laura k – Page 6 – The Kitchen Illiterate

I promise dinner will be ready shortly

Oh lord, where has the time gone? Thanksgiving now seems like some kind of faraway, hazy dream of an actual event, and I’m frankly embarrassed that it has taken me so darned long to write anything, even this sad excuse of a blog post. I do have pictures and recipes to share from Thanksgiving, and I’m consoling myself that most foods cooked on Thanksgiving are awfully similar to those cooked for Christmas, so they might still prove useful to someone. I’m also consoling myself with the fact that I’m almost, almost, almost on break, and then I only have one more semester until I’m DONE and GRADUATED and no longer have to do the dreaded homework. And then I might actually have time to do things like update my blog. And cook.

While I am officially done with fall semester, I can’t quite relax yet because of a very important job interview next week, for which I am flying across the country, wearing a suit, and giving a presentation. Most of my time right now is taken up in preparations for completely wow-ing the search committee and getting myself hired.

You might notice, however, that I found time to update the color scheme and do a little custom CSS designing here. This was actually part of an assignment and therefore it can’t be considered wasting time and messing around and procrastinating. I hope you find it visually appealing. I suspect you would probably find pictures of food MORE visually appealing, so I do promise that they will appear soon.

In the meantime, I thought I would take a trip through the archives to share with you some of my favorite cookie recipes, what with it being cookie baking season and all. Enjoy!

Dorie Greenspan’s Midnight Crackles—Chocolately, slightly spicy, decadent.
Russian Teacakes—my all time favorite holiday cookie. I’m trying them this year with dried cherries mixed in. I’m wild like that.
Gingersnaps—for those who like that kind of thing.
Cranberry, Orange, and Chocolate Chip Cookies—These are quickly making their way onto my favored cookies list. I made them this week for my class and they were a hit.
Chocolate Peppermint Cookies—I’ll definitely have to make these again this year.

Stuffed Squash galore: Carnivale and Delicata

You might be wondering where the heck my Thanksgiving posts are, and why I didn’t share any perfect recipes for the big day before hand. Honestly, I’m wondering that myself, and all I can do is blame the fact that I am still a grad student and am nearing the end of the semester, and it’s enough that I manage to eat things besides frozen Trader Joe’s burritos. I did make Thanksgiving dinner this year, for the first time, and it was great! And I even have pictures. But who knows how long it will take me to get those photos off my camera and into this blog, so in the meantime, I wanted to share something else I’ve been eating a lot of lately: stuffed squash.

If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you’ve probably realized that, come fall, I get a little obsessed with squash. I have made southwestern-style stuffed acorn squash, a pancetta bechamel-stuffed spaghetti squash, and man, lately I just can’t seem to stay away from butternut squash. And in the space of two weeks recently I made three different types of stuffed squash.
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Apple Pancakes make an excellent fall breakfast

A few weeks ago, Smitten Kitchen posted a lovely looking recipe for apple pancakes. Now, I am not usually a pancake person. I don’t crave sweet things in the morning, and if I got out for brunch, I always want eggs. But these pancakes appealed to me, and I had a friend coming into town for the weekend and wanted to do some lovely breakfast thing, so I decided to give this pancake thing a try. And despite my poor pancake cooking skills, they did no disappoint.
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Ravioli worth bleeding for, from Russo & Sons

I apologize to those of you who are not located in the Boston area right now. I’m about to make you extremely jealous. Last weekend I finally trekked out to Watertown, getting lost in the maddening labyrinth of Boston streets, irritating the crap out of the boyfriend, whom I dragged unwillingly with me, and I discovered at the end the best grocery store in Boston: Russo & Sons. My housemate had been telling me about this place for over a year, and I am kicking myself for not taking her advice and getting out there sooner.

Russo’s is a glorious wonderland of produce, artisanal cheese, fresh baked bread, charcuterie, more produce, and even more glorious produce. I found things I’ve never been able to find anywhere else, including Queso Fresco (and you have no idea how upset I’ve been that I haven’t been able to find Queso Fresco). The only problem? Holy crap, that place was PACKED. It was nearly impossible to maneuver my cart around the store, and sadly, I’ve been told it’s like this even on weekday afternoons. I wasn’t able to explore all the wonderful things Russo’s had to offer, but I did buy half a pound of those beautiful porcini mushroom ravioli you see above. And I must say they were the best ravioli I’ve ever had.
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Potato Cauliflower Gratin Redux, Redux.

I have been messing about with this here food blog for two years now today. I’ve averaged about 2 1/4 posts a week over those two years, and cooked even more meals than that. It’s pretty amazing to realize how little I knew about cooking just two years ago, and how much I’ve learned. You just have to read about my first adventures with shrimp to see how little I knew about much of anything food-related back then. And now? Cooking is my favorite thing to do, second maybe only to reading. I’m afraid of nothing in the kitchen (ok, that’s probably a bit of an exaggeration), and I’ve eaten things I never thought I would eat (rabbit? chicken livers? delicious!). I’ve learned more than I thought I wanted to know about our nation’s food culture and industry, and become something of an advocate for sustainable agriculture and healthier food choices (though I do seem to have an inordinate affection for heavy cream…). Who would have thought starting a food blog because I was bored would have lead to my current near-obsession with food and cooking?

And out of all the many, many things I’ve cooked, one of the posts on this blog that gets the most visitors is still my first Potato Cauliflower Gratin. Potato Cauliflower Gratin is one of my favorite side dishes: creamy, cheesy, comforting, decadent…but hey, still vegetables! And therefore healthy, right? Right? I’ve made this dish a number of times in the last two years, and every time it’s a little bit better than that first attempt. I’ve been meaning to post an update for ages, because frankly, that original recipe isn’t very good. The cooking times I wrote were way off, and the potatoes were still crunchy, and, hm, it just wasn’t as spectacular as I knew, even then, it could be. Well, I think I’ve finally created a gratin that is pretty spectacular, and I’m finally ready to update that earlier post, with all that I’ve learned over the last two years.
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Pizza is Back! Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese Pizza, to be exact.

Last fall, I worked in Harvard Square for a semester and fell in love with a crazy vegetarian pizza place. What’s up with that? I’m not even vegetarian. What did me in was their delectable and inspired Lunch for Henry. Forget the ridiculous inside-story name, and think butternut squash, caramelized onion, goat cheese, and sage, and a crispy, thin pizza crust. I craved this pizza, and I’ve been thinking of re-creating it ever since I stopped working in Harvard Square.

Well, last week I tried to re-make it, but silly Laura didn’t think to check the website, and she forgot the caramelized onions. But even without them, this was so delicious I made it for dinner Thursday night and again for lunch on Friday. Yes, the girl who rarely repeats a recipe made the same thing for two meals in a row. Now that is a commendation if I’ve ever heard one.
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Cranberry Upside Down Cake

I am not usually much of a cake baker, but I wanted to make something lovely and different for our chili party. I’d originally planned to make cookies, but when I saw this cake in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours, I had to make it. It seemed perfectly fall-like, and I thought the tart cranberries would be a nice counter to the spicy chilis. And I have to say it turned out even better than I thought it would. The cake is wonderful and dense, with just a hint of cinnamon, the cranberries were juicy and, yes, quite tart, and the walnuts added a nice earthy crunch to each bite. And now? I’m in love with cake baking, and I can’t wait to try more.
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3rd Annual Cold Weather Chili Party

I love chili party time. It’s the only thing that makes the encroaching cold weather bearable. (It’s 25 degrees outside right now, folks, and I’m not liking it one bit.) In fact, I suspect this, my last East Coast winter, is going to be particularly difficult, and thus am contemplating a mid-winter chili party, a kind of third and a half annual (huh?) in March, just to make the rest of the cold times bearable.

(Just to give you a sense of how terrible my memory is, I thought that last year’s chili party was held in October…but it was actually in January. I think I block most memories of winter and pretend that any good events from those months really occurred in less treacherous times. That is just my theory.)

Regardless of how cold it is, or what month it is, or any of that unimportant stuff, making chili is one of my favorite wintertime things to do. I have a standard recipe I’ve been making for probably about six or seven years, and it’s pretty close to what my mom made throughout my childhood. But I strayed this year, my friends, I strayed. I made chili without any beans for the first time in my life. And I liked it.
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Butternut Squash and Sage Pasta

Ahh, fall. Fall is the one thing I appreciate about New England. I love the cool days that seem to demand warm, cozy evenings at home, and the smell of crisp air and fireplaces, and most of all I love the abundance of multicolored winter squashes. I love fall food, and this pasta dish has made it into the pantheon of favorites. It’s so simple, and yet for all its simplicity its packed full of buttery, woodsy, perfect fall evening flavor.
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Grandpa’s Seven Layer Dinner

Alright, no hatin’ people. I know that picture up there looks like a bowl of mush, but I am here to urge you to look past the mush to the delicious, comforting treat that is Seven Layer Dinner.

My brother got married last weekend (yay! Andy and Lisa! yay!), and some wonderful person gave them a slow cooker. When they opened it, my brother immediately exclaimed, “Yeah! Seven Layer Dinner,” and I remembered my Grandpa’s Seven Layer Dinner for the first time in years. Seven Layer Dinner is quintessentially Midwestern and perfect for cold, yucky days when you need something warm and comforting at the end of a long day. After we got back to Boston, I immediately emailed the grandparents for the recipe.
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