Because it’s been so beautiful out, we’ve changed some of our usual eating and cooking habits for the summer. We’ve been eating out a bit more and have been sharing more meals with friends. To counteract the cost of eating out more often, we’ve slowed down our grocery shopping routine (Incidentally that is not very hard to do considering you don’t need to cook as often if you eat out more).

Despite the fact that we haven’t really shopped in the last month, we’ve still been eating about as well as we usually do (one disclaimer: I’ve had a ton of fresh greens and herbs from our local community garden that I wrote about last time). That’s why you haven’t seen much of me here, I’m cooking some old favorites over and over again. It’s times like these where I’m really proud of my home cooking experience and the ability to keep a well stocked pantry and freezer.

Not writing blog posts (sorry about that, really), has also given me time to read some other great posts. These two say it all better than I ever could, and also came at the perfect time:

• A Guide to Using Dry Beans for Cooking by Trent Hamm over at The Simple Dollar – Trent has been posting some great frugal cooking guides this summer. I loved this post because I too have recently found the joys of keeping dried beans. I just throw each whole bag into a jar when I bring them home from the store, and they can last almost forever. I can throw a handful or two into any soups I’m making (skipping the soaking step isn’t ideal but can be done), or soak some all day for an easy dish that night. So many varieties of beans are healthy, delicious, cheap and easy to keep around. Dried beans are also easier to lug home from the grocery store than cans – which is important when you live in a 4th floor walk-up.
• At GetRichSlowly – Reader Story: How I Save Tons of Money by Grocery Shopping Once Every Three Months. This post’s title is slightly misleading as the author does get vegetables from a CSA biweekly, but the idea behind it rings true: shop less often and you’ll save money. Another point she makes that I believe in is that cooking out of your pantry forces you to be a little more creative with how you put meals together, and helps you develop a sense of what works together.

These two posts reminded me a bit of the sort of topics I want to cover here at Get Cooking: being creative and unafraid in the kitchen, cutting costs without sacrificing health or flavor. Stay tuned for some new recipes straight out of the pantry!

One year ago: Collard Greens with Chick Peas

Related posts:

1. Cooking and Eating as Entertainment

We’ve been stopping by a community garden in our neighborhood doing a bit of weeding and pruning this summer. When we went a few weeks ago, we saw these tall bushes of what looked like dill and smelled like licorice. I tasted a bit and it tasted overwhelmingly like dill, so I thought that was what it was. We took some home and I’ve been adding a little bit to pretty much everything.

We stopped by today and met some of the garden organizers. I told them how much I loved the dill, and it turns out that the bush is anise. I forgot all about that third option in the dill-fennel family.

I’ve already started using it in dill dishes (like the best tzatziki sauce I’ve ever had), so it’s hard for me to think of it as something other than dill. It’s like a dillier dill and it is wonderful. I think that I may need to try to make a batch of “dill” pickles to see if there is any noticeable difference.

Has anyone ever used anise greens in their cooking? I’d love to hear some ideas about what else to do with, since I have several bushes of it available for the taking.

One year ago: Egg white avocado salad

I could run off a huge list of excuses about the lack of posts lately, but I find those kinds of posts tiresome and I bet you do too. The most interesting reason that I’ve been a bit absent here is that it’s just been too gorgeous out to hang out in a hot kitchen. As much as I advocate for cooking instead of always eating out, there are times when getting out of the house and enjoying the great food your city has to offer is pretty much obligatory.

So get out, enjoy the great food that summer brings out! And hey, if you aren’t lucky enough to be in New York where you can get a great hot dog pretty much anywhere (in any meat or non-meat variety), make one yourself and have a picnic.

I’ll be back soon, I just need to soak up a few more rays and eat a bit more terrible, but oh so wonderful, local foods.

Psst: If you’re still not satisfied, check out the archives by poking into the tags, categories or monthly links in the right side bar.

One year ago: Warm Creamy Peanut Chicken Salad

This may be premature, but tonight, after over 3 months of a very gripping sinus infection that took my senses of smell and taste captive (which you may remember me mentioning a few posts ago), I inhaled and I could smell! Then, I made a gravy for a chicken pot pie, and not only could I smell it, but, upon putting a little dab on my tongue, I could taste it too!

I almost shouted Hallelujah!

I’m not making any promises, but if my returned senses decide to stick around, we’ll probably be able to get back to our regularly scheduled programming without me oversalting, overspicing, or undercooking anything else for the time being.

Along with the sense of taste has come a pretty ravenous appetite, so I think that despite the unseasonably warm weather in New York this week, it’s time for me to get back into the kitchen and fire up the stove!

One year ago: Picnicking under the cherry blossoms

I know you probably think I’ve posted the same dish twice in a row. And honestly, considering the month I’ve had, I wouldn’t be surprised if I had done that. But no, I’m not that absent-minded (yet). This risotto has an even more winding origin than the last one I posted. If you are actually craving something like Roasted Red Pepper Risotto, I assure you there are far easier ways to come by it. One day I’ll probably try to figure one out. That day was not today.

I bought two gigantic red bell peppers on sale this week and I wanted to try something new with them. I found a tasty sounding recipe for a Roasted Red Pepper Tomato soup on Recipezaar. I’ve had some luck finding inspiration on that site before so I decided to give it a try.

We roasted the peppers in the broiler, turning every thirty seconds or so, until the skins were more or less black and blistery. Then we put the peppers into a paper bag and left them to cool. We peeled the burnt and crackled skin off and de-seeded the slippery roasted peppers. We gathered the rest of the ingredients. We didn’t know what the “chili paste” listed might be in this case, so I fashioned something out of dried chili flakes and hot sauce. We followed all the rest of the steps as written, and then blended it into a nice smooth soup. It was such a gorgeous red, I couldn’t wait to taste it.

What I haven’t mentioned, however, is that I have been fighting off a particularly bad sinus infection these last several weeks, and so my sense of smell, and therefore, taste, has been compromised. I can’t really tell – everything tastes fine to me. My mouth doesn’t seem to know what it is missing. However, when someone else tastes what I’ve prepared, I am reminded how off my senses are right now.

Neither of us is afraid of spiciness, so when Jen tasted the soup and announced that she couldn’t stomach eating more than a spoonful of it, I knew the spiciness must be really bad. I had been so worried about whether or  not the taste of roasted pepper would come through the tomato that I hadn’t even thought about how much spice I had added, or how it would intensify after being pureed.

After working so hard on such a beautiful soup with such prime ingredients, I couldn’t bear to let it go to waste, but it was late, we were both hungry and tired and there was just nothing that could be done to salvage it at that moment. I packed it away for the night, and we munched on the garlic matzoh we had made for dipping instead. I vowed to try again the next day.

I knew I couldn’t trust my senses alone if I wanted to fix this dish. We brainstormed ways we could cool the soup down to a point where it would be edible. First we thought of adding some dairy, to dilute it and nullify the heat. Unfortunately, the heat was too strong for that plan to be effective. The only other option we could think of was to use the soup as the liquid in a risotto. Since we had so recently made a tomato risotto, I was reasonably sure it would work. I crossed my fingers that it would take the heat down enough notches.

I started the risotto as usual, with about half a cup of finely chopped onion and a bit of olive oil in a pot. Then I added about 3 cups of long grain rice and allowed it to toast lightly and get coated with oil. Then we added a cup of the soup and  cup of water at a time, stirring and adding more even amounts of the liquids until the rice puffed and became creamy.

Somehow, magically, the risotto came out as the soup should have. Just a hint of spice, a creamy texture with notes of both roasted red pepper and tomato. It was delicious and I will have the leftovers for lunch this week. I didn’t get to have the soup I was planning on (next time I make it I won’t add spice until much later on in the process, and hopefully I’ll have my sense of taste back by then too), and the experience definitely wasn’t one I’ll willingly repeat, but it turned out delicious in the end anyway.

Hopefully you won’t take the above as instructions on how to make what turned out to be a fabulous dish. The real lesson I would want you to take away from this is that cooking is a creative pursuit. There is no one way to do anything. No matter how badly you think you’ve ruined a dish, a little creative thinking can probably remedy it. Just be patient with yourself and your ingredients and try to think outside the box.

I never would have thought about making risotto like this, but this winding road led me to an unlikely but appetizing dish. Now I’ve still got half the soup left – any ideas on what I could use the rest of it for?

One year ago: Tangy Pineapple Shrimp with Okra

Related posts:

1. Tomato and Sausage Risotto, à la Smitten Kitchen and Martha Stewart
2. Tomato Rice Soup
3. Saucy Apron’s Tomato Bread Soup

The bread that keeps on giving

About six weeks ago, we were gifted a so-called “Amish Cinnamon Bread” yeast starter in a zip-top bag that came along with a somewhat cryptic-sounding recipe. Due to my affinity for baking, I decided to take charge of the project. After waiting ten days and “mushing” the bag everyday, it eventually yielded what it promised – one deliciously moist cake, and four baggies of starter batter for friends.

I couldn’t help but begin to think of this adventure in baking as an edible chain letter, and low and behold, not long after that initial baking and gifting of starters on consenting friends and family, one came back to us last week. After another ten days of mushing and feeding, we had new yeasty, bready cakes to gift on unsuspecting friends. I chose to bake them into two smaller loaves this time, and they came out perfectly sized for holiday gifts.

So now we come to today, where I find myself incubating yet another four baggies of starter, and wondering whether this cake chain will ever end. This time I’ve opted to keep all four for now, and bake up a holiday extravaganza when they are ready. Who knows, I might even smuggle future starters across state lines to give out to my mother and grandmother around the new year.

It makes me wonder where the yeast starter in our original batch came from, and how many batches it had come from before that. How far will our starter’s progeny travel before someone finally gives up and bakes the whole thing? Will you, dear reader, receive one? Or have you already participated in such a “chain cake” before? Have you ever even heard of such a thing?

Edit: This recipe on Foodista is similar to the one we used, though not exactly the same.

One year ago: Spicy Peanut Butter Cookies

I prefer white meat, can't you tell?

I like to cook for other people, don’t get me wrong. I made Thanksgiving dinner for my family yesterday and I couldn’t wait to see them enjoy it. Cooking for other people, however fun it can be, is not my passion.

My passion is cooking for myself. That sounds selfish, but it’s true. Being able to cook is empowering. When  you cook for yourself, you only have to make things you like. You can use ingredients that fit your own food ethics, be they political, religious, economic, health-related or just personal. You can use the techniques you like, skip the ones you don’t. Whatever appears on your plate (and how it got there) is entirely up to you.

On this site, I put forth ideas. Not all of those ideas will appeal to you or your own food standards. That’s great; because if you’re reading this site I hope that you’ve taken it upon yourself to at least try cooking for yourself.

Everyone has ideas about “the right way to cook,” “the best way to cook,” or even the right and best way to eat. I take those ideas with a grain of salt, and I hope you do too. The best way to do anything is the way that’s right for you. Unless you are trying to cook professionally, the only person you really have to prove your chops to is yourself.

That said, if there’s ever anything on this site that you’d like to try but don’t agree with an ingredient I chose or the method I took, try it your own way. There’s always an alternative way. Use ingredients you like better. Use equipment you have. Make it using organic, vegetarian, cheap, kosher, gluten-free, [insert specific dietary need here] alternatives or substitutes. Do it however you want. When you do, tell us about it in the comments. Maybe others will like your way too. Maybe it will inspire more people to just give it a try.

Remember, I don’t care what you eat – I just care that you like it!

As an aside: Don’t judge other people for the food choices they make. Eating, putting food into one’s body, is one of the most personal things I can think of. You decide what goes in and you are also the only one who experiences the food you choose to eat. In my mind that means that your food is your business and not really anyone else’s. That is another reason I cook for myself.

My pickling basics: cucumbers, dill, and spices

I’ve mentioned before how I have more of a salt-tooth than a sweet one. There’s no better example of this than my childhood favorite: garlic cucumber deli pickles. The saltier, the more sour and garlicky, the better. Ask my mom, she’ll tell you that pickles were pretty much a food group in my diet as a child. To this day, my family gives 1 gallon jars of kosher dills as gifts.

While briny cucumber pickles have always held a special place in my mouth, I am a huge fan of just about any pickled plant.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting about this summer’s pickling experiments. I’m still a beginner and I’m going more for taste than for long shelf life. Over this summer I’ve found some techniques I like better than others, though I’d love to hear from more experienced picklers as I go for their tips on how to make my various pickles even better.

I’ve already talked about Lemon Pickles, next I’ll delve into cucumbers.

Related posts:

1. Bread and Butter Pickles
2. Lemon Pickles

If she had told me she had added lamb (or red meat of any kind really) to the lemon sauce before I ate it, I’m not sure I would have been able to anticipate the combination of those two flavors. Somehow, surprising to me at least, the lamb lent a light but duskier meaty flavor to the creamy tartness of the sauce. I’m not keeping score but I think this sauce deserves several more points in the versatility category. I’ll never let it languish in my fridge again.

Related posts:

1. Beef and Lamb Chili
2. Velvet Lemon Pasta Sauce, Revisited

The first inspiring dish I've had in weeks.

In case you were worried my lack of posting meant that I’d stopped cooking or, heaven forbid, eating, the above photo should quell your fears. A few days ago I noticed a great sale on jumbo shrimp and couldn’t stop myself from stocking up. I sauteed several with some fresh red bell pepper and some frozen peas, along with a few tabs of habanero compound butter. This piquant stirfry went on top of some leftover pasta with lemon velvet sauce. This last week at least I’ve been eating very well.

You see, I’ve not been posting due to a food block. Over the last few weeks it seems everything I made was a disaster. Some things were so bad, in fact, that I think I somehow made myself sick. Or I caught the flu. Either way, last week, my food boredom/disgust hit the fan and once my appetite came back after I started feeling better, I hauled out and got some gorgeous fresh produce. If there’s one way I know to boost an appetite it’s by finding the most beautiful foods to stimulate as many senses as possible. I went on a sort of spree, which was absolutely necessary if you saw the food we had in the house the two weeks prior.

The good food seems to have worked because this week everything has been golden. That dish above was so good, I’m about to go out and by another pound of shrimp to have all over again just looking at that picture. If I can bring myself to do it, I might post some of the failures to see if we can figure out what went wrong and how I can do it better next time. Either way, I’ve been cooking again and I feel like I’m almost ready to start posting some new recipes again.

I say almost because another thing has been nagging me that has caused my perfectionist side to shy away from posting. I’m disappointed in my photos here on this site so far. Since I started this blog I’ve learned quite a bit about food photography. I’ve adjusted my lighting, my composition, my colors, even my bowls and backdrops. No matter the changes I make in front of the camera, however, the fact is that the camera I’m using is not very good for what I’m using it for. I’m trying not to let this bother me, and I’m going to do my best with what I’ve got for now, but I’ll just say right now that I must rectify this situation one way or another and SOON.

Tell me though, what do you do when you can’t think of anything to cook? Do you have any tricks you pull when the food you’ve been making has left you uninspired? Do you give up and just eat out, or do you tackle some new exotic and different dish? Do you have a favorite dish that you turn to whenever you’re experiencing food boredom?