rarely eat out anymore or why I still haven’t found a proper pair of winter boots. If I do those things one day, I’ll miss out. There will be no kitchen that week. I’ll have to wait an entire week. An eternity.

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Winter Warmth

January 5, 2012 By in Recipes Tags: , , , 2 Comments

chicken with forty cloves of garlic


Oh, hello winter. Happy you could join us. Not.

I am perpetually cold. I’m the queen of the cardigan, the ultimate layering tool. I’m that annoying one who makes the job of the host or hostess that much harder when she has to choose her seat according to its proximity to the door or the windows. I’m that crazy lady wearing the plush, winter white hood/scarf/hat hybrid get-up, (I promise it has nothing to do with a snuggie and didn’t come from an infomercial) who bumps into you because her headpiece is obscuring her peripheral vision. But instead of telling those who question my chilliness that I have raynaud’s disease, which is merely a bother, I usually just say, “I’m always cold.”

So even though us New Englanders have been lucky to, until Tuesday, have a mild winter, I have been cold since, well, September. This Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic is one of those dishes I find myself returning to on the coldest of days like we experienced Tuesday and Wednesday. There are countless recipes for the bistro classic, but this is the version I enjoy the most. It’s the one that I find myself making when I’m cooking in a winter coat. It happens. (Who can afford to hike the heat to as high a temperature as I fancy?)

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