brain operations

My brain works in an interesting way.  I guess all of ours do... I've been traveling for the last three weeks; touring with Rory, going to Bonnaroo, seeing the Wall for the last time, seeing college friends, and finally going to NYC for the first time in a year and a half for a wedding.  It was a very emotionally heavy trip, especially that last part...I had many expectations of what it would be like to be back, some were met, some were not.  What I did take away from the trip was that New York isn't my home anymore, it's a place that holds fond memories, growth and a lot of potential.  LA is my home now and being away from it made me aware that I do take comfort in that. I may not be fully rooted yet, but things are shifting and settling in.

One thing I am very glad I got to do a lot of was cook and sit around a table with a handful of very important people.  We laughed, cried, drank and ate. It was fabulous.  It reinforces the fact that sitting around the table sharing a meal with people I love is where I find my community. It's where I experience great joy with the most important people in my life. 

I'm currently on a plane, eager to get back to LA, and these thoughts came out of my mouth: "the key to  a roast chicken is to cut through the bone after it's cooked a little cooled." I mean, duh, right?  AND, "how can I make that curry rice pilaf with out using the box mix...what seasoning should I use...I think Rory would like it."  OR "I bet I could make a whole meal out of orzo, fresh parsley, tomatoes and some shredded gruyere or parm."  I'm excited to go home and set my table again, work in my kitchen, re-establish myself in MY home. 

What makes for a "home" moment for you?

busy bee

So, maybe I didn't get the "adult" things done I was supposed to today, like, look for a job, research agencies...I will. I promise, however, I have to catch you up with the progress I am making in the kitchen! (yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!!!)

[Also. I just realized I never posted about my candies I made for the holidays.  What. Is. Going. On. Jordan. FOCUS. I will get to that later.]

Right. Catching you up: braised cabbage - um, incredible and topped with a poached egg, duh, loved it! Then there was the fudge I made for the Super Bowl. So easy and so good! And tonight, I roasted garlic, made a beet puree (which was okay but not great), and kale sauteed with roasted garlic, and an awesome pork chop...and, get this...I made roasted garlic butter. !!! So much. Picture and recipe of the cabbage to follow and the fudge recipe, do try it out. It's so easy and so good.

 

Braised Cabbage, adapted from Orangette 

Makes enough for dinner and a few meals after that

• 1 medium head green cabbage
• 1 large yellow onion, sliced into rough 1/3-inch slices
  1 large carrot, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 egg, poached

Preheat the oven to 400, position a rack in the middle of the oven.

Get rid of the bruised and beat up outer layers. Rinse the cabbage under cold water quickly, dry lightly. Cut it into 8 wedges. Arrange the pieces on a baking dish. Try to get them all flat in the dish, if they overlap, that's okay but not preferred.

Add the onions and carrots to the dish, pour the water and oil over everything. Season with some salt, a bunch of pepper, and a few pinches of red pepper flakes. Cover the dish with foil pop it in the oven. Cook the veggies for 30 minutes; gently turn the cabbage wedges. Cover the dish, and return it to the oven to cook until the vegetables are very tender, about 20 more minutes.

When the cabbage is completely tender, remove the foil over the baking dish and continue cooking another 10 or so minutes.

Serve warm, topped with a poached egg and sprinkled with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

-----------------------------

The fudge guys...the fudge. Oh man, try this.

Cinnamon-Chocolate Fudge, from Giada De Laurentiis

• Butter, for greasing the pan
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 pound (about 2 cups) bittersweet chocolate chips
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces, at room temperature
• Kosher or flake salt, optional

Butter the bottom and sides of an 8 b 8-inch baking pan. Line the pan with a sheet of parchment paper, set aside.

In a medium glass or stainless steel bowl, combine the condensed milk, cinnamon, and vanilla. Stir in the chocolate chips and butter. Put the bowl on a saucepan of barely simmering water and mix until the chocolate chips have melted and the mixture is smooth, about 6 to 8 minutes (mixture will be thick). Using a spatula, scrape the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle with salt. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours until firm.

Run a warm knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the fudge. Remove the fudge to a cutting board. Peel off the parchment paper and cut the fudge into 1-inch pieces. Store refrigerated in an airtight container or freeze.

o m god. pictures too!?

its been long and coming, but i am back. being back does come with some sadness. i no longer live in new york city, which is sad on many accounts and exciting on many as well. i've been 'preparing' for this for what seems like forever and, here i am. i am currently homeless and unemployed. which feels weird and amazing...i mean, i am on vacation buuut i'm bored and can't seem to enjoy it. however, this is not the point of my post, that's the point of an email i would write. the point of this post is: soup. 

soup. i haven't made soup in... a year. it was a nice re-introduction to my parents kitchen, well, quite frankly any kitchen that i could monopolize and use to my advantage. its nice to have a pantry full of food stuffs to play with, its nice to have a car to skip out and pick up an ingredient i may have missed, its nice to cook. its nice to be in the drivers seat in the kitchen. i know i've said it before but the kitchen is my place of solace. its the place that i go to to think. to process life and everything that being handed to me, pinch by pinch, cup by cup. its also lovely that in my parents kitchen they also have a table to sit at and read and relax and surf the net. it makes it more of a comfortable place. its something that draws me to the kitchen. the comfort of it, the community of it, the family of it. my family spends a lot of time, when we're all together in the kitchen. when i go to parties - and i know this is not phenomenon i'm just discovering - its the place people tend to end up hanging out. i love the kitchen. i hope that i am able to make my new kitchen perfect. well, not perfect, but mine. jordan's space.

i have decided that i would like to embark on meatless mondays. albeit when i decided this it was tuesday afternoon and i decided that for dinner, to be healthy and start on this new project i would make a veggie only meal. this soup, guys,...is so easy. and so tasty. i wish i had had this soup in my arsenal when we had our CSA in brooklyn. we were getting pounds and pounds of veggies by the week that we couldnt keep up with and i think this soup is perfect for that, if you find yourself with an excess of veggies or if you bought a lot for other dishes and just didnt end up using them - this is you meal ticket. 

fine, i'll shut up now. :)

Maggie's Vegetable Potage
adapted from Patricia Wells' at home in PROVENCE

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 leek, white part only, trimmed, scrubbed, and chopped
sea salt to taste
3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
3 small golden beets*, peeled and chopped
2 zucchinis, peeled and chopped
2 rutabaga*, peeled and chopped
1/2 head of lettuce (such as Cos), washed, dried, and coarsely chopped
a handful of finely chopped cabbage
1 3/4 pints (28 oz) homemade chicken stock - or 2 cans low sodium chicken stock
one 2 oz chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1. put a tea kettle on low when you start the cooking process. in a large heavy-duty stock pot, combine the oil, leek and a teaspoon salt, and pepper to your liking and cook until lightly browned, about 4 - 5 minutes. add the carrots, beets, zucchinis, and rutabaga in small batches, cooking each several minutes before adding the next. (this was probably the most fun part of this recipe...watching all the veggies change...i bet it would have been more fun if i used red beets and i bet the color would have been so much more vibrant at the end!) 

once all the veggies are lightly browned, add the lettuce and cabbage and stir vigorously until wilted. there should be no liquid left by this point. add hot water just to cover veggies and simmer, covered, until the carrots, beet and rutabaga are soft, about 25 minutes. taste for seasoning. add the stick and simmer, covered, gently for 30 minutes more. taste for seasoning.
2. while the soup simmers, prepare the cheese. using the vegetable peeler, shave the cheese into long thick strips into a bowl. if the chunk of cheese becomes too small to shave, grate the remaining cheese and add it to the bowl. set aside.
3. remove the stock pot from the heat. using a hand blender or immersion mixer, puree the soup directly in the stock pot. alternatively, pass the soup through the coarse blade of a food mill or batch it in a food processor, return to stock pot. taste for seasoning.
4. to serve, ladle hot soup into warmed bowls and place the cheese shavings on top of the soup. serve immediately.

Cooks Note(s): what's so great about this is you can let it cook longer or probably shorter than it calls for...this is a feel-out soup. which can handle and probably benefit from more time on the heat.  whats also great is that you probably should add garlic, i will do that next time AND you can use whatever veggies you want to really. also, the cheese while awesome i might play around with using plain yogurt/sour cream or another type of cheese. *they called for turnips and potatoes, respectively*